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Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#51

Post by pengaru »

charcircuit wrote: post #47
pengaru wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you already work for them for free, why should they pay you? Because they'd like you to do it full-time instead of only in your spare time?

But why not hire someone else to do it full time so you have full time + part time.

Because the part-time volunteer contributor has already demonstrated aptitude and interest in the project, they don't even need to be interviewed or trained.

For large companies one of the obvious value-adds of OSS is it optimizes out the whole time-consuming, costly, and error-prone recruiting/hiring/training process. That all occurs voluntarily on the contributor's time who's so interested in the work they've already sought out the job, developed a rapport with the collaborators, and have been doing it for free.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#52

Post by ElevenLathe »

charcircuit wrote: post #48
iLoveOncall wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an extremely shortsighted comment. If they don't pay you they: - Have no incentive to make you continue contributing, - Have no decision power over what component you contribute to, - Have no decision power over when or how often you contribute, - Have no ground for asking that you follow any particular process (due to the first point), - etc.

All of these can be accomplished via social engineering instead of paying.

They have to pay somebody to do the social engineering too.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#55

Post by matheusmoreira »

Companies have never offered me a job based on the projects I've contributed to but I haven't contributed to many projects to begin with. People have reached out to me because they saw my own projects on GitHub though. I wasn't able to accept a position at the time but it was really nice to be recognized.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#56

Post by aussiesnack »

charcircuit wrote: post #4

If you already work for them for free, why should they pay you?

If your question is a sincere one, then you're asking, of employees who have been approached by companies via OS contributions, "why did they do that when they could have got that work for free?". Hearing from employers who have done this might be interesting, but I'm not sure that the employee would be the right person to ask.

On the face of it, however, to me at least it reads like your 'question' is less interesting: a rhetorical restatement of "companies don't do this". Then the 'evidence' you offer is an invented just-so story. Like all such stories it reflects your response to the world and the domain of your imagination, but tells us nothing about the world itself. It's a plain empirical fact that companies either do this, or they don't, and you find out which is the case by examining reality, not by weaving tales.

Telling stories to assert that the world 'must' be as we perceive it is common but without worthwhile uses outside of debate halls.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#57

Post by charcircuit »

aussiesnack wrote: post #56
charcircuit wrote: post #4

If you already work for them for free, why should they pay you?

If your question is a sincere one, then you're asking, of employees who have been approached by companies via OS contributions, "why did they do that when they could have got that work for free?". Hearing from employers who have done this might be interesting, but I'm not sure that the employee would be the right person to ask. On the face of it, however, to me at least it reads like your 'question' is less interesti…

I am not offering any evidence for my position, but I am saying that not hiring seems like it could be a more optimal business move.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#58

Post by aussiesnack »

charcircuit wrote: post #57
aussiesnack wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your question is a sincere one, then you're asking, of employees who have been approached by companies via OS contributions, "why did they do that when they could have got that work for free?". Hearing from employers who have done this might be interesting, but I'm not sure that the employee would be the right person to ask. On the face of it, however, to me at least it reads like your 'question' is less interesti…

I am not offering any evidence for my position, but I am saying that not hiring seems like it could be a more optimal business move.

Which is a very odd response to a question of fact. Rationalism 'ain't dead yet, it seems.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone joined a company after contributing to their OSS projects?

#59

Post by [deleted] »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #42
ilc wrote: post #40

Indirectly. I worked on a project not owned by a single company. But Red Hat hired me to work on it after, I worked on it at another company. :) Alas, since I haven't found a good OSS gig. But that's life.

Isn't Red Hat almost entirely (if not entirely) open source?

[deleted]
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