Jobs Board

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The Issue

We have organizations wanting to hire staff with skills in foss4g technologies, and we have individuals wanting to find jobs related to these same technologies. But currently it is hard for them find each other. It would be helpful to OSGeo's goals in several ways to facilitate this meeting.

Ideas

From the "Job Posting / Job Wanted" thread on the OSGeo discuss list:

  • OSGeo could provide guidance to job seekers and those with jobs.
    • Advice on mailing lists it would be appropriate to post to (project lists? local chapter lists? general osgeo lists?).
    • Advice on jobs services it would be appropriate to list on (eg. http://www.gjc.org/)
  • OSGeo could host a job/resume posting service
    • A jobs/resume mailing list.
    • wiki/web pages
    • RSS feeds
    • Custom job posting service software (ie. http://www.jobberbase.com/)
    • A moderator summarizing jobs to OSGeo discuss/announce on a periodic basis.
    • Perhaps integrate with the Service Provider Directory which fills a somewhat related purpose.

Steps Forward

I (Frank Warmerdam) think we ought to proceed with the "advice" portion, and once an appropriate document has been drafted in the wiki, it should be posted to the main web site, and linked fairly prominently from "OSGeo Community" on the left side of the main page. Likely right under "Service Providers" with name like "Job Postings" or just "Jobs". I have initiated such an advice page below as "OSGeo Jobs".

If someone is willing to serve as a moderator, I think we should also establish a jobs@lists.osgeo.org mailing list (moderated) and the moderator could summarize these to the OSGeo discuss list every two weeks. It would also be very desirable to have this mailing list available as an RSS feed. Perhaps this can be accomplished by pumping it through something like nabble?

OSGeo Jobs

The following text is intended to appear on www.osgeo.org/jobs, and linked from under the OSGeo Community in the left bar once drafting is complete and it is approved by Webcom.

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General Advice on Mailing List Postings

Targetted mailing lists can be a great place to post about available jobs or resumes. But to avoid giving you or your organization a bad reputation it is important to use mailing lists in as polite a fashion as possible.

  • Don't post to a mailing list that has a "no jobs, no resumes" policy. We will make some effort to keep track of these below in the "Appropriate Places to Post" but ideally you should do a bit of research on the lists you post to before posting.
  • Do not post a job or resume repeatedly to the same list. If your organization has several job openings try and post them in a single post rather than sending several separate emails.
  • Only post to lists very "on topic" for the job posting. For instance, don't post to the GRASS list if you don't need GRASS skills just on account you think there might be some folks there with the skills you are looking for.
  • Try to minimize the total number of lists you post to. If you are posting to a job/resume to more than four or five mailing lists it is likely that many folks will get the post several times and their opinion of you will be lowered. So just select the optimal lists.
  • Do not email out resumes or job postings as attachments. Send email as plain text with links to web pages for full details and nicely formatted postings/resumes.
  • Prefix your subject line with "Job: " or "Resume: " so folks not interested can easily skip the email without reading into it. For instance "Resume: Frank Warmerdam" or "Job: Geoweb Developer - Washington, DC"
  • If you have some absolute requirements try to make them clear early in the email so folks don't have to read far before skipping the message. If you require someone with extensive PHP skills, or who is a US citizen or who speaks French fluently make it clear up front.
  • Most mailing lists require you to be subscribed to the list in order to accept posts from you. So, subscribe and get your email confirmation taken care of before posting. Otherwise your post may just be discarded, or sit waiting for a moderator to review.
  • Stay subscribed, at least for a couple weeks after posting, so you will be aware of followup or discussion about your post that happens on the list. If you think the list produces too much email to stay subscribed for a while, then don't contribute to it by posting! The price of imposing your post on the community represented by the list is being part of that community for at least a while.
  • If you are posting a resume, you will do yourself a huge favor by actually participating in the mailing lists you post to. Answer questions when you can for instance. Showing knowledge in a constructive way is better for you than fancy sounding fluff on your resume.
  • If you are looking for work, considering add a link to your resume in your email signature so your availability is made clear to those who are impressed by your contribution to the mailing list. This sort of approach should be appropriate on any mailing list - even those which have a "no resume" posting rule.

Appropriate Places to Post

Mailing lists:

  • Project mailing lists (try to select the most general purpose project mailing list and only one list per project).
  • Local user group mailing lists - that is local to where you are looking for a candidate or job.

Geospatial Jobs Websites (list technologies prominently):

Moderator Volunteers

  • The Sunburned Surveyor: I am willing to serve as a moderator on a mailing list and to maintain a wiki page with job openings and or resumes.
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