O/T : Looking for an entry level LAMP developer for contract work.

[der.hans]

Am 23. Jul, 2015 schwätzte Keith Smith so:

moin moin Keith,

> der.hans, is there a solution to this and if so what is it? Great piece by 
> the way.

Danke.

The best solution I have is personal contacts via relevant technical
groups.

Sure, there is some networking via normal social interaction or social
media, but user groups, conferences, technical mailing lists, etc. have
much higher signal to noise ratio for technical hiring.

The most important aspect of this is to be involved in the community.

For developers that means you should be working on Free Software projects
and getting patches accepted. That's your portfolio. It's also a great way
to find companies who are hiring people to work on the project.

For everyone ( including developers ) that means participating in
community groups and events. PLUG and SCaLE are great examples of that. As
are relevant IRC channels and mailing lists.

Community participation also helps keep you fresh and helps stoke your
motivation.

HR is important ( especially when you want to know about benefits ), but
very few companies have HR versed in tech.

Expecting technical chops in HR isn't realistic. I don't expect HR to
be versed in all the technology I've worked on over the years, just as
I don't expect to know how to evaluate the resume or skills of someone
applying to be an accountant or marketer or graphic artist.

I do know a few recruiters who at least understand they should be involved
in the community. They're the ones I talk to when I have questions :).

Talking to people on the team that's hiring or directly to the hiring
manager skips HR and talks to the relevant customer ( the team that is
hiring ). Find out what the real job and figure out if it might be a good
fit from both perspectives.

Most of my jobs have come from inside referrals or seeing someone in IRC
mention that they're looking for someone. I've also earned quite a few
referral bonuses in the last couple of years. I've also referred people
into companies I don't work at.

So, what can "we" do?

Last year I hosted several job events at Stammtisch. We had a couple of
hires through that. There were two types of events: job networking; resume
assistance.

The job networking event works best if we have hiring managers or
engineers from teams that are hiring attending.

The resume assistance was me and one of the recruiters I know going over
resumes and helping people improve them. A big part of the assistance was
helping entry-level and junior-level applicants list all of their relevant
experience.

I would like to continue with the job events, but we need more people
helping. For instance, I had planned to have one during the last 3 months,
but kept getting busy and not announcing it.

Who is interested in helping?

ciao,

der.hans

> On 2015-07-22 22:40, der.hans wrote:
>> Am 22. Jul, 2015 schwätzte Nathan England so:
>> 
>> moin moin,
>> 
>>> The company I currently work for has 3 developer position openings and in 
>>> 4 months we've had only two candidates apply. That seems to me a real need 
>>> for developers. Either that or the job description is too complicated for 
>>> them to get past.
>> 
>> ( None of this is pointing at any specific person or company, it just
>> seems like the best place in the thread to mention it. )
>> 
>> There's an open secret about tech unemployment, it's been really low for
>> years, even when general unemployment was really high.
>> 
>> Due to this apparently being a secret, we get job descriptions that list
>> every technology someone can cut and paste from Internet search results.
>> 
>> But, since tech unemployment is actually low, it's hard to find candidates.
>> 
>> In tech we're also usually looking for specialists. Do welding companies
>> ask for someone expert in one particular welder? Are there dozens of
>> brands of welders to choose from such that skills ( from the viewpoint of
>> HR ) don't transfer to another brand of welder? Sorry, you only know java
>> welders...
>> 
>> So, we have a lack of candidates because people have jobs and don't
>> need to look around and also because job descriptions are searching for
>> unrealistic lists of skills while simultaneously focusing on narrow
>> fields.
>> 
>> Then, when candidates do appear, many get overlooked due to the narrow
>> field view or lack of buzzwork bingo on their resumes. The habitually
>> unemployed or new to the field seem are really up against heavy odds, even
>> in the low unemployment state we've been in for years.
>> 
>> Even an expert will have a learning curve to learn how your environment
>> does it. The example I like to give is that if you hire Larry Wall to join
>> your Perl team ( or Guido von Rossum for Python or Rasmus Lerdorf for
>> PHP... ), he will need time to learn how your team works. Granted, if he
>> then makes suggestions your team should probably listen intently :).
>> 
>> For entry and junior level positions, look for candidates that are good at
>> technology and learning, then give them room to grow into the specific
>> position. You need that anyway because your environment *is* different.
>> 
>> For senior positions, find those who know the field, then see if you think
>> they can become the expert you need. The most likely reason we're looking
>> is to do something new :).
>> 
>> Also, please cross-train so when someone does leave the rest of the team
>> isn't left with huge gaps in knowledge and experience!
>> 
>> ciao,
>> 
>> der.hans
>> 
>>> Nathan
>>> 
>>> On 2015-07-22 10:45, Keith Smith wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> I posted for an entry level LAMP developer a week or so ago figuring I
>>>> would find a number of people wanting to break into LAMP development.
>>>> What I received was a lackluster response.  I was offering $22/hr 1099
>>>> with the potential to bill 40 hours a week.  I figured by the time
>>>> that person pays for health insurance figured at $250/mo, pays he self
>>>> employment tax, and takes some vacation time and holiday time off,
>>>> this compensation would be about $18 an hour W2 or $36,000 a year.
>>>> 
>>>> Here is the contract description:
>>>> 
>>>> I am looking for an entry level LAMP developer.  Would like someone
>>>> with entry level PHP skills and entry level Linux skills.  Stuff like
>>>> the ability to add a user, add a sudo user, and configure vhosts on
>>>> apache.  I will give directions with examples and they will be working
>>>> on a development VPS so if they blow it we just spin up another.  As
>>>> for PHP skills if this person knows how to write a MySql connection
>>>> string and is able to insert, update, delete and list.... this person
>>>> could be what I am looking for.  This is a maintenance job.   This
>>>> person would need to know some HTML and CSS.  jQuery would be a plus.
>>>> 
>>>> This contract could last as long as 2 or 3 years.  At that point we
>>>> would need to either up the compensation or understand when this
>>>> person takes off for other opportunities.
>>>> 
>>>> Is the compensation fair?  Any ideas why I received such a lukewarm 
>>>> response?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Your feedback is much appreciated.
>>>> 
>>>> Keith
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#  http://www.LuftHans.com/        http://www.PhxLinux.org/
#  Free, Libre, and Open Source enthusiasts are collaborators. Maybe we're
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#  essentially trying to go the same direction. -- der.hans, 2012Jan25