You remember how your boss told you when you were hired that you shouldn't go around discussing your salary with other employees because some of them were making less than you and you didn't want to make them feel bad? Yeah, you knew there was a good chance that wasn't true, but hey, company policy is company policy, so you... yeah, who are we kidding, first chance you got you went and compared your salary with all of your coworkers.

Glassdoor is kind of like that. But on the web. And anonymous. Anyone can submit a job title and salary for a position they currently or formerly held. You can also submit reviews of the company or the CEO. All reviews and salary submissions are anonymous, but if you're the only software engineer who worked at a small company for the last 3 years, you might want to think twice before giving away any trade secrets.

You need to register to get full access to the site. Registration is free, but you do need to submit a salary report, which helps build Glassdoor's databse. As a teaser, anyone can view data from Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Cisco.

Keep in mind, Glassdoor's data is all user generated. Some people may be lying about their salaries, or even about where they work. And the site is very new, having just launched this morning. So there's a good chance your company isn't even listed yet. But if Glassdoor catches on, and given the way people like to gossip about salaries, we think it probably will, the service could become a crucial part of your next job hunt.

[via The Inquisitor]

Get Yourself Fired is a site that lets you upload a picture of your face and insert it into one of about 25 various compromising pictures (that would theoretically get you fired if your boss found them). The site was created by itzbig, a company that specializes in letting job candidates anonymously search for jobs at technology firms.

Like FaceinHole, Get Yourself Fired accepts JPEGs which you then align to a face sketch so that your face can be properly matched to whichever picture you choose. However, Get Yourself Fired doesn't let you use a webcam to cut out the uploading step.

When your picture is created, you can email it to your boss (or yourself), and then you can peruse some time wasters while you wait to be fired.

Admit it: all your life you've coasted through because of your overwhelming good looks. But how is that going to help you in a job search when they want you to send in a paper resume with no photo whatsoever?

Enter VideoJobShop, a site where employers and job seekers can post videos online. For employers, this is a chance to advertise the benefits of being an employee of their company. For job seekers, this is your chance to display your beautiful mug to prospective employers, in real web 2.0 style.

VideoJobShop is not only a place to post video resumes (though of course you can do that if you wish). Maybe you looking for a dancing job, and have a few customized moves to show off. Well, here's your chance. Shoot and upload your video, and watch the requests come flooding in.

We checked out a lot of the videos from prospective employers (which seems to make up the majority of the videos on the site). They ranged wildly in quality and production value, from someone speaking in front of an online cam to highly polished commercials.

If you're in the market for a job or an employee, VideoJobShop provides an interesting means to those ends.

[via Mashable]

With its profits sagging, and a disappointing outlook for 2008, it seemed that Yahoo! had no choice but to announce the inevitable: a cut of 1,000 jobs, scheduled to take place in mid-February.

It seems that even a corporate giant such as Yahoo! can spread itself too thin. Along with the job cut, Yahoo! plans to focus more sharply on online advertising, that Xanadu of web companies everywhere, and deemphasize or discontinue a number of other services, including photos, podcasts, and its unsuccessful social network.

Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, maintains that the company will be focused on three goals: becoming the launching pad for consumers on the web, making Yahoo a top choice for online advertisers, and opening Yahoo!'s technology to third-party development. To that end, Yahoo'!s focus has narrowed to search, mail, news, finance, and sports -- services that are always in demand.

Here's hoping that Yahoo!'s growing pains are quick and relatively trouble-free.

[via New York Times]

People applying for federal jobs recently had their personal information stolen by a crafty hacker that nailed the USAJobs web site, operated by the Office of Personnel Management. Some 146,000 job applicants hoping to get a job with the fed instead may find themselves the victims of identity theft. Although the fed insists no social security numbers were compromised, the information stolen is still quite valuable.

Security experts (people who, like O.J., speculate how they would've accomplished an illegal feat "if they did it") believe that the information stolen will be used to phish additional information from Monster.com subscribers (the USAJobs web site is powered by Monster--the inspiration for our blue friend in the picture). So, if you've applied for a federal job recently using USAJobs, it might be wise to use caution when corresponding with Monster by e-mail or web. Office of Personnel Management is sending letters to subscribers to alert them of possible counterfeit e-mails. Individuals who receive a suspicious e-mail regarding a federal job search should forward the e-mail to mayday@fedjobs.gov.

Love WordPress? Know how to set up, hack or write plug-ins for it? Then perhaps you might be interested in finding a WordPress Job. Hosted at jobs.wordpress.net (but apparently run by Automattic, developers of the now default WordPress widgets plug-in), WordPress Jobs is a pretty straightforward site hosting job offers for those who need WordPress ninjas of every order. Heck, there are even a few blogging jobs up there, and one (as of this writing) is paying $5/post for a web 2.0 blogger. The two most populated categories right now are General Positions and Programmer Positions, but each of the categories offer RSS feeds to help you stay on top of that next killer WordPress gig.

VMware has their sights set on programmers. This comes in the midst of VMware's IPO last week, and has upped the anti to make sure they get the best possible computer programming talent around.

After VMware's first day of trading their shares jumped 76%, making it the biggest IPO since Google. Now with Google being the top company that programmers are hunting due to their compensations and lifestyle, VMware has stepped in and flashed the green. Reports are that the company is paying out between $130,000 and $160,000 plus stock options and compensations. With Google being the only company on the block that can even come close to these salaries and benefits, there is war about to start in Silicon Valley.

VMware, a virtualization solution company, realizes how Google made it to where they are today, with smart people. And the only way to lure top talent is to offer them competitive compensations.

DLS asks, Who would you choose to work for?

Could Google possibly buy another company? You bet, there is always room inside the what seems to be the hollow halls of the Googleplex.

Rumors are getting passed around about a purchase of SimplyHired, the job search engine. SimplyHired, who just raised $13M from NewsCorp has over 2 million monthly uniques, which is a perfect traffic amount to make a sizable income from Google's AdWords. Can anyone count the number of companies Google has bought this year on one hand?

SimplyHired has been focused on building the largest online database of jobs on the planet, making it a simple and easy to use location for jobhunters.

[via TechCrunch]

There's no beans about it, Google is rumored to be hunting out a location for a newly planned Boston area facility. They currently occupy a small office in the Cambridge area that houses mainly sales and engineering people but are looking to expand.

Cambridge is on the top of the list for Google's planned 100,000 to 200,000 square feet of office space. Compare that to the recent opening of Google's New York office which encompasses a 300,000 square foot facility, you know they are going to be hiring a bunch of new bodies to occupy space. Check out Google's job board for a list of 15 current openings if you're interested in working with this search giant.

There is a ton of excitement about the official release of Windows Vista at the end of the month (okay, I'm exaggerating). Nothing is more exciting than how many jobs it will bring with it. No, Microsoft will not be hiring on staff to fix all of the potential errors and holes in it, but they did do a study on the impact of the release. Microsoft came to the conclusion that the launch will see close to 5,000 new jobs in the technology field for the state of Massachusetts alone. This is said to equal $2 billion in revenue for the industry. Where will the money and new jobs come from? Consumers, including businesses might require individuals to install the software. Then staff will have to be trained on using the new software environment. Add in another 6,500 companies in the state that will be involved in this equation by producing, selling and distributing Vista related products and services. Now on to discovering how many new individuals Microsoft is hiring on to fix potential issues with the new OS.

The dust is just starting to settle around Moscone West in SF, so while everybody is enjoying their post-Stevenote cigarette ("Was it good for you?") here's some details on Apple's new announcements.

First up - the State of iTunes address. To date, 2 billion songs have been sold on iTunes, current rate is over 5 million a day. Over 50 million TV shows and 1.3 million movies have been purchased and downloaded, yow! So to top all of that good news, Apple announced that Paramount will be bringing their stable of movies to the iTunes store. I don't know about you, but I'm totally psyched to buy Wrath of Khan once it's available.

Second, the Apple TV (formerly iTV). It's a set-top box (rather than an actual TV), will cost $299 and is shipping next month. Lots of goodness packed into a teensy box - USB 2.0, 40GB HD, WiFi & ethernet, HDMI and component video, analog and digital (optical) audio out, 802.11b/g/n, and the ability to stream content from up to 5 computers (Mac and PC). Be forewarned, it only outputs a 720p video signal, so it may be time to upgrade your TV as well.

Third, one for the history books, the iPhone. Yes, it's very real, and it looks very cool. Time to finally put all of those iPhone/widescreen iPod/Mac Tablet rumors to rest. Available through Cingular starting in June it will come in two models, 4GB ($499 w/ 2 year contract) and 8 GB ($599 w/ 2 year contract). The four main functionalities are phone, iPod (including video), mail and web browsing. It features quad-band GSM, EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, a 2 megapixel camera, an accelerometer to switch to landscape mode as you rotate the phone, full touchscreen display, and it runs Mac OS X. It is capable of running full desktop applications, so I expect to see lots of iPhone 'hacks' and neat things that people come up with. It has IMAP and POP3 support, features Safari as its Web browser, Google Maps support and of course Widgets! Battery life is reported to be 5 hours (ouch) but can run up to 16 hours for just audio. Check out the iPhone gallery over at Engadget for more pictures.

Also check out the keynote coverage from Engadget and TUAW!

Proving that job interviews are as formulaic as you think, (Where do YOU see yourself in 5 years?), InterviewStream has launched a new job interview prep web site called InterviewTRUE.

The idea is that you sit in front of a Internet-connected computer with a webcam and microphone and answer questions as if you were in a real job interview. When you're done, you can playback your job interview and find out why you keep getting passed up for promotion.

There are over a thousand possible questions on the site. You can either preselect a group of questions, or be all gutsy (and realistic) and answer a random assortment. An interviewer will pop up on screen and when he/she is done asking questions, your webcam will automatically start recording. You'll have two minute to reply, but if you're not happy with your answer, you can hit a button and start over.

When you're done, the whole thing gets uploaded to InterviewStream's servers, and the company will email you a link to watch the completed video. This seems a bit weird at first, like they're planning on doing something nefarious with the video. And maybe they are, but the official reason the video is uploaded rather than saved on your computer is so you can share it with friends, family, colleagues, career counselors, etc for constructive feedback. Of course, if you have these people in your life, maybe you should just ask them to sit down and ask you questions.

InterviewStream's been providing a similar service for college students for some time, but InterviewTRUE is open to the public. There's a free trial that provides you with 24 hours of access to the site. You can also buy 6 month or 1 year subscriptions.

Oh yeah, and as of now, not only is InterviewTRUE Windows XP only, but you need .NET Framework 2.0, Windows Media Player 9, and if you try to visit the site using Firefox you get a friendly note telling you that some features will only work with Internet Explorer.

Yahoo! is following Google's lead, and entering into traditional media, specifically newspapers. Yahoo! is teaming up with seven US newspaper publishers that own 170 daily newspapers to deliver local advertising and search services to online readers. The deal allows any newspaper advertiser that lists jobs in print to also have the ability to post on Yahoo!'s HotJobs. The newspapers' sites will also be co-branded with the HotJobs logo. This partnership is aimed at creating a strong local job network to allow recruiters to reach a much larger audience. The effort is not only helping the stagnant newspaper market achieve success online, but it also might prove that Google is not the only company that can shift focus into the offline world. Succeeding at it, however, is another story.

Ever wonder what Steve Jobs would look like in something other than his signature black shirt and blue jeans get-up? Wonder no longer, courtesy of Geek Culture's Joy of Tech enjoy the trip to a magical place known as the Dress-Up Sally Steve website. I literally laughed my ass off (take that South Beach). I suppose the Steve I ended up with looks a bit more like Zaphod Beeblebrux than I intended, but so what? The iPod is supposed to be liberating right? Check this geeky time waster for a good laugh (when the boss isn't looking). I love all the different clothes that feature aspects of Apple history or culture like the mac boxers and the space suit with the Apple logo on it. Apple hardware...$2700. Being able to dress up a Apple-wielding millionaire for his keynote speech, priceless.