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Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

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Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#11

Post by le-mark »

andrewla wrote: post #8
teilo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot #3: A company with a lot of cash, and a lot of time to waste. I really don't think this can work. Whenever we post for a position, I get flooded with a bunch of garbage resumes from people who barely have an idea what programming is. We have work to do, and deadlines. We literally can't afford to turn ourselves into a technical training school.

The idea here seems like it would be best suited to a working environment that has a deep pipeline, from unskilled to semi-skilled to skilled or specialized workers. People can be hired unconditionally to the unskilled pool, from which they can move up to the higher tiers either through training (either internally or externally) or through natural ability. A bakery, like in this example, seems like it could pull this…

A lot of companies used to actually do this. Let the mail room or call center people apply for the cobol training program and become developers. It's unheard of today for obvious reasons (a lot more demand for high skilled jobs makes it easy to get training and leave).

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#13

Post by harlanji »

More should do this. I am blackballed from Silicon Valley from a series of bad employers and have a misdemeanor driving-related arrest, so a Day Labor non-profit that does the same has been my only way of attaining employment. My income has dropped 10x but it’s enough to feed me, and most of my network has turned its back on me. I am hired by executives and doctors for cash now who feel I am wasting my skills too.

I have great skills from over 18 years of passionate programming, being squandered. If any bay area tech companies hire like this, I’ll make your year.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#14

Post by macintux »

pasquinelli wrote: post #10
macintux wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how this would scale for any non-entry-level position. Even desktop support requires more knowledge than a random person on the street has, so unless you're willing to spend a lot of money on training every new hire who may or may not pan out, you'd need to think about some qualification screen at a minimum.

just because you hire anyone who applies doesn't mean just anyone will apply. people don't actually want to get a job they have no idea how to do. applicants will filter themselves. the question is how much better is a company's filtering process, really, than the applicants' self-filtering? would be embarrassing if it were no better, or even worse.

People are very good at not knowing how unqualified they are. Former brother-in-law of mine was convinced he was a computer expert because he built a computer once.

IT pay is well-known for being better than average, so I'd bet you'd have people who can move a mouse trying to get entry-level IT work at a company known for hiring anyone.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#15

Post by jerf »

pasquinelli wrote: post #10
macintux wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how this would scale for any non-entry-level position. Even desktop support requires more knowledge than a random person on the street has, so unless you're willing to spend a lot of money on training every new hire who may or may not pan out, you'd need to think about some qualification screen at a minimum.

just because you hire anyone who applies doesn't mean just anyone will apply. people don't actually want to get a job they have no idea how to do. applicants will filter themselves. the question is how much better is a company's filtering process, really, than the applicants' self-filtering? would be embarrassing if it were no better, or even worse.

"just because you hire anyone who applies doesn't mean just anyone will apply"

I can only infer from this statement that you have never been in a hiring position in which you are receiving the raw resume submissions from the field. You either have never been in a hiring position, or you've only had the post-filter resume stream sent to you.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#16

Post by teilo »

andrewla wrote: post #8
teilo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot #3: A company with a lot of cash, and a lot of time to waste. I really don't think this can work. Whenever we post for a position, I get flooded with a bunch of garbage resumes from people who barely have an idea what programming is. We have work to do, and deadlines. We literally can't afford to turn ourselves into a technical training school.

The idea here seems like it would be best suited to a working environment that has a deep pipeline, from unskilled to semi-skilled to skilled or specialized workers. People can be hired unconditionally to the unskilled pool, from which they can move up to the higher tiers either through training (either internally or externally) or through natural ability. A bakery, like in this example, seems like it could pull this…

I think it's a great idea for the kind of jobs the OA is talking about, but a terrible idea for tech jobs.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#17

Post by learc83 »

harlanji wrote: post #13

More should do this. I am blackballed from Silicon Valley from a series of bad employers and have a misdemeanor driving-related arrest, so a Day Labor non-profit that does the same has been my only way of attaining employment. My income has dropped 10x but it’s enough to feed me, and most of my network has turned its back on me. I am hired by executives and doctors for cash now who feel I am wasting my skills too. I…

Have you tried contract work? Even if you have to lowball a bit to get traction, you should be able to make a lot more than as a day laborer.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#18

Post by dqpb »

aturley wrote: post #2

I've half joked about doing this for technical positions. I think to make it work you'd need: 1. A strong management system in place that's committed to helping folks succeed. 2. A willingness to honestly evaluate people and let them go if they aren't working out. I've seen enough bad hires even in places that have well planned hiring processes that I'm having trouble believing this would be any worse.

I think this pipeline already exists via open source software. Unskilled people are by default allowed to try contributing. As soon as they are actually capable of doing so, they can move up the ranks by getting hired somewhere.

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#19

Post by Rjevski »

harlanji wrote: post #13

More should do this. I am blackballed from Silicon Valley from a series of bad employers and have a misdemeanor driving-related arrest, so a Day Labor non-profit that does the same has been my only way of attaining employment. My income has dropped 10x but it’s enough to feed me, and most of my network has turned its back on me. I am hired by executives and doctors for cash now who feel I am wasting my skills too. I…

Try remote (and maybe contract) work.

Also, Silicon Valley is not the only place to find tech work - don't forget there are plenty of companies all over the world who are building lovely things too. ;)

Re: Greyston Bakery hires on a first-come, first-served basis, no questions asked

#20

Post by whalesalad »

harlanji wrote: post #13

More should do this. I am blackballed from Silicon Valley from a series of bad employers and have a misdemeanor driving-related arrest, so a Day Labor non-profit that does the same has been my only way of attaining employment. My income has dropped 10x but it’s enough to feed me, and most of my network has turned its back on me. I am hired by executives and doctors for cash now who feel I am wasting my skills too. I…

All you do is sit and complain and act like a victim on your twitter account. Your mentality is what’s holding you back. You can’t be blackballed in Silicon Valley. I’ve hired so many people without reference checks and have been hired in the same manner.

Change your attitude and you can return to programming.

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