Questions to ask on a new job search An Article by Sally Lait sallylait.com The role and expectations What does this job entail? What's driving the hire? What are the biggest challenges? What scope is there to do x, y, z? How/when/why would you consider hiring me to be successful? What does progression from here look like? What's the biggest mistake I could make? The wider business Can you tell me a bit about the company? What about the culture? How does diversity, equity, and inclusion play into this? What's the most exciting thing on the company horizon? What's been the impact of COVID-19 on company finances/strategy? What are the best and worst things about working here? Day to day What's the size/structure of the team I'd be around/have reporting to me? Which other people would I work most closely with? What technologies/tools would I work with? What could I do that would make your life easier? The practical bits What salary are you offering for this role? Additional package/benefits How do you approach distributed working, and is there scope for this? What timescales are you hoping for? Holiday Job title Give yourself an extra shot: Is there anything I've said today that makes you hesitate? work
An information service society Society is steadily moving from a material goods society to an information service society. At the time of the American Revolution, say 1780 or so, over 90% of the people were essentially farmers—now farmers are a very small percentage of workers. What will the situation be in 2020? As a guess I would say less than 25% of the people in the civilian workforce will be handling things; the rest will be handling information in some form or other. In making a movie or a tv program you are making not so much a thing, though of course it does have a material form, as you are organizing information. Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn Auditory Hallucinations from Offworld MegafarmsData Farming farming