On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Terri Yu <[email protected]> wrote:
> The panelists at Versatile PhD did say that contributing to open source > projects was a good way to develop an online portfolio. But it sounded > more like they were just repeating conventional industry advice. It didn't > sound like any of them had worked on anything open source themselves. I > was just trying to suggest that for academics who don't have the CS > background and software internships, getting involved in the open source > community would be a good way to develop software skills and find a > community that will support someone with an atypical background. Also, > it's not that easy to jump into an open source project and start making > contributions as someone who is new to the community and new to software. > Suggesting to someone that they should go make open source contributions to > pad their resume, without giving them any guidance or even explaining to > them the FOSS ethos -- that seems a tad irresponsible. That's why I put > the emphasis on joining the FOSS community rather than focusing on making > contributions. No open source project maintainer likes getting random pull > requests. > > Honestly, I think it's pretty tough nowadays for a PhD non-CS graduate to > break into the software industry. In most cases, wouldn't a company prefer > to hire some CS bachelor's graduate who's done 2-3 internships? Those > people can hit the ground running. The only reason to hire a non-CS PhD is > if they have some specialized domain experience that's relevant to the > product. > > Terri > > I am a self-taught software developer with a BS in Physics, and I just doubled my salary moving from academia to industry. What software market are you living in that hiring managers can afford to be so picky? There is absolutely no reason a Phd non-CS graduate shouldn't be able to get a job in industry if they have been in science research that involves significant developer work, and have worked at learning how to right good software, which I certainly hope they have done if they expect to get a job programming. And of course, they should be doing open science, so should have their code on a public repository already, in which case this point is moot. (this is all said with a fair bit of my tongue in my cheek). If they feel like their skills aren't there yet, then contributing to other open projects sounds like a great way to learn more and get their name out there. :) I'm definitely wouldn't call it padding a resume, in any case. It is real work that you are doing for real projects that you are more than welcome to show off to get a job. And you can contribute as little/as much as you have time for, depending on how quickly you need a new job and how much time you can devote to it. Surely, no one believes that one should only spend 40 hours a week thinking about your career, ever, always. Sometimes you're in a good spot, and you can do that for a short while, and sometimes you have to spend more time, particularly if you want to make a big change. cheers, Maria On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Terri Yu <[email protected]> wrote: > The panelists at Versatile PhD did say that contributing to open source > projects was a good way to develop an online portfolio. But it sounded > more like they were just repeating conventional industry advice. It didn't > sound like any of them had worked on anything open source themselves. I > was just trying to suggest that for academics who don't have the CS > background and software internships, getting involved in the open source > community would be a good way to develop software skills and find a > community that will support someone with an atypical background. Also, > it's not that easy to jump into an open source project and start making > contributions as someone who is new to the community and new to software. > Suggesting to someone that they should go make open source contributions to > pad their resume, without giving them any guidance or even explaining to > them the FOSS ethos -- that seems a tad irresponsible. That's why I put > the emphasis on joining the FOSS community rather than focusing on making > contributions. No open source project maintainer likes getting random pull > requests. > > Honestly, I think it's pretty tough nowadays for a PhD non-CS graduate to > break into the software industry. In most cases, wouldn't a company prefer > to hire some CS bachelor's graduate who's done 2-3 internships? Those > people can hit the ground running. The only reason to hire a non-CS PhD is > if they have some specialized domain experience that's relevant to the > product. > > Terri > > On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Timothée Poisot <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I agree with Greg wholeheartedly. Communicating the idea that 60hrs week >> is not only normal, but expected and a requirement for success, to PhD >> candidates, is a step in the wrong direction. >> >> If I were to look at a candidate github profile, I would look at how they >> behave in issues and pull requests as opposed to how frequently they push >> code or the number of projects. >> Sent from a mobile device. Pardon the typos/brevity. >> On dim., févr. 28, 2016 at 12:04 PM, Greg Wilson < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> I've grown disillusioned with the idea of using GitHub as a resume - I >> think that expecting people to spend 20 hr/week *on top of* their 40 >> hr/week job is doing harm to people's mental health, their family lives, >> and any hope we have of fixing computing's diversity problem. Ashe Dryden's >> article >> http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community >> sums it up better than I could, and I like this quote: >> >> when you use GitHub for hiring you’re taking a tool that people use as a >> collaboration space and backup service, and using it for an unintended >> purpose: judging whether people are any good or not. >> >> >> from James Coglan's follow-up at >> https://blog.jcoglan.com/2013/11/15/why-github-is-not-your-cv/. >> >> Cheers, >> Greg >> >> -- >> Dr Greg Wilson >> Director of Instructor Training >> Software Carpentry Foundation >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Discuss mailing list >> [email protected] >> >> http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > > http://lists.software-carpentry.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.software-carpentry.org >
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