[LRUG] To do or not to do

[Vahagn Hayrapetyan]

Micky,-

thanks a lot for your post; excellent insights.

I talk to people who would love to have someone do a quick job and can’t
> afford to hire – so I’d love to connect anyone who wants this kind of thing,
> just get in touch.
>
What'ya got? Just drop me an email. I'm interested in any interesting
projects, regardless of duration.

Best,
Vahagn


On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:17 AM, <ruby-people at ruby-people.com> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> Dear Vahagn,
>
>
>
> I do agree with what Matt and Luis have said. I would add just a few more
> thoughts.
>
>
>
> From an onlooker’s perspective, the challenges faced by developers looking
> for new opportunities are not dissimilar from other skilled workers. A
> potential employer wants assurances that they are hiring someone who can do
> what their CV says they have done. Almost every interview I have attended
> has had this aspect to it. My background is in editorial science, and in the
> interview for my previous job I took a genetics test and I was asked to
> write a short article on a scientific subject during the interview.
>
>
>
> From an open source developer’s (and recruiter’s) perspective the situation
> is different in that a potential employer measures the candidate’s ability
> and enthusiasm for the job by their contribution to the open source
> community and the availability of their work in cyberspace. Put simply, they
> expect to Google you. Employers consider an open source developer to be an
> open source contributor. I think this kind of expectation is unfair and the
> standards are too specific. It creates a hurdle for excellent developers who
> are not active in the open source community for one of a number of reasons.
> In this instance an employer might ask for sample codes from previous
> employment, but even here a developer may be restricted by privacy laws from
> sharing this. In this scenarios I have found developers can get very
> discouraged and despondent, and it can appear there is no light at the end
> of the tunnel.
>
>
>
> For those in this predicament, here are a few suggestions for getting by:
>
>
>
> -         Remember you are not alone. It is not (most of the time) because
> you are a poor developer, but because you have not yet had the opportunity
> to demonstrate your ability. And there are many others in the same situation
> as you.
>
>
>
> -         Look for opportunities where you can work on some kind of
> commercial project, either your own one, or with a company on lower benefits
> than you might normally demand, or perhaps even a voluntary role. I talk to
> people who would love to have someone do a quick job and can’t afford to
> hire – so I’d love to connect anyone who wants this kind of thing, just get
> in touch.
>
>
>
> -         Consider working abroad for a short while. Sometimes a stint
> abroad where RoR skills are scarce might be all you need to market yourself
> better.
>
>
>
> -         Don’t stop learning – it may be the difference between you and
> another (stale) developer. Keep your development skills sharp, and an
> employer will know you are worth hiring because you have enthusiasm even if
> you haven’t had the opportunity to work on a savvy commercial project.
>
>
>
> Best
>
>
>
> Micky
>
> micky at ruby-people.com
>
>
>
>
> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature
> database 3991 (20090407) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chat mailing list
> Chat at lists.lrug.org
> http://lists.lrug.org/listinfo.cgi/chat-lrug.org
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.lrug.org/pipermail/chat-lrug.org/attachments/20090407/1c77276e/attachment-0003.html>