Monday, November 19, 2007

49 Noteworthy Open Source Projects

I get asked a lot from aspiring open source developers on which projects they should take part in. Of course, that should always be determined by the individual themselves. Like I have mentioned in the past, you must have a passion for the project you are contributing to to benefit that community.

In any regard, listed here are 49 projects that Datamation feels should be in the spotlight. Are all of these noteworthy? I am not sure. I have not had a chance to research every project. However, this can at least be a guide for some aspiring open source developers out there.

If you ever have any questions regarding projects or what you can do to better position yourself in the open source marketplace, we are always happy to answer as many questions as we can on our IRC channel: irc.freenode.net #hotlinuxjobs. We look forward to hearing from you!

HotLinuxJobs is indeed #1 on Google for Linux kernel jobs

It was brought to our attention that we were not number one on Google when you search for Linux kernel jobs. Some minor tweaking from our staff and viola. See for yourself here .

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Interview on SearchEnterpriseLinux

Here is an interview I did with SearchEnterpriseLinux. You can read the full interview here .

Thanks goes out to Mark Gallagher at SearchEnterpriseLinux for contacting us to get our thoughts on the Linux job market. We are always happy to supply information we have gathered over the years about the job market in the open source space.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

New Linux Job Board on Kerneltrap...but, be careful!

Perhaps some of you have seen, but there is a new Linux kernel job board on Kerneltrap . We have been big fans of Jeremy's throughout the years, and we enjoy the site. We have even advertised on it in the past, which would make sense since we have a number of Linux kernel searches that are ongoing.

My only concern is about this new job board partnership that he has with Specialty Job Markets. From some of the comments that I was reading and the responses they received, I am concerned that Specialty Job Markets will not always inform candidates where they are being sent. Christopher Lozinski, founder of Specialty Job Markets, even admits that he does not have agreements with all the companies he splatters candidates resumes to. Being in the recruiting business for 10 years, that is concerning to me. Hopefully, he is in full communication with these candidates. But, by the number of job boards he runs with what appears to be a small staff, I am not sure this is possible. He mentions in one posting that he is helping get rid of spam, but ironically he is also creating spam if he sends resumes to companies he does not have agreements with. Anyhow, just a word of caution, make sure you know where your resume is being sent. You are entitled to that, and it is only ethical.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Imperative for candidates to be open and honest

Lately, it appears that some candidates are willing to go to great lengths to mislead both ourselves and the corporations which we work with. With the market being as hot as it is, it tends to come with the territory. However, that is not an excuse for the type of behavior some candidates are displaying.

Case in point, we were trying to conclude a search last week. It was a situation where we had an offer for an individual, and we were aware that he received another offer. Throughout this process, we met everyone of his goals that he listed...consumer electronics company, good working environment, etc. The other company did not "appear" to offer these criteria according to the candidate at the time. It got to a point where the offer from the other company was a little higher than the company that we were representing. Therefore, the company decided to bring up the base salary to a level that was very comparable to the other offer he had. Smartly, before this company decided to present the updated offer to him, they offered him a day to think about it to make sure that he would accept this new offer. They did not want to go through the paperwork if he was not going to do so. And, they asked that he contact them. Once again, they wanted to see firsthand his interest in the position. Sure enough, the next day, the candidate called up this company to say he would accept if the revised offer was signed off on.

Moving a couple of days ahead, I got confirmation from the candidate that he received the FedEx package with the revised offer. He wrote me to say that this was "good news". Then, all of a sudden he disappeared for a couple of days. He never responded to email or returned calls. Of course, one starts to wonder at this point, and for good reason. The offer was going to be null and void at the end of the work week. Low and behold, he finally called me back up during the middle of the day on Friday and declined the revised offer. He could never give me any reason as to why that was now the case or what transpired during the past week. He was just accepting the other offer and that was it. The only thing that I finally got him to say is that it was true that he mislead both myself and the company during this process.

The reason why I write about this particular event is to again mention the fact that you are continuously in the process of building your brand. I do not have a problem with someone declining an offer that is made to them. It happens all the time. What I do expect is open communication and honesty throughout the process. I pride myself on that, and I think it is only fair to expect it in return. In this case, the engineer took a hit to his brand. You never know when something like this might come back to haunt you in the future. So, please, for all those candidates out there, please do your best to communicate in an "open" fashion when dealing with recruiters or companies alike. It is not that hard. And, you will garner great respect for doing so. Your brand will keep on expanding, and hopefully as a result, your career will flourish as a result.