in reply to Re: Personal Recommendations instead of Certificates?
in thread Personal Recommendations instead of Certificates?

1. I would never recognize the real names of most of the PerlMonkers. You see, I just met Corion on YAPC::EU and if he did not say his Perlmonks ID I would not connect the person with the ID. Knowing how most of the people are humble here, I think most of them won't mention this in a job interview.

2. Do you always and only work at places where there is a Perlmonk/CPAN author/etc... working? What if you are supposed to be the first "good Perl developer"?

3. There are only a few thousand people in the core Perl community. They can only work in so many places. What about other companies? How can they select from the other ~ 99% Perl users which one of them are better?

  • Comment on Re^2: Personal Recommendations instead of Certificates?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^3: Personal Recommendations instead of Certificates?
by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Oct 19, 2007 at 15:35 UTC
    1. Under the Interests section in my resume, I have my Perlmonks handle listed. Interviewers have led off with a question about that.
    2. I didn't say there had to be a Perlmonk/CPAN author/etc there first. I said they had to recognize why those were important things. That means that the philosophy of the group I'm going to be working in is closely aligned to my own where it counts.
    3. Most companies don't deserve to survive. Those that do will make a concerted effort to recruit the minimum level to do what they perceive is in their best interests. If those interests include "Solid Perl development", then they will plug themselves into the community and be noticed. I'm working for a company right now that did exactly that. Two years ago, they had no solid Perl devs. Now, they have 3 with a 4th being trained. Perl development was something that their business now needed.

      If you're not going to make an effort to find me, then why should I bother working for you? I code because I love it. If I just wanted a 9-5 that I can depend on for 40 years, I wouldn't be a coder. I'd go work at the local Honda plant - they have better hours, better benefits, and I am still making something.

    Here's the point - most companies suck at business. Frankly, it's amazing to me that the economy even works. That said, I want to work somewhere that meets the following criteria:
    • Is building interesting things
    • Has other interesting and smart people for me to work with
    • Requires me to work on OSS projects on company time
    • Requires me to contribute patches back to OSS projects being used for company projects
    • Compensates me according to my skills, experience, and contributions
    If the company also does 100% telecommute, I'm probably sold. And, yes, there are dozens of companies out there that meet those criteria. Your friends probably know several of them. My last 3 jobs were found solely through word-of-mouth. I was kinda surprised that I even had to interview for my current job - I hadn't done interviews for my last 2 jobs. If you're getting recommended or hired by close friends, interviews aren't needed.
    My criteria for good software:
    1. Does it work?
    2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
[reply]
      So it works for you. Great.

      Not everyone is like you.

[reply]
        What part of what I've done is so incredible that no-one else can emulate it? I've done nothing special, other than actually put some effort into my chosen craft. I'm a little surprised at that response.
        My criteria for good software:
        1. Does it work?
        2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?
[reply]

In Section Meditations