4 ms·

> I wonder : do you have the same engineer turn over than "regular" companies, that is developers leaving after two or three years max? We don't. Clearly not.

by jbk 6y ago

> I wonder : do you have the same engineer turn over than "regular" companies, that is developers leaving after two or three years max? We don't. Clearly not. People leaving is very rare. But also, our recruitment is very different from normal companies. :)

bergstromm466 6y ago
> our recruitment is very different from normal companies. Please could you share a bit about what your recruitment strategies look like? And do you all work remote?
- rom1v 6y ago
  (I'm an employee at Videolabs) 2~3 years ago, I contacted j-b on IRC and got an interview. This was the first time I used IRC to find a job :)
  - bergstromm466 6y ago
    Hey! Thanks for your response. I research Commons based peer production (including software projects), and I'm curious to know (if you want to share) - if when you reached out you had already contributed code to any of their projects, or if were you up to speed with the code in another way, so that once you were officially hired you could be immediately productive working on the newest issues/new product features?
dueF7un3 6y ago
Nice :) I did expect that much, if only because working on free softwares feels way less pointless than working on yet an other e-commerce company or b2b app fighting to get users through advertisement. Would you mind telling us more about your recruitment process? I'm not in a hiring position myself, but I guess it would be of value for a lot of people here, giving how turn over is a serious blow for everyone.
- jbk 6y ago
  > Would you mind telling us more about your recruitment process? So, in general, I ask 2 main questions: - talk to me about you, what you like and which project you worked on that you liked. - a generic question, that can be a bit misleading, on purpose. Like "What is the difference between TCP and UDP, and is HTTP over TCP or UDP?" for webdevs or "What is the =0 in C++ classes headers? Since NULL and 0 are the same, can I use "=0" here?" for C++ devs, or "How would you improve C if you could?" The first type of questions see if the person truly likes software development, and is not here just because "that's what cool kids do" and that removes a lot of bro-grammer. The second is more to see the generic culture, and if the person was curious enough to look a bit at the core of the technology they are working on. Because there isn't a yes/no answer, you must discuss. And also, I need to meet in person. No 1hr phone-call, no white-board, no multiple meetings, no complex CS question that anyone can prepare. I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude? Finally, the culture, and the political culture of the community must fit. And unfortunately, sometimes that shows on the resume/introduction mail. But to be honest, it's rarely been an issue, except for one intern once.
  - dueF7un3 6y ago
    Thanks for sharing! It sounds like your questions are calibrated to detect if the interviewee is passionate. I totally get that, 15 years ago, it was obvious everyone around was, but those last years I find myself wondering more and more if devs around me didn't get into coding just because "it's a good job", and it looked slightly more interesting than a career in law or commerce. > I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire with them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude? Been there, I feel the pain :) I had briefly a job as a manager, and I knew it was not for me when I started to panic about how to tell people I won't hire them. Still better than to have to fire them, but damn, finding a proper way to say "you're not good enough" or any other reason is brutal. Anyway, thanks for taking the time for sharing all of that with us.

by jbk 6y ago

bergstromm466 6y ago

> our recruitment is very different from normal companies. Please could you share a bit about what your recruitment strategies look like? And do you all work remote?

rom1v 6y ago
(I'm an employee at Videolabs) 2~3 years ago, I contacted j-b on IRC and got an interview. This was the first time I used IRC to find a job :)
- bergstromm466 6y ago
  Hey! Thanks for your response. I research Commons based peer production (including software projects), and I'm curious to know (if you want to share) - if when you reached out you had already contributed code to any of their projects, or if were you up to speed with the code in another way, so that once you were officially hired you could be immediately productive working on the newest issues/new product features?

dueF7un3 6y ago

Nice :) I did expect that much, if only because working on free softwares feels way less pointless than working on yet an other e-commerce company or b2b app fighting to get users through advertisement. Would you mind telling us more about your recruitment process? I'm not in a hiring position myself, but I guess it would be of value for a lot of people here, giving how turn over is a serious blow for everyone.

jbk 6y ago
> Would you mind telling us more about your recruitment process? So, in general, I ask 2 main questions: - talk to me about you, what you like and which project you worked on that you liked. - a generic question, that can be a bit misleading, on purpose. Like "What is the difference between TCP and UDP, and is HTTP over TCP or UDP?" for webdevs or "What is the =0 in C++ classes headers? Since NULL and 0 are the same, can I use "=0" here?" for C++ devs, or "How would you improve C if you could?" The first type of questions see if the person truly likes software development, and is not here just because "that's what cool kids do" and that removes a lot of bro-grammer. The second is more to see the generic culture, and if the person was curious enough to look a bit at the core of the technology they are working on. Because there isn't a yes/no answer, you must discuss. And also, I need to meet in person. No 1hr phone-call, no white-board, no multiple meetings, no complex CS question that anyone can prepare. I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude? Finally, the culture, and the political culture of the community must fit. And unfortunately, sometimes that shows on the resume/introduction mail. But to be honest, it's rarely been an issue, except for one intern once.
- dueF7un3 6y ago
  Thanks for sharing! It sounds like your questions are calibrated to detect if the interviewee is passionate. I totally get that, 15 years ago, it was obvious everyone around was, but those last years I find myself wondering more and more if devs around me didn't get into coding just because "it's a good job", and it looked slightly more interesting than a career in law or commerce. > I have one big issue with recruitment process: when I meet people, after those 2 questions, I can know very quickly that I don't want to hire with them. If we are in the first 5 minutes of the interview, how can I tell them "no" without being too rude? Been there, I feel the pain :) I had briefly a job as a manager, and I knew it was not for me when I started to panic about how to tell people I won't hire them. Still better than to have to fire them, but damn, finding a proper way to say "you're not good enough" or any other reason is brutal. Anyway, thanks for taking the time for sharing all of that with us.