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GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

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Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Matt, I am the recruiter at GL, I've reviewed your case, and I wanted to follow up personally. I'd like to address your concern and explain our process. Since the time of your interview, we have changed the process of discussing compensation within the first 15 minutes of a conversation to the end of a phone call. We understand it's uncomfortable and sometimes awkward to talk pay when you've just met someone. Hope…

Holy crap, you've just done your company - or if you are an external recruiter, your client - a huge disservice by posting this reply. You've done nothing to assuage future candidates' concerns. You've merely confirmed that your compensation offers, and likely the entire hiring process, is driven by undesirable corporate metrics. This makes GitLab sounds seem like a company that only knows how to regurgitate HR 101 t…

Since the first part of your comment is addressed to Sasha I'll let her reply to it, but to address the second part:

There are multiple people involved in the hiring process here at GitLab, specifically several people who handle phone screens and resumes. The responsibility of vetting doesn't rest solely on one person and is actually a pretty collaborative process in my experience. As an example, I was able to vet every single candidate's resume myself for roles I was involved in hiring for.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap, you've just done your company - or if you are an external recruiter, your client - a huge disservice by posting this reply. You've done nothing to assuage future candidates' concerns. You've merely confirmed that your compensation offers, and likely the entire hiring process, is driven by undesirable corporate metrics. This makes GitLab sounds seem like a company that only knows how to regurgitate HR 101 t…

Since the first part of your comment is addressed to Sasha I'll let her reply to it, but to address the second part: There are multiple people involved in the hiring process here at GitLab, specifically several people who handle phone screens and resumes. The responsibility of vetting doesn't rest solely on one person and is actually a pretty collaborative process in my experience. As an example, I was able to vet ev…

With all due respect, the parent to my comment - an apparent employee at GitLab - said "I am the recruiter at GL". "The recruiter", not "a recruiter" How else is that to be interpreted? With whom does the candidate discuss compensation? This one single recruiter, or the manager of the team with whom the employee would be placed? Why does GitLab have a "recruiter", rather than an "HR employee" or "hiring manager"? The term "recruiter" generally means an external non-employee who is financially compensated for each new hire brought on board. "HR" or "hiring managers" are company employees, given a flat salary irrespective of the number or quality of hires. Which do you have?

Either way, the parent comment is full of language that raises red flags to competent developers. Personally, my first thought is "oh hell no!". It's possible that their comment is not representative of the company's effective policies, but when one perceives this kind of reply as an official stance of the company's standpoint, it is difficult to retract.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also turned off by remote companies that do the same. I work remote and moved to a very low-cost area. That doesn't mean I want a massive pay cut.

What is the advantage to the company in hiring remote workers then? You want your cake and to eat it too?

Not having to deal with operating a physical office (beyond the bare minimum necessary to e.g. be served with a subpoena)?

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#284
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - because, like discord, gitter makes it a point to make privacy very hard to set up. This is fairly deliberate and is the reason why enterprises have a hard time adopting it.

Can you explain how Discord makes privacy hard to set up? Servers by default are private (No one can join or even see the server unless they are invited to it). You can disable people's ability to create invites with a 3 clicks. (disclaimer: work at Discord & fishing for feedback about how we can make this easier)

So, this is related to another comment I made. We are not hosting our own. We want to throw money at discord bringing in enterprise like features in its hosted version.

I linked to a ticket - if you follow that trail, there are many more.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since the first part of your comment is addressed to Sasha I'll let her reply to it, but to address the second part: There are multiple people involved in the hiring process here at GitLab, specifically several people who handle phone screens and resumes. The responsibility of vetting doesn't rest solely on one person and is actually a pretty collaborative process in my experience. As an example, I was able to vet ev…

With all due respect, the parent to my comment - an apparent employee at GitLab - said "I am the recruiter at GL". " The recruiter", not " a recruiter" How else is that to be interpreted? With whom does the candidate discuss compensation? This one single recruiter, or the manager of the team with whom the employee would be placed? Why does GitLab have a "recruiter", rather than an "HR employee" or "hiring manager"? T…

> With all due respect, the parent to my comment - an apparent employee at GitLab - said "I am the recruiter at GL". "The recruiter", not "a recruiter" How else is that to be interpreted?

The way I understood it, at least, was 'the recruiter who handled the interview with "matthewvincent"'. Doesn't imply that there are, or are not, other recruiters at gitlab.

And if so, at least to me it seems honest for said recruiter to come forwards personally, instead of some feel-good mumbo-jumbo from the PR department.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi Matt, I am the recruiter at GL, I've reviewed your case, and I wanted to follow up personally. I'd like to address your concern and explain our process. Since the time of your interview, we have changed the process of discussing compensation within the first 15 minutes of a conversation to the end of a phone call. We understand it's uncomfortable and sometimes awkward to talk pay when you've just met someone. Hope…

I don't understand. Why does Location matter? Does it matter if have 10 kids, or a lease on a Porsche, or 2 alimonies, or live in a McMansion, or my kid has cancer? Are those factors relevant? What makes Location special?

It does not matter how big you are on equal opportunities, work and compensation, when you can use your (cherrypicked) metrics to point your fingers at the market regarding salary discrimination, it would be irresponsible not to do so. Put it another way, if it was legal to discriminate against companies would be all over it.

PS it is not about GitLab, I like their service (even better than GitHub) and it is great they are transparent about compensations. IMO if they were to eliminate location from their calculator they could get the cream of a very big talent pool.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This line of argument is ridiculous. Are software companies pricing their computer programs based on location? Do folks in Ohio get to pay less than folks in New York? What if you hire a great remote developer who lives in San-Jose, then she moves to Kentucky 6 months later, and their contribution is still the same. Why should their pay be adjusted?

Because a huge factor of pay is cost of living. The only reason people in San Jose are getting paid so much is because they are in San Jose and could not survive otherwise. > Are software companies pricing their computer programs based on location? Do folks in Ohio get to pay less than folks in New York? Yes?

I would like to repeat this comment here:

This is the sentiment I usually see but how are one's expenses or expected living standard is relevant regarding compensation for work? Imo it is very hard to argue against equal work => equal pay. At least from a moral pov.

Btw that is a lot of incorrect assumptions about expenses, including where someone's children might want to go to college, globally fixed costs like work equipment and cloud services, not to mention goods which are actually cheaper in the US.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$250/user/year, blocks of 10, min 10 Ouch. If you run your own servers already it's financially worth hosting your own gitlab at the minimum price point. I expect it will be the big orgs who don't move due to integration costs.

Let's be honest, does anyone pay full price beyond 10 users? If there's anything I've learned it's that the word "enterprise" means "negotiable." I suspect they put that out there so they have a place to start without the costly interaction of emails coming in saying "how much for x people."

When their very first price point leaves it cheaper for me to do in house I'm not wasting time negotiating.

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#289
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Senior Backend Engineer shows 85-95k in Chicago, which is below average. It shows 45-55k for Fayetteville -- most junior guys/gals start around 75k in Fayetteville at mediocre companies.

So you could get double your pay by moving from Chicago to San Francisco, or multiply by 6 if you move from Fayetteville to San Francisco. Seems backwards to have such a large incentive to live somewhere more expensive.

Unfortunately, this is the common practice - offer salaries adjusted for the local market. I could keep my current job and move to an office 1500km closer to my parents, but my salary would be slashed in half, because market. But it's pretty funny for remote workers: what if you get hired in SF, but then move to Fayetteville without telling anyone?

Re: GitLab acquires Gitter, will open-source the code

#290
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why did you move from self-hosted to gitlab.com? I run self-hosted and I've been quite happy with it. Cloud anything just seems like begging for this kind of problem.

Great question :) We are a small team so we prefer focusing on writing code than managing our infrastructure. Keeping even just one server secure and up to date is no small task. Additionally, in this particular case, given Gitlab pushes changes pretty often, we wanted to have access to the latest stuff without having to update the self-hosted instance every time (with the added risk of screwing up in the process). I…

Did you consider GitLab's githost.io?
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