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GitLab Handbook

about.gitlab.com

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Re: GitLab Handbook

#21

Post by leipert »

dvtrn wrote: post #15
gherkinnn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.

For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn'…

Interesting. I have worked a bit on our calculator in the past (technical implementation).

Some clarifications, best of my knowledge, currently on mobile:

It would be impractical to calculate all the location factors in the world, and in your case it would be calculated. I agree with you that this is less than optimal, as it might stop people from applying if that data is missing. So this is an area where we could improve.

Internal discussions on the calculator have lead to changes, e.g. https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/issues/3396 So the calculator or location factors are also up for discussion and iteration.

When you move, higher location factor definitely needs approval, lower doesn’t afaik. To be honest often location changes with a big factor change are across state or country lines, which might mean change of Entities even in Europe. Compare that to a non remote job, if you are bound to an office location: you cannot move.

Personally I haven’t been involved in a location change of a team member, but as a manager I would definitely try to enable my team member to move let’s say from Manchester to London if they do wish.

Re: GitLab Handbook

#22

Post by leipert »

dvtrn wrote: post #15
gherkinnn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.

For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn'…

Ah and regarding planning a family, that is under the benefits and we currently upped our parental leave benefit from 3 to 4 months:

https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/benefits/#parental-leave

Re: GitLab Handbook

#23

Post by dvtrn »

leipert wrote: post #21
dvtrn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn'…

Interesting. I have worked a bit on our calculator in the past (technical implementation). Some clarifications, best of my knowledge, currently on mobile: It would be impractical to calculate all the location factors in the world, and in your case it would be calculated. I agree with you that this is less than optimal, as it might stop people from applying if that data is missing. So this is an area where we could im…

Hello there, thanks for the response.

It would be impractical to calculate all the location factors in the world

On the one hand I absolutely agree with you here, however I searched for multiple cities in the state of consideration, two of them are international destinations on the Atlantic coastline with considerable economic impact to the state and region at large, and as mentioned one of them is the state Capitol with nationally recognized colleges, I'm just a bit surprised that not this city is represented in your calculation.

That said, I do hope that area is improved on at least for the sake of other potential applicants.

Cheers!

Re: GitLab Handbook

#24

Post by dvtrn »

leipert wrote: post #22
dvtrn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn'…

Ah and regarding planning a family, that is under the benefits and we currently upped our parental leave benefit from 3 to 4 months: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/benefits/#parental-leave

Well the 'child' inquiry was more related to how having a child can dramatically alter a family's cost of living, and how or even if this is considered with equal earnest in salary maths--less so a critique about the absence or presence of parental leave (which admittedly, yours is impressive).

Re: GitLab Handbook

#25

Post by leipert »

dvtrn wrote: post #24
leipert wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah and regarding planning a family, that is under the benefits and we currently upped our parental leave benefit from 3 to 4 months: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/benefits/#parental-leave

Well the 'child' inquiry was more related to how having a child can dramatically alter a family's cost of living, and how or even if this is considered with equal earnest in salary maths--less so a critique about the absence or presence of parental leave (which admittedly, yours is impressive).

That makes sense. Yes, children are not factored into the location calculator as this would be very hard to do.

I could imagine that this is even protected information which your employer isn’t allowed to know in some countries.

Re: GitLab Handbook

#26

Post by scaryclam »

sdesol wrote: post #20
__blockcipher__ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I applied for a position (Backend Engineer in Search) that I felt I was a great fit for. I was rejected without even a phone screen. I am very early in my career, so I’d bet whoever handles the leftmost phase of the hiring pipeline saw that and basically immediately binned my resume. But I was still pretty bummed. Since Gitlab’s development is out in the open I could see the tickets in the team’s backlog and knew tha…

I've read they don't hire junior people, which might explain why you haven't heard anything. As somebody that has written a search engine, I would suggest you implement one and make it accessible to overcome the junior title...if that is the case in your situation.

Blanket rejection of juniors is pretty short sighted. Not offering any rejection at all is even worse. If you're not hiring juniors, say so. If you're not hiring juniors and one applies, send a polite response to say "Oh hey, thanks but we're after more senior people, but please try again in a year or so!". There's no good reason for a non-response, and when it's in their handbook and they still don't do it, a big red flag for other candidates.

Re: GitLab Handbook

#27

Post by dvtrn »

leipert wrote: post #25
dvtrn wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the 'child' inquiry was more related to how having a child can dramatically alter a family's cost of living, and how or even if this is considered with equal earnest in salary maths--less so a critique about the absence or presence of parental leave (which admittedly, yours is impressive).

That makes sense. Yes, children are not factored into the location calculator as this would be very hard to do. I could imagine that this is even protected information which your employer isn’t allowed to know in some countries.

Not sure I follow, admittedly I'm not entirely versed in employment law well enough to know better, but what would be the protected information that precludes a family planning calculation in the salary calculator but not parental leave?

Asked a better way: if, per your Handbook employees who relocate go through a process "to stay aligned with our compensation principlea" and "understand the impact to compensation or your role at GitLab"[0], do new or expectant parents not go through a similar process?

[0] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/code-of-condu...

Re: GitLab Handbook

#28

Post by Tade0 »

nbulka wrote: post #7

I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…

I applied twice with a year between the two attempts:

First time I was rejected after the first interview because they found somebody better suited for the role(my lack of Ruby experience was likely a factor) - that at least was the response I got.

Second time I was rejected outright - the reason given was that for people with more than five years of experience, they expected candidates to spend more than two years in a single company.

Re: GitLab Handbook

#29

Post by [deleted] »

gherkinnn wrote: post #14
dvtrn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do Interesting, there was a moment maybe a year and a half ago where I wanted to work for Gitlab, but upon learning precisely this I changed my mind. Not necessarily just that pay was location based, but reading through the Global Compensation page…

I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.

[deleted]

Re: GitLab Handbook

#30

Post by [deleted] »

leipert wrote: post #21
dvtrn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn'…

Interesting. I have worked a bit on our calculator in the past (technical implementation). Some clarifications, best of my knowledge, currently on mobile: It would be impractical to calculate all the location factors in the world, and in your case it would be calculated. I agree with you that this is less than optimal, as it might stop people from applying if that data is missing. So this is an area where we could im…

[deleted]
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