How To Hire Great Open Source Developers?

An anonymous reader writes "This is the first article I've ever read specifically about hiring open source developers, and how to judge their ability not just to code but to work with others. It's reprinted over at ITMJ [part of OSDN, as this site is] from a book by Martin Fink, the General Manager for HP's Linux Systems Division. Brings up a lot of good points, including how you need to make sure your open source people are developing things (on company time) that do the company some good, not just scratching their own itches. Fun quote: 'Discover what pseudonyms your candidate uses online. Look at the archives at SlashDot and other online locales. Does your candidate hide behind secret pseudonyms to trash other individuals? Is there passion without condemnation?'"

Comments

Search Slashdot for their posting behavior?

[ObviousGuy]

Oh shit.

Re:Search Slashdot for their posting behavior?

[ObviousGuy]

Maybe you should have posted that AC.

Idiot.

Hmm, I dunno.

[samcentral2000]

"Discover what pseudonyms your candidate uses online. Look at the archives at SlashDot and other online locales. Does your candidate hide behind secret pseudonyms to trash other individuals? Is there passion without condemnation?" Hmm, I dunno. Sounds like someone might get disqualified just the project-manager doesn't like their opinions. /. writes about more than just OSS you know.

Re:Hmm, I dunno.

[moranar]

I shouldn't have to say this, but "ideally" (in planet Nice, with the pink fluffy rabbits) a project manager would take note about wether you hide behind a nickname to flame and troll, wether you were quick to anger, etc. (the qualities that make you less fit for a job involving human relationships) and not your opinions.

The downside: some OSS / FS grand masters would probably _never_ be hired based on what they say on /. . Of course, this shouldn't be the only criterion, but still...

Of course, this isn't planet Nice, and your opinions will become known sooner or later. One is what one is, after all. Holding strong opinions or beliefs was never meant to be easy. But if you don't want to be judged by what you say, (hint hint) don't say it on the net.

Re:Hmm, I dunno.

[Alomex]

I shouldn't have to say this, but "ideally" (in planet Nice, with the pink fluffy rabbits) a project manager would take note about wether you hide behind a nickname to flame and troll, wether you were quick to anger, etc. (the qualities that make you less fit for a job involving human relationships) and not your opinions.

I don't know if the comparison is relevant. It is a bit like trying to predict how you will behave in a business meeting judging from a tape of the football game you attended with your buddies last weekend. Not much can be inferred, if you ask me. /. is an informal forum of peers. Work is a professional setting with colleagues. Sure, extremely aggressive behaviour in /. is unlikely to be curtailed when at work, but if we are to extend this to general pettiness, I think this pretty much would disqualify anybody who ever posted or moderated here in /.

What not to do

[tankdilla]

How to not get hired for an open source project:

Boss: What's your Slashdot screen name?
Employee: Anonymous Coward.

Re:What not to do

[The Famous Brett Wat]

How to not get hired for an open source project:

Boss: What's your Slashdot screen name?
Employee: The correct Slashdot term is "nickname", you ignorant AOLer!

Good article, but one thing irritates me

[Underholdning]

This seems like it was written during the dot-com bubble. Quote from the article: However, that person may also have very clear expectations that the only projects they will ever work on are open source projects. This is simply not true. Being an open source developer is not a religion. It just means that you believe in the idea. There's absolutely no problem for an open source developer to make closed source for a living. And, more importantly, open source developers (and the comunity) has no beef with that.
Remember - we need to eat as well. While open source gives us satisfaction, closed source gives us our daily bread.

Re:Good article, but one thing irritates me

[bsartist]

Being an open source developer is not a religion.

You must be new here...

Open Source projects as a career stepping-stone.

[CharonX]

Bram Cohen (famous maker of Bittorrent) managed had his carrer boosted only because his open source project - Bittorrent.
His current employers saw his work and hired him on the spot...

Animal Psychology

[beware1000]

Culturally, your engineers will struggle between their loyalty to the community and their loyalty to the company.

haha! they make them sounds like confused pets or something.

"Don't be too quick to introduce your Engineer to it's new environment, Engineers are not well known for adapting quickly to change!"

Personal Time

[mccalli]

From the article: "You need to clearly define when and how your engineers can participate in open source projects on their personal time, and define the disclosure rules for your employees. Local employment laws may limit restrictions on your employees."

Damn right law might limit restrictions. My time is mine. Not a company's, mine. That's the very definition of personal time. I am not employee #3877643 away from the office, I am a human being who does work for a company during certain prescribed times and under certain prescribed circumstances.

They might well have legitimate rights over what I can contribute, but certainly not when if 'when' is part of my personal time.

Cheers,
Ian

Google search for any candidate

[akinsgre]

I can't remember where I read it; maybe JoelOnSoftware? Do a google search for any employee, not just open source developers. -greg

It really should have helped me

[DeadSea]

After I started my job, I found out that they had been using my open source GPL Java utilities for about 2 years before I started. (legally, since they depend on them for web servers, but do not distribute their code).

My boss copied them into the source tree, but claims that he never made the connection between using my code and then later hiring me.

Re:Answer: you don't

[standard method]

Now, at the risk of feeding the trolls, I do take exception to this sort of attitude.

There are lots of talented out of work people, be they developers, programmers, graphic designers, musicians, teachers, astrophysicists, lawyers, actors... I could go on, but, you know, I don't really want to. People don't always get hired simply for their skillsets. I've said before that some of the most talented people don't get hired because of a lack of specific skills in other areas. People lose jobs, or lose bids on jobs/contracts, because they can't handle talking to "real people." Obviously that's not the only reason, but that's a big one. My father works for a school board, and there are people who would love to work as a teacher, but are terrible in social situations. On the flip side of things, we have programmers who are less than the most competent people in their literal field that don't get hired because they can't work with other people.

I for one know I wouldn't want to hire someone, regardless of their boundless talent, if they were a flaming dickhead.

Personal experience

[oujirou]

While this might be slightly overkill in the general case, it has helped me once to dig for info on a guy who was trying to get a position in my company. If I didn't do that, I would have hired a skilled programmer and a scientologist at the same time, a person who was totally responsible for at least one major legal conflict.

Just don't let the tin foil obstruct your line of vision. It doesn't really matter what does your applicant blog or do in his spare time as long as he is a fine fellow and a nice specialist.