Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc,misc.jobs.offered,misc.jobs.resumes,misc.jobs.contract
Distribution: world
From: sopwith!snoopy
Organization: Odyssey Ultraware, Inc
Date: Fri, 01 Jan 1993 04:04:06 CDT
Subject: Welcome to misc.jobs!

Welcome!  This is the monthly introductory posting for misc.jobs.offered,
misc.jobs.resumes, misc.jobs.misc, and misc.jobs.contract.
[ last changed May 8, 1992 ]

Contents:

	What is (and isn't) misc.jobs.offered?
	Why have posting guidelines?
	What are the guidelines?
	What is misc.jobs.resumes?
	What is misc.jobs.misc?
	What is misc.jobs.contract?
	How many people will see my posting?
	I have this great idea to make money.
	What about multi-level marketing?
	How do I find out the cost of living in another city?
	Where can I get more information about this network?
	Is misc.jobs archived anywhere?
	Is there a mailing list?

What is misc.jobs.offered?

	It is a news group for the posting of job offerings by individuals or
companies with positions to offer.  Job offers may be made by any company
with a job opening, or by a professional recruiting company which has
been hired to fill the opening.  Professional recruiters, however, should
be sensitive to the feelings of net users and adhere to the guidelines for
posting.

What isn't misc.jobs.offered?

	It is not a discussion group or a group for posting resumes.  General
discussions concerning jobs should be held in misc.jobs.misc.  Resumes
should be posted in misc.jobs.resumes.  Your co-operation is greatly
appreciated.  If you feel you must followup an article posted here,
please edit the Followup-To: line to reflect the appropriate group, for
example by adding the line

    Followup-To: misc.jobs.misc

to the article header after the Summary: line.

Why have posting guidelines?

	There are a number of discussions which frequently occur in these
groups.  These discussions frequently result in long and unproductive
arguments.  These guidelines embody the consensus of opinion as to the proper
form for postings of job offers.

What are the guidelines?

All postings should be for actual positions.

	Any job which is offered or alluded to must actually exist,
	or will soon exist.  Companies are strongly discouraged from
	posting for positions which do not exist.  Resumes may be
	collected from misc.jobs.resumes if a source of resumes is
	desired.

The organization posting should be identified.

	The name of the company making the offer must be present in
	the header of the posting.  Professional recruiters are
	requested to place the word `RECRUITER' on the Keywords:
	line.  In many states, universities are restricted from
	handling commercial traffic.  This will enable universities
	to comply with the law.  This is especially true if there is
	a placement fee required of the person accepting the position.
	Other posters should use the Organization: line to indicate
	the name of the company making the offer.

No job offers should be cross posted.

	All job offers should be restricted to misc.jobs.offered.
	(Except for contract jobs which go to misc.jobs.contract instead.)
	Discussions of job offers, and resumes requesting positions,
	should likewise be limited to the appropriate groups.  Again,
	judicious use of the Followup-To: is heartily encouraged.

	Your posting may be the first time a potential employee has
	heard of you.  Posting to the wrong group does not make a good
	first impression.

Job offerings should be verifiable.

	The name and phone number or address of the person responsible
	for the position should be given.  Further information should
	be available upon request.  The more information which you
	provide in your posting, the better the response will be.
	You should also consider providing an electronic mail address
	and allowing resumes to be sent via electronic mail.

Location of the position should be provided.

	The location or locations of the job should clearly be stated
	in either the header or near the top of the article.  Be specific.
	A location of "the midwest", "California", or "Europe" is needlessly
	vague.  Give a specific city, such as "Indianapolis, IN, USA",
	"Sunnyvale, CA, USA", or "London, UK".  If the location is a small
	little-known town or suburb near a major city give the major city
	as well, e.g. "Lisle, IL, USA (near Chicago)".  Remember that USENET
	is an international network.  "Bay Area" may mean "San Francisco
	Bay Area" to you, but may mean someplace else entirely to someone
	several thousand miles away. If the position is not of sufficient
	interest to the entire net, please use the Distribution: line to
	limit the distribution of the article to your local area.
	Furthermore, you may wish to consider using local or intracompany
	newsgroups as a source of candidates.  An example would be
	triangle.jobs for jobs within the Research Triangle Park area.
	(If your posting software does not provide a list of distributions,
	see your news administrator.)

	If telecommuting is a possibility, say so.

A salary or salary range should be provided.

	Simply saying "competitive" or "commensurate with experience"
	is not helpful.  Give a specific salary or range.  Again,
	remember that this is an international network and provide
	the monetary units (Dollars (US? Canadian?), Pounds, Deutschmarks,
	etc.) involved.  If the position is likely to require overtime,
	state how your organization handles it.  Overtime pay?  Time off
	later?

A word about requirements.

	It is usually helpful to list both ideal or desired requirements
	and the minimum you will accept.  There is a lack of uniformity
	in how people map academic experience into commercial experience.
	If this is important to you, it may be helpful to explicitly state
	how they map at your organization.  If you wish entry-level persons
	to apply, (or not apply) say so explicitly.  Note that people
	sometimes go back to school for a Masters or Phd after working for
	a few years.  Therefore, the phrase "No entry level positions at
	this time." is probably more accurate than "Recent graduates need
	not apply."  The definition of "entry-level" varies, but usually
	means 0-2 years of experience.  If there are requirements such as
	being a citizen or "permanent resident" of a particular	country,
	say so.  If your organization has a dress code or standard working
	hours, say so.  If your organization has unusual requirements, such
	as handwriting analysis, drug testing, polygraph tests, loyality
	oaths, etc. say so up front.

	e.g.

	    Desired				Required

	    MSEE/MSCS				BSEE/BSCS
	    5 years doing foo			2 years doing foo
	    3 years doing bar			1 year doing bar
	    1 year doing baz			knows what a baz is
	    2 years commercial experience	2 years commercial experience

	    We have no entry level positions available at this time.
	
How to Redirect Followups.

	From time to time it is necessary to remove a conversation from
	a particular newsgroup for one reason or another.  Two of the
	most common reasons are that discussions are not permitted in
	the newsgroup which the posting originated in and another is
	that the topic of discussion has strayed from the original
	sufficiently to warrant a change in newsgroups.

	Misc.jobs.offered and misc.jobs.resumes are for the posting of
	job offers and resumes only.  This means that all postings
	should include a Followup-To: line.  This can be done by adding
	the line

Followup-To: misc.jobs.misc

	to the article header.  The rn newsreader provides an empty
	space which you can use to put the appropriate groups in.
	Other newsreaders do not and you should add one by hand.
	This line should be added after the Newsgroups: line.

What is misc.jobs.resumes?

	Misc.jobs.resumes is a place for individuals seeking employment
to post their resumes.   If you feel you need to post a followup article
to an article in misc.jobs.resumes, it should almost certainly go
to misc.jobs.misc.

	Many of the suggestions made above apply here as well.  Be concise,
limit distribution, and most of all, remember you only get to make one
first impression.  Employers will judge you based on the effort you make
when constructing your resume.  Posting your resume to misc.jobs.misc
will not make a good impression.

	Also, not everyone has the latest text formatting software.  Try to
limit your resume to simple ASCII format, or provide a separate companion
posting if you must post your resume in troff, LaTeX or PostScript.

What is misc.jobs.misc?

	This group exists for job related discussion.  Most topics relevant
to seeking employment, seeking workers, or the workplace are appropriate
here.  For example: which items should/shouldn't be included on a resume,
appropriate dress for an interview, salaries, references, degree vs.
experience, working from home, corporate culture, cubicles vs offices,
dating coworkers, layoffs, giving notice, and so on.  Also, followup
articles from the .offered and .resumes groups go here.

	Some topics can easily turn into flamefests, for example drug
testing and affirmative action policies.  Please note that other people
have had different experiences than you, and that there is more than one
valid opinion on many of these topics.  Sometimes you may need to
agree to disagree.  Also consider that potential employers and employees
may be reading your article.  Do they see a reasonable person?  Or do
they see someone they would never consider hiring or working for?

What is misc.jobs.contract?

	This group is for discussion of contract work, as opposed
to an "employee" full or part-time position.  Currently it serves
for offers of contract work, offers of availability of contract
workers, and general discussion.

How many people will see my posting?

	According to the December 1990 statistics compiled by Brian
Reid, misc.jobs.offered is the third-most read newsgroup, read by an
estimated 140,000 readers worldwide.  Misc.jobs.resumes is read
by an estimated 50,000 people worldwide, misc.jobs.misc is read
by 71,000 people, and misc.jobs.contract is read by 37,000.  See
the newsgroup "news.lists" for the latest estimates.

The following guideline is borrowed from Gene Spafford's article
"Answers to Frequently Asked Questions", in news.announce.newusers.

    I have this great idea to make money.  Alternatively, wouldn't an
    electronic chain letter be an nifty idea?

    In a few words: don't even think about it.  Trying to use the net
    to make vast sums of money or send chain letters is a very bad
    idea.  First of all, it is an inappropriate use of resources
    (arguably, so are most of the newsgroups), and tends to use up
    vast amounts of net bandwidth.  Second, such usage of the net
    tends to produce extremely negative reactions by people on the
    net, adding even more to the volume -- most of it directed to you.
    Users, particular system admins, do not like that kind of
    activity, and they will flood your mailbox with notices to that
    effect. Third, it's just stupid -- even more so than the other
    stupidity on the net.

    And last, and perhaps most important, some of this activity is
    against the law in many places.  In the US, you can (and will) be
    reported by hacked-off system administrators for suspicion of wire
    fraud or mail fraud (if you are asking people to mail something to
    you or others).  In one incident, at *least* a half dozen people
    reported the person to the Postal Service inspectors; I'm not sure
    what the outcome was, but it probably was not a nice experience.

    Bottom line: don't try schemes to sell things, solicit donations,
    or run any kind of pyramid or Ponzi scheme.  Also, don't start or
    support electronic chain letters.

What about multi-level marketing?

	Discussion of multi-level marketing belongs in the newsgroup
alt.business.multi-level.

How do I find out the cost of living in another city?

[ These two sources are useful for the USA.  Pointers to similar info
  for cities in other countries welcome.  -Snoopy ]

Rand McNally's _Places_Rated_Almanac_, by Richard Boyer and David Savageau
is very helpful.  Try the library or your local bookstore.

Mark Linimon forwarded the following info from Mike Mattox:
   A very good source that lists the cost of living for over 225 cities is:

         "Inter-City Cost of Living Index"  

   It is produced by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association.
   According to the 1987 edition(the latest copy the Texas A&M library has)
   it is published quarterly(since 1968) and cost $75/year to subscribe.

   Subscription information is available from:
                        Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce
                        One Riverfront Plaza
                        Louisville, KY  40202

Where can I get more information about this network?

	The misc.jobs groups are part of USENET.  USENET is not
the same as the Internet, although many sites use the Internet
to transport news between sites.  There are other methods of
transport used, UUCP is popular.

	Read the articles in the newgroup news.announce.newusers.
If you still have questions, ask the news administrator, or other
knowledgeable person at your site.

Is misc.jobs archived anywhere?

	I am not aware of any sites which archive misc.jobs, or
any sites which make misc.jobs available via anonymous uucp or anonymous
ftp.  If someone knows of such a site, please let me know and I will add
the information to this posting.

Is there a mailing list?

	The misc.jobs groups are USENET newsgroups, they are not
mailing lists.  While it should be possible to gateway them into
a mailing list, I am not aware of anyone who has done so.

Thank-you for your time and adherence to these guidelines.  If a poster
should fail to comply, readers are encouraged to reply first by mail or
post a follow up to misc.jobs.misc.  With your help, we can keep the quality
of postings high, the unemployment rate low, and most importantly, the peace.

If you have questions regarding this posting or suggestions concerning ways
in which it may be improved, please send mail to me directly.

    _____
   /_____\    Snoopy
  /_______\   cse.ogi.edu!sopwith!snoopy
    |___|     sun!nosun!qiclab!sopwith!snoopy
    |___|     sopwith.uucp!snoopy


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