Re: [gentoo-project] Recruitment issues and potential improvement

[Markos Chandras]

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On 02/05/2015 06:56 AM, Michał Górny wrote:
> Hello, everyone.
>
> It's finally time to discuss some of the recruitment issues. It's
> not a new complaint that the process is time-consuming and
> discouraging to our contributors. We have a pretty low number of
> new recruits [well, we could definitely have a higher number!] and
> too often they resign in the process.
>
> As I see it, the main issue are ebuild quizzes. They are very
> time- consuming and discouraging. It's like filling a quiz with
> relatively simple questions where answers need to fit a key, and
> you have to tell the recruit to fill in the missing bits a few
> times just to help him get further.
>
> I myself attempted ebuild quiz twice, because the first time I
> simply ended up not having the time for it. My late recruit was
> making slow progress, and recently vanished -- hopefully only
> because he doesn't have will for that anymore. As I see it, the
> disadvantages outweigh the benefits here.
>
> I have discussed this with kensington and a few Council members
> (unofficially), and we came up with following ideas:
>
> 1. remove or reduce the ebuild quiz to a reasonable number of
> questions. In other words, make it bearable. Focus on the stuff
> that can't be checked otherwise.
>
> 2. Add an extra contribution period in which the candidate commits
> to the tree through Pull Requests. Developers watch the requests,
> review them and decide when the recruit is ready. We may extend
> this with requirements like '3 different developers must review
> late activities and evaluate them'.
>
> 3. Possibly extend the recruit-recruiter interaction. Rather than
> treating the interrogation as some kind of final confirmation, make
> it a small extra part of the learning process. In other words,
> reduce the other parts, fill in the blanks here.
>
> What do you think?
>

So you want to discuss the procedures of how a team within Gentoo
operates without talking to that team first. And lets say you get an
agreement on the list on how recruiters should do their job, and what
means they should use, and then you expect that team to simply follow
that? Well how about *no*. It's nice to take decisions on behalf of a
team that you are not part of and then simply expect them to follow
what you have agreed on. Sorry it's not going to happen simply because
you wanted to. And you really can't have the council to make such
decision when that team is very much alive and active. If you don't
like how we do things, then talk to us.

The reason why the process is so time consuming is because most
mentors do not do their work properly. When a recruit is handed to us,
most of the time it lacks knowledge in areas that the mentor should
have spent sometime and effort explaining that to them. I've been
doing that for quite a while and I can assure you that a properly
prepared recruits finish the review session in a couple of sessions.

So how about spending some time with your mentees first, make sure
they are well prepared, before you judge the process?

Gentoo is (becoming) rather complex, so yes, mentees need to be around
for quite a while to grasp everything they need to know in order to
not break the tree as soon as they get access.

Oh and everybody is talking about quizzes. We also have the webapp for
those thinking the format is so 80s. Oh and we are willing to drop
questions from quizzes. If you want to modify the quizzes you know the
drill. Open a bug, and lets discuss it.

- -- 
Regards,
Markos Chandras
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