Comments for Nicholas Zakas' Personal Blog

Comment on How not to recruit by Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 01:52:43 +0000

They are still using it. I got the same thing today.

Comment on I’m cooler (or less cool) now by Oliver Tse

Oliver Tse — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 16:16:31 +0000

They would have never done that to David Flanagan. Happy Holidays Nicholas!

Comment on I’m cooler (or less cool) now by Joachim

Joachim — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:18:45 +0000

I wonder about what 10 year old kids think like I wonder about what my cats think.
That is to say, I don’t.

Comment on I’m cooler (or less cool) now by Julien Lecomte

Julien Lecomte — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:00:43 +0000

You must be doing a lot of server-side JavaScript these days… I just checked, and the verb “nod” is spelled “nods” when using the third-person form, not “nodes” hehe!

Comment on I’m cooler (or less cool) now by Francisc

Francisc — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:28:50 +0000

You should have told them you know JavaScript.

Comment on How not to recruit by kasra

kasra — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:39:40 +0000

I applied for Amazon SDE position few months ago. They called me after two months and scheduled the first interview. After 2 days I received the same email. I personally don’t take it as a spam since I am in the middle of my interviews with them.

Comment on Reconsidering links in blog posts by Rusty Wright

Rusty Wright — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:23:39 +0000

I’m with Nick Morgan; don’t use super-scripted footnotes (or bracketed ones), which are yet another distraction and just put a “further reading” section at the end. I really get annoyed when reading books that use footnotes (I like to read history books for enjoyment) and some authors like to pepper the pages with footnotes and I feel like I’m missing something by not following the footnote, and it definitely upsets the flow. Sometimes it’s just unessential interesting information so I’ve disciplined myself to ignore the footnotes, but it’s still annoying.

Comment on Reconsidering links in blog posts by Ben Barber

Ben Barber — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:31:08 +0000

Wow, i think it’s awesome that you are considering this and are that concerned about your readers’ comprehension. I agree, though, with fpiat that this is a mistake.

If you use naturally-worded links like you do (your post “Be here now” is a good example), the links don’t even break the flow of the sentence. When you make an interesting point with a link to back up your statement, i just naturally ‘command-click’ the link into my ‘tab-queue’ to read once i’m finished with an article. (This also gives the referred-to page time to load so i can read it as soon as i get to it.)

Unfortunately, Wikipedia-style footnote links break this reading flow. And often by the time i get to the footer the links are out of context and it’s not clear which ones i had wanted to read.

My personal preference would be to keep links in your post, but only reveal them (color + underline) when the content is hovered (or focused). That would remove the distraction of the links but keep their utility. Although most of my reading is in my feed reader which won’t use the CSS, I’d still have an option to read the unbroken article on your site.

Regardless of what you choose, i think it’s great that you are thinking about the needs of your readers. So, thanks!

Comment on How not to recruit by Sergiu

Sergiu — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:46:13 +0000

another thing that raises a lot of concerns is the URL: amazon.icims.com
heard of amazon but not of icims

Comment on How not to recruit by james

james — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 06:22:19 +0000

I went and looked at the site. They want 3 pieces of information.
1) whether you can legally work in the US and 2,3) Your affirmative action profile: race and gender. The fact that they need the latter two pieces of information is extremely obnoxious. It’s not their fault. They have quotas they have to fill, and I’m sure they will use this automated system to help them focus their efforts.
I’m employed. Have been for 10 years at the same (oil) company. I’m in no hurry. I didn’t find this off putting–of course, I didn’t find it ego stroking either. It is what it is. 2 minutes later, I’m done, and if nothing comes of it, so what.