GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
1–10 of 183 posts
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#2The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Eg if you have a family, long commute etc.
And if they already are an excellent programmer and hitting all expectations, why should they do this? In fact, an employee who’s spending 5-6 hours/day on side projects might not be the best person for the company.
I don’t think recruiters look all that deeply either, I think you could game this by writing some docs or readme corrections to all of the top projects on github and get the PRs accepted.
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#3>> At this point, we've heard enough "rags to riches" stories in programming that it becomes difficult to dismiss this as simply "survivorship bias".
I like the rest of the article but this statement is disturbing. There are plenty of great open source projects which never got off the ground in terms of popularity.
Quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity.
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#4>> At this point, we've heard enough "rags to riches" stories in programming that it becomes difficult to dismiss this as simply "survivorship bias". I like the rest of the article but this statement is disturbing. There are plenty of great open source projects which never got off the ground in terms of popularity. Quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity.
How so? Programming is unprecedented in it's power for upwards class mobility. We're just scratching the surface. But it's the only thing we have that:
a) doesn't require a lot of resources to make a meaningful contributions (access to a computer and the internet) that could land you a really good job.
b) it's probably the only industry that doesn't requires formal education. Case in point, only one person at my company has a CS degree, and that's me.
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#5The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Eg if you have a family, long commute etc. And if they already are an excellent programmer and hitting all expectations, why should they do this? In fact, an employee who’s spending 5-6 hours/day on side projects mi…
> most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job
I keep hearing this. Do you have any data to back it up?
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#6As someone without a degree who got the first job based on open source work, this rings true.
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#7The author makes a valid point, however the pushback against using OSS as an important hiring signal, is that most people are not privileged with enough spare time to work on OSS outside of their day job. Eg if you have a family, long commute etc. And if they already are an excellent programmer and hitting all expectations, why should they do this? In fact, an employee who’s spending 5-6 hours/day on side projects mi…
Where is pushback against using degrees as an important hiring signal, given many people are not privileged with enough money to go to the university? Where?
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#8>> At this point, we've heard enough "rags to riches" stories in programming that it becomes difficult to dismiss this as simply "survivorship bias". I like the rest of the article but this statement is disturbing. There are plenty of great open source projects which never got off the ground in terms of popularity. Quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity.
>There are plenty of great open source projects which never got off the ground in terms of popularity
Popularity isn't the real issue - it's, "What can you do?" or, "Show me what you've done."
When interviewers say, "Tell me about yourself," from my own experience, they mean - what can you do? Not hobbies.
Photographers and designers create portfolio websites to get clients (instragram too). Github or OSS provides the same for programmers.
Doctors and other professionals do the same by placing their certificates, awards, certifications on walls for their clients to see. And gain trust.
In summary, the open source project does not have to be popular. It just simply a proof of ability.
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#9>> At this point, we've heard enough "rags to riches" stories in programming that it becomes difficult to dismiss this as simply "survivorship bias". I like the rest of the article but this statement is disturbing. There are plenty of great open source projects which never got off the ground in terms of popularity. Quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity.
> Quality is not necessarily correlated with popularity.
Eh, it definitely is correlated. Maybe you wanted to say correlation is not perfect?
Re: GitHub and Open-Source Is a Boon for the Underprivileged
#10The point people are making about using GitHub profiles for hiring is that it ignores great developers who don't write code outside of their job (that might be due to other interests, family responsibilities, a second job, whatever). The fact this guy is in a position to write code in his spare time just means he's not in that group, and the fact his open source work on Github specifically landed him a job he wanted kind of proves the point people are making.