Talks From Q4 2008
Table XI featured in Business Week Article
If at first you don’t succeed….
Josh and Jordan are featured in the cover story of this month’s edition of Business Week: Small Biz. The article, entitled Failing Up, highlights five entrepreneurs who endured the failure of a previous start-up to go on to create a successful business.
What we're reading
Table XI staffer joins ex-staffer to create fantasy sports blog
It’s fall, and that means football. Instead of boring you with a diatribe on the technological tools our people use to try to dominate their fantasy football league, we thought we’d give a quick shout-out to a new blog. Youlikadajuice.com is a hilarious mix of fantasy insights and comedy. Written by Ben Golden and illustrated by Jordan Ho, YLDJ is a fresh look on sports, fantasy, and comedy in the style of ESPN Page 2, but without the editorial board.
University of Chicago nerds poll better
With the upcoming election, we’re being constantly bombarded with news, polls, and “insights” about the presidential horse race. There’s so much data out there about the election —mixed in with sensationalized anecdotal evidence — that it’s hard to know where to look for reliable information. FiveThirtyEight.com is a poll of polls run by a couple of hardcore U of C statistics geeks. They have built a comprehensive computer model that takes into account many outside factors (such as including the historical accuracy of each pollster), boiling them down into a very clear picture of the race.
The narrative of the blog puts campaign events and strategy into context with the underlying data, offering a truly unique perspective on many of the goings-on. Recent prognostications have included analysis of the debates, the McCain campaign’s decision to “go negative,” and insights on whether or not Georgia might actually be in play (they think it is). While the writers are Obama supporters, the blog maintains a bipartisan approach and tone, and we think it’s the best place to find timely and relevant information about the campaign.
We're adding to the team... again
On Sept. 23, Ellen Brast became our part-time office manager and research assistant. Raising two kids, volunteering extensively, cooking gourmet meals, and helping with her husband’s home-based business wasn’t enough to keep her busy.
Her presence has already made a huge impact, and we are having trouble remembering what life was like before she showed up. Everything around Table XI is just… more… organized.
Prior to becoming a full-time mom, Ellen was an information specialist at Gardner, Carton & Douglas, where she assisted lawyers and law librarians with computer-based research. Ellen has a B.S. in Political Science from Miami University in Ohio.
Another One Bites the Dust
Another one bites the dust
Well it’s official. Another Table XI staffer has chosen to be annoyed rather than be alone. On Sept. 27, Jordan Ho married Marlene Go at the Crystal Gardens at Navy Pier. We’re super happy for Jordan, and excited to welcome Marlene to the extended Table XI team. The festivities included a 14-person bridal party, three photographers, a trolley ride to multiple photo sites, a surprise Chinese lion dance, two slide-shows, six speeches, and a radiant bride decked out in traditional garb serenading the lucky groom.
We wish the happy couple all the best, and we’re counting on Alex to whip out his B-Boy skills at our next staff party.
Testing programming job applicants
How belligerence killed the job-seeking cat: a true-to-life fable
At Table XI, our people are the lifeblood of our business. Without the ability to find, identify, hire, and retain fantastic people, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. So far, it seems we’ve been pretty successful. Most people we hire fit well, and they tend to stay with us for a long time.
This month, we thought we’d share a bit about the testing process we use to add programmers to our team.
Why we test coders:
- Computer science programs tend to focus on theory, so lots of recent graduates can’t actually program.
- Sending code samples does not prove a candidate actually did the work.
- The people we hire at Table XI thrive on challenges, and love the chance to demonstrate their skills and their willingness to work hard.
We don’t care whether you’re young or old, experienced or green, we want to see how an applicant responds to a standardized problem. Amazingly enough, we’ve had a few candidates who think they are above our exercise. One suggested he’d do our programming work once we made him a job offer.
Recently, an excellent candidate applied to an open position at our company. He had solid work experience, a well-developed portfolio, and proven attention to detail. Of the forty or so applications we had received at that point, he was one of the three to whom we sent our testing exercise.
To our surprise, the applicant launched into a profanity-laced diatribe on how unusual it was to ask candidates to do such an exercise. He cussed out a potential employer. Who would have known that testing a candidate would result in such deep revelations of their psyche?
So — in addition to demonstrating skill level, testing helps us figure out:
- How badly do candidates want the job? Are they willing to put in extra effort?
- Can they solve problems and do the work we’re hiring them for?
- Are they willing to take a risk to get something they want?
Refusing to do the exercise is a great way to fast track your resume to the trash can. Thankfully, we had several other extraordinarily talented applicants for the same position. We have received a number of well thought-out solutions to our problem, and we think we’ll be able to fill the position quickly.
That said, if you know anybody who fits the job description, please send them our way.
What on earth is going on with the economy?
We are as confused as everyone else… so check out this site
Josh has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Chicago, but that doesn’t mean he’s an expert economist. That, however, hasn’t stopped people from asking him to explain what’s going on with the economy.
The frank answer to that question is: nobody knows. There are a lot of people with way more training, access to data, and professional interest in the current situation who are equally baffled. Some brilliant minds we respect support the proposed bailout, and some equally impressive thinkers are opposed to it.
Falling Dow-Jones aside, the path to financial independence is through spending less than you earn. That said, tracking your finances is a pain. Everybody seems to have 13 different accounts, be them banking, credit cards, investments, loans, and mortgages.
Mint.com is the simplest tool to organize your personal finances that we’ve ever seen. Upon creating an account, it will ask you to identify the various financial institutions with which you do business. You enter your login and password for each one, and Mint goes out and fetches all your recent transactions. Mint becomes a secure central portal where you can view up-to-date information on your balances and transactions across ALL your accounts with one login.
It gets better. The beauty of a web-based solution like Mint (instead of something like Quicken or Microsoft Money) is that it can leverage the wisdom of a large user-base. In a conventional desktop personal accounting application, you have to categorize each transaction by hand. Mint leverages a huge body of users, and recognizes and categorizes the vast majority of your transactions automatically.
With minimal investment of time, Mint provides a comprehensive view of your personal finances, and automatically builds your budget. As you categorize the few outlying transactions, the picture becomes clearer and clearer, and you can view your progress towards your financial goals. It will even email you a weekly summary of your activity!
Mint will help you save a mint. And it’s free!
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