Wednesday
Sep072005
DHH: Reduce the risk, hire from open source
Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 7:58AM
Dave Heinemeier Hanson of Ruby On Rails and 37signals fame posted an interesting tidbit about how companies should be hiring people: Reduce the risk, hire from open source. I think is a fantastic idea.
Unfortunately, most companies don't work the way 37signals does. As far as I can tell, they are a hardcore Ruby shop. Not all employers have such clear platform choices, nor are they interested in moving a developer from Anytown, USA. Their managers also might not be OSS savvy.
The people doing the hiring should definitely be using Google to search for discussions or contributions that potential employees have made. Participation in online communities or personal open source projects are excellent barometers of an individuals capabilities. If they are more in touch with open source, they can examine the challenges undertaken by an applicant and gauge the contributions they've made. They should also leverage public code to ascertain what kind of work would be produced. As their familiarity with the OSS world increases, they can bring themselves closer to DHH's recommendations. He is certainly on to something.
Unfortunately, most companies don't work the way 37signals does. As far as I can tell, they are a hardcore Ruby shop. Not all employers have such clear platform choices, nor are they interested in moving a developer from Anytown, USA. Their managers also might not be OSS savvy.
The people doing the hiring should definitely be using Google to search for discussions or contributions that potential employees have made. Participation in online communities or personal open source projects are excellent barometers of an individuals capabilities. If they are more in touch with open source, they can examine the challenges undertaken by an applicant and gauge the contributions they've made. They should also leverage public code to ascertain what kind of work would be produced. As their familiarity with the OSS world increases, they can bring themselves closer to DHH's recommendations. He is certainly on to something.
(Via Loud Thinking.)
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