12 ms·

The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare t

The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Eg if you have a family, long commute etc. And if they already are an excellent programmer and hitting all expectations, why should they do this? In fact, an employee who’s spending 5-6 hours/day on side projects might not be the best person for the company. I don’t think recruiters look all that deeply either, I think you could game this by writing some docs or readme corrections to all of the top projects on github and get the PRs accepted.

jasoncartwright 8y ago
> most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job I keep hearing this. Do you have any data to back it up?
- jve 8y ago
  Count me as a data point. I have a family, children, relatives, friends and a house to keep in order. And some other things that takes time.
sanxiyn 8y ago
Where is pushback against using degrees as an important hiring signal, given many people are not privileged with enough money to go to the university? Where?
- albertgoeswoof 8y ago
  Literally this article, and all the other comments and posts about how useless a computer science degree is for hiring, and how we should all go to boot camps. I actually have a comp sci degree (and learned a tonne) but I know former classmates who skipped through without learning to program properly at all.
  - sanxiyn 8y ago
    Still, I confidently bet someone without GitHub profile has easier time in hiring market than someone without a degree.
- chaosite 8y ago
  This is why scholarships exist and significant effort is being made at getting everyone a chance to attend university.
chatmasta 8y ago
You’re making a false equivalence. GitHub can both be good for the privileged, and the underprivileged can use GitHub as an equalizer. The only way to guarantee they cannot use GitHub as an equalizer is for every hiring manager to ignore GitHub profiles. Look at the candidate, whatever they choose to present as their experience and resume, and make a decision based on that. Don’t ignore anything they send you and don’t discount them because they didn’t send you something that someone else did.
josteink 8y ago
> The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Like most people I know, I use open source software in my day-to-day job even though I work in a company who provides proprietary software and services. That means that when I do encounter errors or bugs in those open source components and libraries I can make the choice to either write workarounds locally in my code, or I can choose to submit patches back upstream. That’s not a matter of privilege. That’s a matter of choice. I also think it’s reflective of a developer’s attitude: does he prefer things done “properly”, or will he just hack together something which works? Will he share his solutions or not?
- albertgoeswoof 8y ago
  That’s often not your choice, your employer needs to give you the time and in some cases permission to do it.
  - josteink 8y ago
    If your company allows you to use buggy components but doesn’t allow you to fix bugs... Then that’s a company with some pretty serious problems, and it’s going to show in all of their products. If you as a developer decides to stay in that company then that will also reflect on you.
    - albertgoeswoof 8y ago
      Oh right yes I’ll just quit my job and not pay my mortgage so I can work for a company that has great values.
      - josteink 8y ago
        I'm not telling you what to do, or saying you should quit your job and leave your life in ruins over company values. I'm just telling you how perception by association works. Your choices are entirely your own.
swiley 8y ago
If your commute is on a straight enough road you could probably do it then using an ssh app on your phone. /s

jasoncartwright 8y ago

> most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job I keep hearing this. Do you have any data to back it up?

jve 8y ago
Count me as a data point. I have a family, children, relatives, friends and a house to keep in order. And some other things that takes time.

sanxiyn 8y ago

Where is pushback against using degrees as an important hiring signal, given many people are not privileged with enough money to go to the university? Where?

albertgoeswoof 8y ago
Literally this article, and all the other comments and posts about how useless a computer science degree is for hiring, and how we should all go to boot camps. I actually have a comp sci degree (and learned a tonne) but I know former classmates who skipped through without learning to program properly at all.
- sanxiyn 8y ago
  Still, I confidently bet someone without GitHub profile has easier time in hiring market than someone without a degree.
chaosite 8y ago
This is why scholarships exist and significant effort is being made at getting everyone a chance to attend university.

chatmasta 8y ago

You’re making a false equivalence. GitHub can both be good for the privileged, and the underprivileged can use GitHub as an equalizer. The only way to guarantee they cannot use GitHub as an equalizer is for every hiring manager to ignore GitHub profiles. Look at the candidate, whatever they choose to present as their experience and resume, and make a decision based on that. Don’t ignore anything they send you and don’t discount them because they didn’t send you something that someone else did.

josteink 8y ago

> The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Like most people I know, I use open source software in my day-to-day job even though I work in a company who provides proprietary software and services. That means that when I do encounter errors or bugs in those open source components and libraries I can make the choice to either write workarounds locally in my code, or I can choose to submit patches back upstream. That’s not a matter of privilege. That’s a matter of choice. I also think it’s reflective of a developer’s attitude: does he prefer things done “properly”, or will he just hack together something which works? Will he share his solutions or not?

albertgoeswoof 8y ago
That’s often not your choice, your employer needs to give you the time and in some cases permission to do it.
- josteink 8y ago
  If your company allows you to use buggy components but doesn’t allow you to fix bugs... Then that’s a company with some pretty serious problems, and it’s going to show in all of their products. If you as a developer decides to stay in that company then that will also reflect on you.
  - albertgoeswoof 8y ago
    Oh right yes I’ll just quit my job and not pay my mortgage so I can work for a company that has great values.
    - josteink 8y ago
      I'm not telling you what to do, or saying you should quit your job and leave your life in ruins over company values. I'm just telling you how perception by association works. Your choices are entirely your own.

swiley 8y ago

If your commute is on a straight enough road you could probably do it then using an ssh app on your phone. /s