6 ms·

When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle l

When I was in my final year of high school, Coca-cola was giving away an iPod Nano to lucky winners who entered codes from plastic bottle caps or glass bottle labels. An iPod was given away once per day, except Monday, when they were given out once per hour. I was competing against the rest of Switzerland. Each code had to be entered on a website, earning 0, 5, 10, 20 or 50 points. You could then choose how many points to gamble during the day/hour, and would hear at the end of the day/hour whether you won. The school had a bottle-cap recycling bin. Every day, I dug through that looking for Coke caps. I volunteered for GAOS (a theatre group) and served drinks outside their show, collecting many paper wrappers from glass bottles. After collecting 1500 points, at 2 am on a Monday night, I struck with half my points. And I failed! Shocked, I tried again at 3 am, risking all the remaining points I'd saved up. And I won! I was the "lucky" recipient of a 2GB iPod Nano. Was it worth it? Yes, because I was under the employment age. I couldn't have earned money legally, so my opportunity cost of time was low. Earlier, in primary school, the classes bought Pizza Hut once a week. During a promotion, their pizza boxes were printed with stars, which could be saved up and exchanged for free pizza. So I went around and asked all the teachers for their old boxes, cut out the stars, and got a second pizza every week! If only it were that easy for me to find a job nowadays, despite a first-class MEng in Electronic Systems Engineering and 4 years continuous relevant work experience. Even trying to follow the rules and get all the qualifications doesn't seem to work.

themodelplumber 8y ago
I have to wonder--given those impressive experiences, could you find a way to produce the resources you need without needing a job? From reading about your obvious gifts here, I would guess that if you had a list of criteria like how much you need to earn, and whatever other resources you require, you could figure out a clever way to meet those criteria. Job or no job.
- peterburkimsher 8y ago
  I don't know why this is getting downvotes - entrepreneurship is something I've considered. It doesn't help me get a visa though. I tried emailing computer repair shops asking them to advertise my data migration services - using an Apple II to copy off 5.25" floppies, a Mac LC to read DD floppies, and a PowerBook G3 to read SCSI and JAZ disks. Unfortunately, I only got one reply that asked to see a poster before they'd even discuss it with management. I also tried I tried contacting companies via Seek and TradeMe. Most expect me to already have a work visa. I asked recruiters for help. I put side projects here on Hacker News to try to get attention. I asked friends who I worked with at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare when I was there before. I found random people on Github and offered to work for free on open-source projects just to get an introduction. Nothing has worked. The only interview I had was from an Australian company. Now I'm spamming everyone on the Accredited Employers list who has an email address on their website. I'm willing to take whatever I can get now, wherever that might be.
  - themodelplumber 8y ago
    A visa too! Wow, a fascinating problem with multiple dimensions to consider. And here at the center of it, a gifted analyst. I wonder what kind of theory or model could be drafted, something that fits the situation like a glove _and_ exposes critical leverage points. If anyone could do it...(points at you)
  - murukesh_s 8y ago
    What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?
    - peterburkimsher 8y ago
      These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote. For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry. In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here: http://peterburk.free.fr/PeterBurkimsherResume.pdf http://peterburk.free.fr/PeterBurkimsherResume.pdf
      - socratewasright 8y ago
        I’m much younger and less experienced, so what I’m going to say could be irrelevant, but your resume seems too busy. I’d cut it to 1 page, remove all the symbols, flags and logos. I’d also remove most of the extra stuff (personal interests, volunteering, objective, references). Essentially, almost anything that doesn’t show that I’m a very talented engineer should go. Also, I’d consider using latex if not already and go for a more sobre style that focuses on ease of reading. The way your education part is indented is great, the work experience part seems to have something wrong with it.
        dc_gregory 8y ago
        Your advice is on point; I would find this resume very difficult to skim (and very easy to skip), need to treat it like a landing page, and distil the important parts.
Kenji 8y ago
> despite a first-class MEng in Electronic Systems Engineering and 4 years continuous relevant work experience. Really? I'm kind of surprised that someone with this kind of background has difficulties finding a job in Switzerland. Normally people like you need to write 3 applications and at least two of the companies want to hire you.
whamlastxmas 8y ago
I had a very similar story for the launch of the Xbox 360. Mountain Dew was auctioning one every 10 minutes with points. The obvious thing for me, though, was that you could get a code when signing up with your email. I had my own domain name at the time so I made a few hundred addresses and signed them all up. I actually won two Xboxes but never got the second one. Either they saw it was the same IP or caught on to what I was doing. As a broke kid who has never won anything in his life, getting that Xbox (right at launch no less) was AMAZING. I was literally dancing with excitement which I don't think has ever happened since. I sold it after a few months (was more of a PC gamer) and the hundreds that I got for it was also awesome.
- peterburkimsher 8y ago
  Selling it after was a good idea - I built my own iPod Video by fixing broken iPods for friends, and didn't need the Nano in the end. After a few years I gave it to a kid at church in Shenzhen. However, I did find a way to convert UBS KeyClub points into cash. They're a loyalty-card system similar to frequent flyer miles, and are worth 1 CHF per point. When my friends visited Geneva, we planned to spend the points in the Manora restaurant. But it was shut! After some thought, we found a store willing to accept the points, bought a suitcase, and returned it immediately for a cash refund. Then we had cash to buy a cheese fondue! The exchange rate was even better when I could exchange points for iTunes songs - the songs were worth 1.40 CHF. So that's how I collected a lot of legal music in the early days of the iTunes Music Store.
  - Declanomous 8y ago
    Buying a cheese fondue is the most Swiss thing about this story. Cheese fondues were a fad in the US before I was born, and I know a lot of people's parent's who own them and use them maybe once every 5 years.
    - dlhavema 8y ago
      We still love fondue but mostly do chocolate at home... The cheese ones are so yummy...
eaenki 8y ago
I mean, aren't you in Switzerland? With the lowest unemployment in the world it should be fairly easy - if not, maybe the demand for the kinda job you're looking for is entirely met (saturated).
subway 8y ago
My father was a garbage man when I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and his crew stayed on top of pretty much any points promotion they found. This meant I grew up riding Pepsi bicycles, listening to Marlboro boomboxes.
syntaxing 8y ago
I totally hear you at the last part. I'm in the US with a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with continuous learning and training (either in programming or something MechE related like GD&T and CAD training). But I feel like my peers are totally blowing me out of the water in terms of professional growth especially those not in the MechE field. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, shrug.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  Learning how to market yourself can give you a nice leg up. Things like having a web site detailing your accomplishments, writing articles, attending trade conferences, doing piecework for people who need CAD work done, etc.
koliber 8y ago
Once, when I was in the 5th grade, there was a jelly-bean counting contest at the local library. The jellybeans were in a jar that was roughly cylindrical. I counted the rough radius of the jar in 1-dimensional linear_jellybean units, as well as the height of the bean-filled part. Using the formula for the volume of the cylinder, I guessed the volume, in linear_jellybean^3 units. Through the sheer coincidence that a jellybean's volume is roughly 1 linear_jellybean^3, I got within 25 or so jellybeans of the correct count, winning the grand prize. I walked away with a bunch of books, and the jar of jellybeans. I'm glad, that unlike in the story presented by this article, the CIA and the FBI did not get involved in the act, since I used method and cunning as opposed to dumb luck. Maybe it was just a matter of the dollar value at stake. This is the only time in my entire life that I had to use the geometrical formula for volume of anything for a practical purpose. As I type this I realize that each of those jellybeans was manhandled by someone during the counting process. I wonder if they used gloves.
DoctorOetker 8y ago
Your whole post but especially the last paragraph prompts me to inform there exists a splendid movie that shall definitely bring a smile on your face: it's a french movie called "La Couperette" or "The Axe" is the English title. It's about a highly qualified person who loses his job and decides to "beat" the competition. === There are many theories of economy (capitalism, socialism, communism, ...) but one of them is hardly known and heavily censored since the 19th century. It is starting (in a much milder form) to resurface as the concept of "bullshit jobs". The old theory is roughly the following: 1) From the perspective of governments, as soon as productivity is sufficient to support survival (i.e. there is no longer a material lack of basic necessities), the next threat to government is disobedience. So the government supports in various ways the pacification or neutralization of disobedience. This can happen in various ways: by sorting pupils in all levels of school (elementary, high school and up) not just by skill (which ensures survival) but also by attitude (so that the disobedient don't gain too much intellect, and equivalently so that the resultant intellectuals are significantly obedient). Most of us with higher levels of education have vague memories of kids getting expelled from school due to disobedience, they all slowly got concentrated in less educational schools (for the disobedient). It is hard to emphasize we didn't realize how ridiculously obedient we were because our yardstick of obedience were other highly obedient pupils who had not yet been filtered away. Another way is welfare even if there is plenty of material wealth (for survival) if it promotes obedience. When or how does welfare promote societal stability? That depends on the individual: a disobedient person with free time and resources is relatively more dangerous than an obedient person with free time and resources. 2) From the perspective of employers, employees should be replacable, if they aren't replacable as if they were simple cogs and gears in a machine, survival would hinge on these select individuals. Regarding obedience, from a managerial bossing around perspective there is much more satisfaction from managing a disobedient person than an obedient person (the former is an achievement, while the latter is a given). People do what they like to do, so when a manager chooses to spend his time micromanaging specifically over a disobedient person, he is probably enjoying it. 3) From the perspective of the employee: the goal of jobs is first and foremost survival, but once survival is satisfied, individual goals starts kicking in, perhaps ideology, perhaps greed. === So the effective modus operandi of the total system is: neutralize or pacify rebellion by 1) minimizing the intellect and skills of the disobedient and maximizing the skills and intellect of the obedient during education, while 2) prioritizing jobs to some unavoidable fraction of the skilled intellectuals that turn disobedient, in order to keep them busy with work. If a person is murdered, and a number of people are suspected, the unemloyed person falls under the highest suspicion. Consider obedient person O and disobedient person D of the same level of skill, and a free job position at that level of skill, then the system has 2 options: put O on the job while D has free time, or put D on the job while O has free time. What would you choose if you were the system, trying to ensure stability post scarcity? The "bullshit jobs" aren't bullshit jobs, at least not from the perspective of the status quo: it's just keeping people who are assessed as disobedient busy. The last people to recognize this emergent behaviour are typically the most obedient people (the moment they realize they slowly become more and more disobedient, a process the already disobedient experienced during their education). Why are so many people reporting "aholes" at work? Because there actually are people acting as disobedient "aholes" at work. Some of this acting may be genuine, some of it is purely feigned to keep the job. It is unknown what percentage of disobedience is feigned disobedience to keep the job, or genuine disobedience. Any genuinely obedient person who eventually understood this working principle in society, and hence feigned disobedience in order to be assigned a job paying better than welfare, is afraid to speak out about it: the moment he describes this modus operandi, he is effectively revealing he isn't in fact disobedient, so he can be safely put back on welfare and make place at work for the neutralization by employment of a genuine disobedient person. === In short, you may want to start signalling your dissatisfaction with society in order to be classified as slightly more dis-allegiant and thus a good candidate for being kept busy: perhaps in subtle ways like replying the question "Why were you unemployed between ..." with "Yes, there is an attitude problem between me and the rest of the world, but the problem is not on my side" perhaps in more obvious ways, like starting a blog and posting semi-extreme perspectives on society, with lots of normative and prescriptive language. Anyway good luck, and don't forget to watch "La Couperette", it is genious!

themodelplumber 8y ago

I have to wonder--given those impressive experiences, could you find a way to produce the resources you need without needing a job? From reading about your obvious gifts here, I would guess that if you had a list of criteria like how much you need to earn, and whatever other resources you require, you could figure out a clever way to meet those criteria. Job or no job.

peterburkimsher 8y ago
I don't know why this is getting downvotes - entrepreneurship is something I've considered. It doesn't help me get a visa though. I tried emailing computer repair shops asking them to advertise my data migration services - using an Apple II to copy off 5.25" floppies, a Mac LC to read DD floppies, and a PowerBook G3 to read SCSI and JAZ disks. Unfortunately, I only got one reply that asked to see a poster before they'd even discuss it with management. I also tried I tried contacting companies via Seek and TradeMe. Most expect me to already have a work visa. I asked recruiters for help. I put side projects here on Hacker News to try to get attention. I asked friends who I worked with at Fisher & Paykel Healthcare when I was there before. I found random people on Github and offered to work for free on open-source projects just to get an introduction. Nothing has worked. The only interview I had was from an Australian company. Now I'm spamming everyone on the Accredited Employers list who has an email address on their website. I'm willing to take whatever I can get now, wherever that might be.
- themodelplumber 8y ago
  A visa too! Wow, a fascinating problem with multiple dimensions to consider. And here at the center of it, a gifted analyst. I wonder what kind of theory or model could be drafted, something that fits the situation like a glove _and_ exposes critical leverage points. If anyone could do it...(points at you)
- murukesh_s 8y ago
  What kind of work are you looking for? Have you tried remote work?
  - peterburkimsher 8y ago
    These days I'll take anything short-term, even remote. For a long-term career I have the education & work experience prerequisites for New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, Australia's 186, and Canada's Express Entry. In the past, I did two remote contracts (Pixelgarde and AnswerTo), but in both cases the employer reached out to me first. I'm not really sure how to find jobs. My résumé is here: http://peterburk.free.fr/PeterBurkimsherResume.pdf http://peterburk.free.fr/PeterBurkimsherResume.pdf
    - socratewasright 8y ago
      I’m much younger and less experienced, so what I’m going to say could be irrelevant, but your resume seems too busy. I’d cut it to 1 page, remove all the symbols, flags and logos. I’d also remove most of the extra stuff (personal interests, volunteering, objective, references). Essentially, almost anything that doesn’t show that I’m a very talented engineer should go. Also, I’d consider using latex if not already and go for a more sobre style that focuses on ease of reading. The way your education part is indented is great, the work experience part seems to have something wrong with it.
      - dc_gregory 8y ago
        Your advice is on point; I would find this resume very difficult to skim (and very easy to skip), need to treat it like a landing page, and distil the important parts.

Kenji 8y ago

> despite a first-class MEng in Electronic Systems Engineering and 4 years continuous relevant work experience. Really? I'm kind of surprised that someone with this kind of background has difficulties finding a job in Switzerland. Normally people like you need to write 3 applications and at least two of the companies want to hire you.

whamlastxmas 8y ago

I had a very similar story for the launch of the Xbox 360. Mountain Dew was auctioning one every 10 minutes with points. The obvious thing for me, though, was that you could get a code when signing up with your email. I had my own domain name at the time so I made a few hundred addresses and signed them all up. I actually won two Xboxes but never got the second one. Either they saw it was the same IP or caught on to what I was doing. As a broke kid who has never won anything in his life, getting that Xbox (right at launch no less) was AMAZING. I was literally dancing with excitement which I don't think has ever happened since. I sold it after a few months (was more of a PC gamer) and the hundreds that I got for it was also awesome.

peterburkimsher 8y ago
Selling it after was a good idea - I built my own iPod Video by fixing broken iPods for friends, and didn't need the Nano in the end. After a few years I gave it to a kid at church in Shenzhen. However, I did find a way to convert UBS KeyClub points into cash. They're a loyalty-card system similar to frequent flyer miles, and are worth 1 CHF per point. When my friends visited Geneva, we planned to spend the points in the Manora restaurant. But it was shut! After some thought, we found a store willing to accept the points, bought a suitcase, and returned it immediately for a cash refund. Then we had cash to buy a cheese fondue! The exchange rate was even better when I could exchange points for iTunes songs - the songs were worth 1.40 CHF. So that's how I collected a lot of legal music in the early days of the iTunes Music Store.
- Declanomous 8y ago
  Buying a cheese fondue is the most Swiss thing about this story. Cheese fondues were a fad in the US before I was born, and I know a lot of people's parent's who own them and use them maybe once every 5 years.
  - dlhavema 8y ago
    We still love fondue but mostly do chocolate at home... The cheese ones are so yummy...

eaenki 8y ago

I mean, aren't you in Switzerland? With the lowest unemployment in the world it should be fairly easy - if not, maybe the demand for the kinda job you're looking for is entirely met (saturated).

subway 8y ago

My father was a garbage man when I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s and his crew stayed on top of pretty much any points promotion they found. This meant I grew up riding Pepsi bicycles, listening to Marlboro boomboxes.

syntaxing 8y ago

I totally hear you at the last part. I'm in the US with a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with continuous learning and training (either in programming or something MechE related like GD&T and CAD training). But I feel like my peers are totally blowing me out of the water in terms of professional growth especially those not in the MechE field. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, shrug.

skookumchuck 8y ago
Learning how to market yourself can give you a nice leg up. Things like having a web site detailing your accomplishments, writing articles, attending trade conferences, doing piecework for people who need CAD work done, etc.

koliber 8y ago

Once, when I was in the 5th grade, there was a jelly-bean counting contest at the local library. The jellybeans were in a jar that was roughly cylindrical. I counted the rough radius of the jar in 1-dimensional linear_jellybean units, as well as the height of the bean-filled part. Using the formula for the volume of the cylinder, I guessed the volume, in linear_jellybean^3 units. Through the sheer coincidence that a jellybean's volume is roughly 1 linear_jellybean^3, I got within 25 or so jellybeans of the correct count, winning the grand prize. I walked away with a bunch of books, and the jar of jellybeans. I'm glad, that unlike in the story presented by this article, the CIA and the FBI did not get involved in the act, since I used method and cunning as opposed to dumb luck. Maybe it was just a matter of the dollar value at stake. This is the only time in my entire life that I had to use the geometrical formula for volume of anything for a practical purpose. As I type this I realize that each of those jellybeans was manhandled by someone during the counting process. I wonder if they used gloves.

DoctorOetker 8y ago

Your whole post but especially the last paragraph prompts me to inform there exists a splendid movie that shall definitely bring a smile on your face: it's a french movie called "La Couperette" or "The Axe" is the English title. It's about a highly qualified person who loses his job and decides to "beat" the competition. === There are many theories of economy (capitalism, socialism, communism, ...) but one of them is hardly known and heavily censored since the 19th century. It is starting (in a much milder form) to resurface as the concept of "bullshit jobs". The old theory is roughly the following: 1) From the perspective of governments, as soon as productivity is sufficient to support survival (i.e. there is no longer a material lack of basic necessities), the next threat to government is disobedience. So the government supports in various ways the pacification or neutralization of disobedience. This can happen in various ways: by sorting pupils in all levels of school (elementary, high school and up) not just by skill (which ensures survival) but also by attitude (so that the disobedient don't gain too much intellect, and equivalently so that the resultant intellectuals are significantly obedient). Most of us with higher levels of education have vague memories of kids getting expelled from school due to disobedience, they all slowly got concentrated in less educational schools (for the disobedient). It is hard to emphasize we didn't realize how ridiculously obedient we were because our yardstick of obedience were other highly obedient pupils who had not yet been filtered away. Another way is welfare even if there is plenty of material wealth (for survival) if it promotes obedience. When or how does welfare promote societal stability? That depends on the individual: a disobedient person with free time and resources is relatively more dangerous than an obedient person with free time and resources. 2) From the perspective of employers, employees should be replacable, if they aren't replacable as if they were simple cogs and gears in a machine, survival would hinge on these select individuals. Regarding obedience, from a managerial bossing around perspective there is much more satisfaction from managing a disobedient person than an obedient person (the former is an achievement, while the latter is a given). People do what they like to do, so when a manager chooses to spend his time micromanaging specifically over a disobedient person, he is probably enjoying it. 3) From the perspective of the employee: the goal of jobs is first and foremost survival, but once survival is satisfied, individual goals starts kicking in, perhaps ideology, perhaps greed. === So the effective modus operandi of the total system is: neutralize or pacify rebellion by 1) minimizing the intellect and skills of the disobedient and maximizing the skills and intellect of the obedient during education, while 2) prioritizing jobs to some unavoidable fraction of the skilled intellectuals that turn disobedient, in order to keep them busy with work. If a person is murdered, and a number of people are suspected, the unemloyed person falls under the highest suspicion. Consider obedient person O and disobedient person D of the same level of skill, and a free job position at that level of skill, then the system has 2 options: put O on the job while D has free time, or put D on the job while O has free time. What would you choose if you were the system, trying to ensure stability post scarcity? The "bullshit jobs" aren't bullshit jobs, at least not from the perspective of the status quo: it's just keeping people who are assessed as disobedient busy. The last people to recognize this emergent behaviour are typically the most obedient people (the moment they realize they slowly become more and more disobedient, a process the already disobedient experienced during their education). Why are so many people reporting "aholes" at work? Because there actually are people acting as disobedient "aholes" at work. Some of this acting may be genuine, some of it is purely feigned to keep the job. It is unknown what percentage of disobedience is feigned disobedience to keep the job, or genuine disobedience. Any genuinely obedient person who eventually understood this working principle in society, and hence feigned disobedience in order to be assigned a job paying better than welfare, is afraid to speak out about it: the moment he describes this modus operandi, he is effectively revealing he isn't in fact disobedient, so he can be safely put back on welfare and make place at work for the neutralization by employment of a genuine disobedient person. === In short, you may want to start signalling your dissatisfaction with society in order to be classified as slightly more dis-allegiant and thus a good candidate for being kept busy: perhaps in subtle ways like replying the question "Why were you unemployed between ..." with "Yes, there is an attitude problem between me and the rest of the world, but the problem is not on my side" perhaps in more obvious ways, like starting a blog and posting semi-extreme perspectives on society, with lots of normative and prescriptive language. Anyway good luck, and don't forget to watch "La Couperette", it is genious!