On Sat, Apr 3, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Richard Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
> I think the problem is that our recruitment process uses the ability to
> answer complex technical and organizational questions as a way to assess
> maturity.  I think that maturity is far more important than technical skill
> in a distro - a mature person will recognize their own limitations and
> exercise due diligence when stepping outside of them.  Instead of playing 20
> questions and going back and forth with recruits, maybe a better approach
> would be to cut down the questions dramatically (or more clearly put their
> answers in the documentation), and then use other approaches like references
> and interviews.  A new recruit might be given the names of 5 devs that they
> will need to interview with for 30-60 minutes by phone or IRC (preference on
> phone), and they will need to submit references, who will be contacted.
>  When we hire people at work we don't play trivial pursuit with them, we use
> an interview to get a feel for what they're like and how they handle
> situations, and we screen resumes and references to determine experience.
>  I'm sure any of the professional linux distros would work in the same way,
> but perhaps somebody should ask around and see how it is done elsewhere.

All ideas regarding improving recruitment are welcome, thanks. However
if, during your review, you were not given the impression that your
maturity and other social skills were being assessed then you were
being blissfully naive. :o) I use tricks like pretending I don't
understand that crystal-clear thing you're explaining to gauge your
patience and politeness, I drift off to real-life topics to find out
who the recruit really is, and lots of others like background searches
(also outside of gentoo) and talks with the mentor.

On the other hand, in your particular case, I clearly remember the
assessment was easy and thus I didn't insist too much. Which is what
probably made it more difficult for you to notice.

Denis.