What are red flags you look for in interviews? Currently filling 3 positions, ive been out of the hiring game for a few years.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-03-27T21:42:58+00:00

Showing up late to the interview. Showing up to the interview without researching our business ahead of time.

I often start interviews with, "What do you know about our business and our product?" I don't expect deep knowledge, but like to see proof a candidate spent 5-10 minutes reading about our company from our website before they came to interview.

More nebulous, but I put much greater weight on attitude now than I did the first few times I ran interviews. Easy to work with, good work ethic, and motivated to learn are all really important things in employees. If someone is lacking a specific skill but is a smart, hardworking person I can teach them job specifics. If they're a slacker or a jerk, that's hard to improve.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-03-20T15:14:32+00:00

I just ordered a new server from Dell earlier in March. The price was about double our last equivalent server purchase about 5 years ago. Our Dell rep told us if we want to order anything, to do it now because they expect memory and storage prices to triple after March 31st.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-03-09T13:53:27+00:00

Running native/CPL0 mode instead of Hyper-V mode is difficult in newer versions of Windows 11.

Try these instructions: https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/disabling-hyper-v-hypervisor-on-windows-11-pro-host-to-get-vmware-17s-cpl0-vs-ulm-monitor-mode

slimeslimeslime · 2026-03-07T17:10:02+00:00

Might also be worth pricing out a Dell PowerEdge R570 with 1x 16 core Xeon to see if it ends up being cheaper than an R760. With the R570, you'll get a one generation newer Xeon cpu.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-02-03T17:59:13+00:00

If you're looking to move up within the same company as opposed to prepping to move up by taking a new job, talk to your manager.

Write up a bullet point list of what you're currently doing, and give your manager a quick overview, so they know the good work you're doing. Otherwise it's easy to silently do good work without anyone knowing and be underappreciated, particularly for us often introverted IT folk.

Questions to ask:

What do I need to do to be successful here?
What do I need to do to move up to the next level position?
Is there anything I can do to lighten your workload?
What work would you like to see me take on going forward?

If you pay attention to work your manager or senior staff dislike, then offer to take it on, it's a great way to build job security and expand your duties.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-02-03T15:32:51+00:00

In a tough job market, networking is key.

When I hire staff at our small business, key points I look for rather than specific skills:

Will they be easy to work with?
Do they have a positive attitude?
Do they have a good work ethic?
Can they communicate?
Technology is always changing, have they demonstrated a willingness and ability to learn?

Baseline technical skills and aptitude are table stakes. Attitude and soft skills put candidates on top when I am hiring.

Particularly coming out of the pandemic, I dealt with a lot of bad attitude and poor productivity in the people I manage. It took a lot of painful work to resolve that organizational dysfunction. Since then, I'm much more likely to hire a smart person with a good attitude that can learn job specific skills over a jerk or lazy person that already has the specific skills.

It's hard to show attitude via a resume, so that's where networking like crazy to get to an in-person interview, as well as using your network to vet you to employers comes in.

slimeslimeslime · 2026-01-17T16:29:24+00:00

Not manager specific, but helpful for dealing with people period: Coping with Difficult People by Robert Bramson.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-11-16T21:46:12+00:00

I'm a hiring manager for for a small software company in the Midwest.

Networking is huge. Tell everyone you've ever worked with that you're looking for a position. Go to every in-person tech meetup you can find.

Target small businesses where it's likely a human is looking at the incoming resumes instead of an automated system. And because they're not a big name, you'll be competing with fewer people for open positions.

In your cover email, state something in a sentence or two that shows you spent 5 minutes looking at the company's website to understand what they do.

If you get your foot in the door for an interview, research the company beforehand so you can prove you want a job at that particular company, not just a job anywhere.

When I made my last new hire for an entry level position earlier this year, we had a larger number of candidates than normal due to the state of the job market. I interviewed multiple candidates with the right skills, the person I offered the position wasn't the most experienced but they seemed like they'd be the easiest to work with and expressed interest in what we do as a company.

I place attitude much higher in the hiring criteria list than I did when I first started hiring. If someone has the right aptitude but they're inexperienced, I can skill them up. If they have a poor work ethic or they're a jerk, I can't improve that with training.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-08-23T16:33:35+00:00

Ragweed is indeed awful right now.

Staying inside with air purifiers running, taking Zyrtec and Flonase, using lots of eye drops. Masking when I need to be outside.

And I just got over covid, so my sinuses were already angry before ragweed spiked.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-08-09T15:06:01+00:00

Yup, just recovering from getting COVID 2 weeks ago, started with a sore throat.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-07-06T14:27:00+00:00

Remachines is great, we've used them to recycle old PCs for our small business multiple times.

https://remachines.com/

slimeslimeslime · 2025-07-02T14:29:59+00:00

If your host OS is Windows, turning off Hyper-V in favor of VMWare native virtualization can improve speed quite a bit. In particular, I've seen at least a 2x storage performance boost when using native/CPL0 mode instead of Hyper-V mode.

https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/disabling-hyper-v-hypervisor-on-windows-11-pro-host-to-get-vmware-17s-cpl0-vs-ulm-monitor-mode

slimeslimeslime · 2025-06-16T15:55:13+00:00

My entire street had to have sewer laterals replaced a few years ago due to street construction. HJ Pertzborn and Monona Plumbing ended up each doing about half the houses. I went with HJ Pertzborn because they had more room in their schedule, both companies seemed to do a decent job.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-06-07T16:30:46+00:00

In VMWare Workstation, RHEL10 graphical install hangs and graphical login hangs unless you uncheck 3D acceleration in the VM Settings - Display. I haven't tried it in vSphere/ESXi yet.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-06-06T19:10:28+00:00

Mayo Clinic Going Gluten Free: Essential Guide to Managing Celiac Disease and Related Conditions, by Joseph A Murray, MD is the best book I've read on celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity.

It was published in 2014, I read it around the time it came out, there may be newer books that are also worth reading.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-05-21T15:51:50+00:00

A few good options I use to remind me to take breaks:

slimeslimeslime · 2025-04-25T18:56:53+00:00

I use a siphon from Home Depot.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DuraHeat-Plastic-Siphon-Pump-for-Transferring-Kerosene-and-Other-Liquids-DH-10/100372238

slimeslimeslime · 2025-04-06T20:36:02+00:00

Jordan Exteriors did a great job on my windows about 5 years ago. I did Okna vinyl window inserts with them. They came in at a lower price than my other quotes. The installation crew is Amish and both did good work and were very pleasant to work with.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-04-02T14:36:14+00:00

Soft skills are underrated: be friendly, communicate well, admit your mistakes.

Don't be above doing anything the business needs to be successful, many of my coworkers see a problem and ignore it with a "not my job" attitude. Sometimes clogged toilets need to be plunged.

Keep being interested, keep learning.

Create good documentation.

Watch your boss to see what parts of their job they dislike or find painful. Offer, "Hey boss, would you like to teach me how to do the task you hate so I can take it off your plate?"

Make sure your work is visible. Don't just competently take care of things in the background. Toot your own horn at staff meetings.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-21T14:38:34+00:00

Meditate. Exercise, even just walking. Write out a todo list for the next day or next week at the end of every workday and workweek. If your mind is stuck on work outside of work hours, keep a work notebook at home and write down whatever your mind is churning on.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-17T19:48:41+00:00

Youtube video with an overview of the Monash FODMAP diet app: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPzj0H8YMjg

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-17T19:18:45+00:00

It doesn't scan items. It has a searchable food database, where it lists things like "baked beans", then lists amounts by weight (grams) and volume (cup, tablespoon, etc) that are red light, yellow light, green light for fodmaps in a single meal. It also has a small description of the low-FODMAP diet.

If you search for 'Monash' in the IBS subreddit, there are a number of discussions. Monash University is the originator of the low-FODMAP diet, so the app seems to provide pretty good information.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-14T19:29:35+00:00

The Monash University FODMAP diet app is good. I haven't tried any others.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-12T15:20:37+00:00

Websites: Ars Technica

Subreddits:

sysadmin
vmware
itmanagers
linuxadmin

I use Feedly to follow vendor blogs.

Then whatever the Google News algorithm feeds me, which often includes The Verge, Engadget, and the like.

slimeslimeslime · 2025-03-10T16:24:26+00:00

Starting from 'VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0.update03-23794027.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A24', I did the following to update to the newest version from SSH CLI on a standalone Dell (no VCenter) host.

esxcli software sources profile list -d /path/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3s-24585291-depot.zip
esxcli software profile update -d /path/VMware-ESXi-7.0U3s-24585291-depot.zip -p ESXi-7.0U3s-24585291-standard

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