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In need of advice to start my job search in economics/commerce jobs.

tokaidanshi — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:18:48 -0800

I've just finished my masters in International Relations and am going to kick off my job start in earnest from next week. I have questions about where I should be looking for work, what options might be open to me, and would appreciate some advice. My time as a graduate student has mercifully come to an end in the last couple of days, and now I need to find a job.

I am not your traditional new grad, for better or for worse. I'm 31, and before starting grad school, I'd been living in overseas for about 5 years, mostly working as an English teacher.

I now have a master's in International Relations from a pretty good school, but I didn't get great grades while completing the program. It is a rigorous program. Really strong students finish with GPAs in the 3.7-8 range, and the average GPA of people coming out of the program is about 3.4, while mine is a shade over 3.2. I'm not sure if that is a substantive difference or not when it comes to competitive employers or not. I actually understand what I've studied reasonably well, but I had my first serious run in with depression in the middle of the program, lost the ability to function at a high level for a bit, and for a while my grades took a hit. I've generally thought that for a lot of jobs, grades aren't necessarily that important, but I have a fairly thin resume so I am not sure how else employers can evaluate me.

While I haven't aced all my classes, I've found a lot of what I've studied to be interesting and I feel like I've learned quite a bit. I have enjoyed my econometrics related coursework, have gotten reasonably proficient with STATA. I'm interested in things to do with international trade and all of the things that effect trade flows between countries, be it changes in tariff regimes, political instability, changing consumer preferences, etc.

Some things I am particularly good at include:

Public speaking

Writing

The ability to work comfortably with a wide variety of people.

Approaching difficult questions from a variety of angles.

Japanese; speaking and reading (due to living overseas)

Keeping all of that in mind, I have a few questions.

1. What kind of companies/organizations should I be looking at?

I have recently been applying to some positions with the federal government, including an economist position with the Bureau of Economic Analysis, an International Trade Analyst positions with the International Trade Commission and a few other positions in the Commerce department. These jobs seem like ones that I'd enjoy, because they involve a lot of detailed research into the kinds of things I've studied for this degree, but I think my chances of landing this type of position is slim. First, very little government hiring is happening right now due to the sequester. Second, these positions are competitive, and they ask for my transcript and I suspect that my somewhat low GPA might get me screened out from the start.

I've been told that political risk analysis jobs might be a good fit for me, given that they involve a lot of writing and a lot of in depth research and analysis of a country or region, both things I like, but I am not sure exactly where to look for these types of jobs.

Are there other positions that I am not thinking of that would involve similar work and might be likely to hire someone like me? I'm mainly focusing my job search on D.C. and New York, but are there other parts of the country I should consider as well?

2. How can I best sell myself to prospective employers when I do apply? Like I said, I have a degree from a good school, but not amazing grades. I have a few research papers that I did quite well on that I would be happy to submit as examples of what I am capable of, but not a whole lot else. I have learned a lot about international economics in general, and more specifically about trade regulation and how to do econometric research, but I don't have straight As in those subjects; more Bs and B pluses, so I don't know that I can point to that and tell prospective employers that I am an expert in those areas based on my grades alone.

My previous work experience involves an entirely unrelated internship (environmental services for city govt) in my first year out of college, followed by several years of teaching English in Japan, and then about nine months working at a web development company there where I helped coordinate projects with my company and other companies abroad.

Any ideas on how to market myself for these positions?

3. If I just don't have the requisite background to get these types of jobs yet, where are some other places I could look to work for a few years to gain skills in economics/trade related work/research that would help position me to go after these jobs again in a few years?

Lots of questions here, don't feel that you have to tackle them all, but it would be great if I could get at least a few answers to some of what I've asked here. Thanks.

Chrome hangs when searching for "allahu akbar" but not "fluffy puppies"

compartment — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:13:00 -0800

When I use Google Chrome to search for certain terms, the browser tab hangs. In this video, it hangs on "allahu akbar" and "osama bin laden". I have not been able to reproduce this issue using other browsers or benign terms (like "fluffy puppies"). What causes this behavior?

How does an ersatz Canadian go home?

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 07:33:53 -0800

I've lived outside Canada for all my professional working life (grad school> jobs) and am now thinking about going back, how easy/hard will it be to find a job? How do I do that and can I do it from outside the country? The long story is that I've been on various kinds of work permits elsewhere, currently on a TN in the US and that's where I have most of my experience, but I'm tired of being a temporary resident and am thinking about what it would take to move back to Canada in a couple of years. Because it's been so long since I've lived there and haven't done it as a professional adult, I have no networks and really no knowledge of the job market. My profession is in social science research (no quant though) - I don't want to be too much more specific (you know, anonymity...).

My resources in Canada are really low. People I went to undergrad with became school teachers and some ended up in university administration (I'm only in touch with a few people). Family connections are all construction, real estate/trades type jobs and from that group, all the immigrants I've encountered have uniformly said that they had trouble getting jobs because employers didn't accept non-Canadian experience.

Couple of other data points: I didn't have a Canadian bank account, so in anticipation of a possible move, I opened one last year. It was a giant PIA. They treated me like a brand new immigrant and my Canadian passport seemed to mean very little (down to ID - I only had one form of Canadian ID, the passport and they had to call head office to accept me with that because they wouldn't accept my US driver's licence). Similarly, when I enter the country, they shuffle me into the non-resident line and the passport means little there - they always ask me why I'm "coming to Canada". WTF, can't I come in anytime? (FYI, this is all West Coast).

Anyway, this very outsider treatment makes me nervous about finding employment and re-settling. Has anyone done this themselves? Even if you haven't, if you have any experience in Canada with these issues, I'd really appreciate any tips/thoughts.

Adventures in job-searching

ella_minnow — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 10:44:38 -0800

How do you tactfully make it clear to another organization that you’d be happy to be poached away from your own company to work for them? I work for an organization (I’ll just call it Company A), where I’ve done some research in the past year that has gained a bit of traction in my field. A colleague recently introduced me to president of another organization (for our purposes, Company B), and he invited me to come to his offices to speak with him and one of his employees about the work I’ve been doing, as they are in the early stages of producing some materials that fall in the same vein as my research. I went over there today, and we had a nice, productive conversation where we got to know one another’s work and agreed that we should keep in contact over the next few months and look for ways to collaborate. Lovely.

Add to that:
Company A is in an extremely transitional state, and I’m not sure that there is a future for my work here. (I work in a small office within a very large organization, and the focus of my work is generally not something that this organization is widely known for). There has recently been a large round of layoffs, and although I survived, it’s clear that my area of focus is outside of this organization’s priorities. I’ve been keeping an eye out for other jobs but haven’t found a good enough fit yet, in my small field. My colleague who introduced me to the president of Company B, however, feels strongly that this person is interested in branching out much further into the type of work that I do, and will need to take on more staff to do so. The one staff member that he does have who is doing work in my area (who was also the other person at today’s meeting), was hired after she was introduced to the president (by my same colleague, incidentally) at a conference last year. So, here’s the deal: I am very interested in the possibility of working for Company B, but don’t know how to even begin to suggest to them that I’d be happily willing to be poached away from Company A. And it seems like the kind of situation where I can’t just wait for a vacancy announcement to appear, because they just hired someone in a more direct way than that last time. Is there some kind of professional protocol or etiquette for these situations? I’m sure it happens all the time. I don’t want to let an opportunity pass me by, but we’ve only had one meeting and I feel like it’s too forward if I just tell them that I’m looking for work and would be very interested in working for them. I’d appreciate any advice on what to do, especially from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

I need to frisk my old man

digitalprimate — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:24:25 -0800

How do you discreetly frisk someone for concealed firearms? This is not an academic question. I will be attending my mother's 70's birthday in August in the USA in a state with very liberal carry laws, and I want to know if my (divorced) father is carrying if he shows up as invited to the party.

How do I do search him effectively and discreetly when he arrives, presuming he shows up?

Fun facts: for those of you who didn't click on the link, my father is a decorated Viet Nam era vet with untreated PTSD and (remotely) possibly in the early stages of Alzheimer's. I am able enough - and he is disable enough - that I am confident I could overpower him quickly should that be necessary.

Finding Tenants Who Aren't Serial Killers

Suffocating Kitty — Wed, 29 May 2013 15:57:31 -0800

You're an employed person in Philadelphia. You don't have a proclivity towards ripping copper pipes out of the wall. You dislike college dorm room replacements apartment complexes like this and you are looking for an apartment. Where did you look? Mr. Kitty and I are trying to find tenants for our first foray into rental property. (Yes, we are fully aware of/in compliance with tenant laws/rental laws in our area). We are lukewarm on posting on Craigslist. We would prefer not to have to pay a Realtor fee/1st month rent to have a real estate agent list our rental property, but will if you know a great one. We are near a university - however recalling our own college days - are not quite enthusiastic about advertising through the university directly.

If you were looking for an apartment, where did you look? Are there any out of the box places we aren't thinking of?

Bonus Lightening Round Questions:

What were your deal breakers for renting an apartment?

Even though we are a "Mom & Pop" rental team - What would assure you that we are professional/legal/not flaky?

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Solutions for searching a large collection of pdfs web available

digividal — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:50:12 -0800

I have a lot of (50GB) pdfs and some epub documents. I would like to find a way to search through them quickly and accurately, in a way that is web accessible. I would like highlights of matches from inside the document to display. I feel there has to be an obvious and easy answer but I havent found it yet. Preferably I would like to be able to search just on filename, and alternatively on the content.

Using a Mac I can have my pdfs searched, but I am not 100% thrilled with the way matches show and its not available over the net.

Lucene/Solr seems like it could do it, but I havent figured out how to do it. I tried OwnCloud, and its ok, but I really would like to be able to get at the list of matches before searching around an entire pdf file.

DtSearch can do this, but its $1000, and I would like to spend less. It doesn't have to be free, although that would be good.

I gave the search service on the amazon cloud a try, but it was less than a finished product and more something to develop around, and given my parameters it would be expensive with the way they charge.

Anyone know of a good, high quality, search engine, that I can host somewhere
that is good at searching pdfs, can display highlights, and possibly also search
enside mobi and epub???

What is this search string convention?

Nattie — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:00:04 -0800

I tried to search a database at the place I volunteer with REGEX, but it didn't work. The database interface has some built-in options to search, so I have been messing with those trying to figure out what conventions it will allow. Can you tell me what this is? When I search a field for entries matching begins with STRING, it shows that it searched for: STRING%
Ends with STRING: %STRING
Then anywhere shows up as %STRING%

I've only messed with a few databases before but they've all allowed for REGEX and this one doesn't. This also seems less precise than what I'm used to. So what is this? And does this match with any conventions that will allow me to search for something like [a-z] would be in REGEX? Or use things like + or *? I tried a handful of different ideas but nothing worked.

I've asked the people above me and they don't know anything about the database. I am waiting to see if I get a response from the person who made the database but I'm really curious and want to know if this is even worth pursuing if it's not easy to get in contact with the person who handles it. Thanks.

How Can I Help My Mom Help Herself?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:38:14 -0800

Hey Mefites, here's my question: My younger sister, mother, and I suffered years of abuse at the hands of an alcoholic stepfather - physical, verbal, etc. When we were younger, my sister and I were absolutely focused on getting the fuck out and did, getting scholarships to great schools, thankfully. My mom, not so much. She is no longer in a relationship with him, but they have been living together for economic reasons - she needs his disability paycheck to pay the bills (all of which are in her name, including the mortgage payment.) Anyway, the last few years have been a bit of a "quiet" period for them, but things are ramping up again. He calls her names, spits in her face, has begun drinking again and recently began doing drugs. He knows she's dependent on him which is why he treats her so badly, but she can't kick him out because she needs his money. I am absolutely distressed about this, and feel horribly guilty that I escaped across the country for school and no longer live in the same state as them so I didn't have to deal with this. But now that I'm in my mid-twenties, working on getting treatment for my own depression and have some breathing room, I really want to help!

Here are the details so far:

- She is 55, has basically no money saved up for retirement.
- Financial situation is a disaster. Multiple bills and student loans, bankruptcy on the record, can't open a checking account on her own. Always in the red - I usually send money for some bills and gas/groceries when I can, but I frankly barely make any money either. House is very underwater, can't sell.
- Is a very hard worker. Has always worked multiple jobs as long as I've been alive, has two degrees, etc. Is a very aggressive salesperson, and often wins awards at work for her sales efforts.
- Has been laid off many times due to bad economy. (This is in Las Vegas, which got its ass kicked in the recession.)
- Has a background in sales, medical coding/billing, administrative roles. Masters degree from an online school in management. After most recent layoff she's been working in telemarketing/collections for 3 years, which makes her miserable.
- She is very depressed. Obviously. No means to pay for therapy/counseling.
- Can't afford internet which is part of the reason why I'm trying to help her apply to jobs from another state

I'm helping with what I know how to - I'm making her a linkedin account, already revamped her resume, searching for jobs, going to help start typing out cover letters. I've begun asking my friends from back home if their parents know of any job leads that she can follow.

I think the main thing is helping her find a stable job with a higher income so that she can live on her own. I really don't want my hardworking, loyal mother to live out her last years being spat on and treated like shit. She's been married and divorced twice - her first husband cheated and left before I could even talk, and this guy, obviously, is a piece of garbage. Eventually I want to guide her into therapy and counseling, but it's difficult at this stage.

I know she needs to do this on her own and work really aggressively to cut him out of her life - my sister and I have been making this argument since I was 10 years old - but I think part of her hesitation is that she's lonely. She has expressed interest in wanting to kick him out before the end of the year (her name is on the house).

MeFites - what can I do to make her life better? What are some stable jobs (60K+) for 55-year-old women with long job histories (I'm thinking government jobs??) How can I help her get some free therapy, or help her with her finances? I'm just figuring this stuff out for myself too so I'm really lost. I'd appreciate any advice or resources you'd have to offer. Sorry this is rambly - things are a bit emotional right now.

Throwaway: helpmymom10@gmail.com

How much do I pay a new hire?

citybuddha — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 05:39:23 -0800

I am looking to expand my business in a new way and and would like to know what salary to offer for the position. This is a new experience for me so I have no idea what to offer. Is there a resource that could calculate the job with the market and give me an idea where to start with a figure?

How do I protect Ronnie Edwards?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 13:58:04 -0800

I'm a female in the US, about to get married for the second time and taking my husband's name. Help me manage how my new name appears online before it starts to happen. Let's say that my first name is Veronica but I've always gone by Ronnie. Say my maiden name is Smith, my first married name is Jones, and my new married name will be Edwards. I have used Ronnie Jones, professionally and personally, for years. I intend to use Ronnie Edwards going forward.

Online, the name Ronnie Jones is associated with some things that I use daily (Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google, Flickr, and my website, which is, say, "ronnie jones dot com").

Overall, all the various permutations of my names (Veronica/Ronnie Smith/Jones) are linked with some things I'm very proud of (my photography), some that are embarrassing (like projects that I wish I hadn't gotten involved in that I don't have the ability to edit/modify), and some that I wish were private (like Spokeo knowing my relatives and my addresses and my income...)

In terms of information about me online, is it possible to keep just the good stuff with Ronnie Edwards and disassociate from the embarrassing/private stuff? If I just change my name from Jones to Edwards, won't EVERYTHING end up following me? Do I need to just disassociate completely and create brand new accounts everywhere?

How to get listed in RSS Feed Reader searchers?

msalt — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 07:52:43 -0800

I have two specialized blogs in very specific areas (palindromes, Taoism). They do not show up when I do keyword searches in RSS readers such as Feedly, while barely related blogs do (e.g. one by a woman named Hannah with palindrome in the title. How can I get my actually directly-on-topic blogs to appear? Their names are slight variants of the main keyword (The Palindromist, Taoish) so when I set it up with Feedburner I added the keyword to the description in parentheses. Doesn't seem to have solved it. Thanks!

Informational Interview

dfc5656 — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:45:50 -0800

What is the best way to approach somebody in a career field about the possibility of arranging an informational interview? This is assuming you do not have a connection to a person.

Keep making progress in a shrinking field, or switch gears?

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:14:39 -0800

Lawyer getting great experience in a shrinking subspecialty. Work environment has flaws. Have the opportunity to move. Worried about grass being greener, frying pan/fire, etc. Special details inside. I work for a large firm on the west coast. When I began practicing, my workload was split about 50/50 between one partner who is a nationally recognized expert in a subspecialty, and the other partners in my group, who have a more generalized practice. That ratio has become more lopsided due to several recent departures, a few of which were the result of the subspecialized partner's difficult working style. As a result, I have gotten an unusual amount of experience. Within this subspecialty, I am probably one of the 10 most knowledgeable attorneys under 40 in my state. This isn't necessarily a huge accomplishment--there just aren't that many of us.

So what's not to like? First, I am worried that I am developing skills in one small area at the cost of a broader skill set. A good analogy would be a corporate lawyer who can handle a few rarified transactions very well but can't draw up a general partnership agreement. This worry is compounded by the fact that fewer than 5% of companies in our state, and 7% nationally, will ever need this kind of work. This number has been on a downward slide from a high of about 35% 30 years ago. This area is unlikely to grow, and could conceivably shrink to the point that it only supports a relative handful of lawyers.

Second, I am not the best I can be working for this person. He is inefficient, and interrupts me at least hourly to talk at length about matters that are already resolved. I typically rush to get as much done as I can before he arrives, because I know that my day will be at least 60% devoted to unproductive time when he arrives. That leaves late nights and weekends to avoid missing deadlines. As a result, my work is not as good as it could be, and others have become reluctant to staff me on matters where I would get broader experience, which makes me less equipped to handle broader work, and the cycle continues. I know that in a lot of situations the answer is to ask to be moved to other matters, which I have done. But this partner resents this other work, and does not accommodate it. Also, no one else is willing to take on any of his work, so there is no one available to help out if I work on other things.

I am young enough to change trajectories. I have the opportunity to jump to another firm that is nationally recognized as a leader in our area, and to work with a partner who is widely regarded as a rising star. I would also be working on matters that would develop a broader skill set. Pay is probably the same, maybe a slight increase.

What's the catch? First, I would be leaving my current firm's HQ, and the relationships and capital I've built there, to become literally one of thousands in another organization's branch offices. My chances for partnership would be significantly reduced (although it's far from a sure thing now). Second, the new firm has a reputation for being pretty demanding, and my quality of life outside the office, such as it is, is unlikely to improve and could become significantly worse (think going from staying to 10 a few nights a week to staying to midnight-2 am on a regular basis). I would rather stay late because the work demands it rather than because I spent 3-4 hours on unnecessary meetings, however. Third, I would stop developing my subspecialized knowledge, which is kind of a double edged sword.

I'm inclined to make the jump, but I'm worried that my desire to get out of a bad situation could put me in a worse one. I'd appreciate any thoughts on what I might be overlooking or overemphasizing, or any advice from people who have faced a similar choice.

Thanks.

Should I call the person that interviewed me?

mamamia88 — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:55:07 -0800

I had an interview today for a sales job and agreed to do a 5 hour training course today. I decided against it not long after. I left a message with the main company should I call the actual interviewer person? Ok so I had an interview today for a sales job that was straight commission today. Well basically the guy told me that I had the job if i wanted it without really asking me any questions. He told me I would do 5 hours of training and make a crap load of money. Well I'm pretty sure he's hiring anyone who's showing up and it sounded way too good to be true and honestly I was only taking the interview for practice. Well he asked me if i wanted to sit through the training and see how it goes and I said sure. Well anyway I don't really want to do it so I called the number that goes to the main branch and they forward all calls to the right people. Well I told them that I didn't think it was for me and they asked for my name and time I was scheduled for training and said they would forward on the message. Should I call again tomorrow morning before the training would start and tell the guy personally or am I good?

Please help me plot my escape from Retail!

seraph9 — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 08:09:59 -0800

I need help focusing my job search, finding something decent with a degree but very little relevant work experience, and keeping from getting too discouraged in the process. So I know the economy is bad and everything, but feel like I need some external direction / tips on finding a job. I'm currently working at a supermarket deli. This was a great job while getting my degree in Anthropology / Archeology (gradated in 2008) but now I would really like to find something more challenging.

I have minimal work experience due to having severe depression/ social phobia before college. I had a few receptionist / administrative assistant positions that I got through family connections that I try to play up on my resume but none of them were more than a year.

I have decided not to pursue Archeology due to most of the jobs disappearing (including those of my best professional connections) and just rethinking the lifestyle - living out of motels all the time, working long hours for little pay and never knowing where to find the next job. Does this mean I have to have to go back to school for something else entirely?

I'm not sure what I want to do long-term. For now, I just want to get out of retail. I've been applying for receptionist jobs for almost a year with no call backs. I tried the best temp agency in the area and was told I'm not qualified for receptionist work because I have so little experience. The best they can offer me is filing or data entry. How can I get experience if no one will give me a job?

I've applied for positions like cultural diversity assistant at an university with no response.

My home university basically gave me a "What you can do with this degree" handout, but I have no idea how to transition from retail-working Anthropology graduate to marketing, for example.

I have been considering trying to make a living off of Textbroker or pet-sitting or something because no one will hire me.

So....please help! I am being treated for the depression and anxiety, but this is a very big trigger for me. I have tried and given up several times, but don't want to give up anymore for fear of spending the rest of my life working in a supermarket. Any suggestions on what to do, avenues to pursue or tips on overcoming discouragement are all welcome! Thank you!

How did you find your first "real" job that led to your career?

sunrisecoffee — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:55:48 -0800

I don't know how to find a job. I made good grades in college. I've done some good internships. Usually once I get to the interview process, I get offered a job. I just don't know where to start with my job search. Looking for anecdotal advice. How did you get your first break into the career you wanted?

News analysis

tavegyl — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:11:09 -0800

I need to do a rough and ready news analysis. I want to go to a specific news site and see the frequency of certain words and phrases before and after a certain date. Ideally, I'd be able to do this in a slightly more complex way, with combinations of words and phrases. I want to do this for free. Does such a tool exist? Say a particular politician was always considered a bit of a clown. After he saves a small child from drowning, the way in which he was spoken of in a particular news outlet shifts so he's now spoken of as a serious candidate. I want to fiddle around with a tool which would let me see if there has been such a shift.

Is this something that exists?

(I know I saw something which did something similar developed by some American university. I requested a trial and never heard back. All memory of URL, search terms etc has subsequently been wiped, argh.)

How to automate 4 different web searches for the same query?

sdis — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:47:03 -0800

I'm learning a language (Hungarian) and I look up new words in a bunch of websites (2 dictionaries, Google images inside of Google Translate, Forvo.com). In general, I just copy and paste each word into the URLs, but there must be some way of clicking a button and searching all four websites at once. Is there? Here are the huge URLs, all searching for a generic search term, XXXXX:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=hu&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.hu%2Fsearch%3Fq%3DXXXXX%26num%3D10%26hl%3Dhu%26tbo%3Dd%26site%3Dimghp%26tbm%3Disch%26sout%3D1%26biw%3D1075%26bih%3D696

http://www.forvo.com/word/XXXXX/#hu

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=hu&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fhu.wiktionary.org%2Fwiki%2FXXXXX

http://szotar.sztaki.hu/en/search?fromlang=hun&tolang=eng&searchWord=XXXXX&langcode=en&u=0&langprefix=en%2F&searchMode=WORD_PREFIX&viewMode=full&ignoreAccents=0

One thing that *may* prove tricky is that Hungarian uses some nonstandard characters, like ű and ő.

How to keep video links from clogging google search results?

Wet Spot — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:13:20 -0800

How can I prevent video results from showing up in a Google search? For example, if I do a google search on "picasa os x 10.6.8 screen resolution", half the links on the first results page are youtube videos. If I want videos I can select "videos" instead of "web". But I can't figure out how to prevent videos from showing up in a regular web search. (I'm running Firefox on a MacBook Pro 10.6.8; I get the same results using Chrome.)

How to find scraped product reviews on my own sites.

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:10:40 -0800

I work on a number of e-commerce websites. Of the ~6000 product reviews we have, a healthy percentage of them were manually scraped from other sites before my time. However, there is no indication and no log of which ones were scraped. I now need to embark on the pleasant task of finding which ones were scraped and removing them from our sites.

Google can certainly help here by searching for review text. I can do this programmatically, but given daily API limits (100 requests a day) that would take awhile.

My current thought was to generate a list of links to likely review sources that use their in-site search for the specific products and then manually review the results. This is still going to be excessively manual. I'm looking for ideas or strategies on automating this process as much as possible.

How to make Google Reader search return complete results?

slashee — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:42:07 -0800

I subscribe to a lot of feeds via Google Reader. Whenever I use the search function, I get incomplete results, even if I narrow the search to only starred items, for example. How can I get Reader to show all items that match my search? I use Windows and Firefox.

Where can I find this old pamphlet?

mattbucher — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:50:32 -0800

I am looking for a copy of a 1938 pamphlet called "Gratitude" written by Dr. Harry L. James of Chicago. There was a copy on Ebay, but it's sold now. Any chance I could find another copy (or PDF) of this thing? I would also be interested in any other pamphlets or works by Harry L. James. He had an innovative (for the time) method of treating epilepsy via mail. Might his pamphlets be listed in any research databases or is there some way that I could access them through a library database?

Should I mention how little pay I would work for?

WCF — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:31:51 -0800

I'm willing to work an internship for little or no pay. Should I mention this fact or would it come off as desperate and unprofessional? There is a small, local software company in California that I'm really interested in working with. I have also applied to other companies, but this one is particularly interesting to me. I'm in a fortunate position where I can afford to work for little-to-nothing, I have a light college load in computer science, and I really want the experience. I do believe I meet the qualifications for a position.

I figure that an extra person at low monetary cost might be appealing to a small company. Should I include this bit when reaching out to them, or would it come off as desperate or unprofessional? If I do mention this, how could I best bring it up?

Finding quality events when traveling.

blueyellow — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 09:28:35 -0800

This is kind of a search question. If you were going somewhere and wanted to know what interesting/fun events might be going on there how would you search for it? What sites would you use? What strategy would you take to figure out what was something significant vs something small and local? How would you assess the quality and what event categories do you think would be useful? If you could use some sort of data mining and could have the computer do some of the work what would you do in addition/ instead? For example, would you mine twitter feeds or facebook pages?