Suggestion for Jobs platform.

[Kirk Saviour]

Hi Fellow DevConist,

Will be happy if we can use our jobs platform to solve these problems outlined below by Robert some months back.

I believe it will make our platform unique.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robert Lamptey <rob...@saya.im>
Date: 23 April 2012 15:02
Subject: [GDC] Remote Internships

Hey Folks,

3 weeks ago i took a trip to 3 university campuses in Ghana for recruitment purposes; Methodist University, KNUST and UCC. A month prior to that, i had posted a job listing to this group for new people to join our team Saya and we were having problems finding a right fit. The challenge was mainly because: 

1. People felt startups did not offer job security

2. All the good guys had jobs and were unwilling to leave

3. Some wanted a quick buck and opted for contract jobs rather

4. Those who said they were good, were not good enough (sadly)

5. A lot of cultural misfits [they weren't fitting into our company culture -[ we sleep @ the office most times and couldn't find many who will join us do that :)]

6. Too many 'talkers' with too few 'doers'

7. etc

In the mist of these challenges, we had to outsource some of our work but that was a temporary solution, hence our decision to go to campuses, look for the best of the best programers and hire them to work for us whiles in school. This idea gave birth to our remote internship program which i want to recommend to you guys and have those interested in this program to sign up for it.

This is the breakdown, we pay students[interns] a fixed monthly stipend to work on various parts of a project and gradually integrate them into our various companies. We push code through Git or dropbox and have them work on the various parts. We hold meetings on Skype or Meetings.io (www.meetings.io) at least once a week to touch base and when they come home during the weekends or vacations, they come over to the office to work there. In this way, we get to have more done and to give these students the skill-sets they need when they graduate. It will amaze you how many 'good' programers we have on campuses who can't ssh into a system to work remotely. As a profession, we will have failed if we do not supplement what is coming out of the school. 

On the brighter side, I met people who had written their own OS's, browsers, robots, electricity generating equipments and written code for it and a host of amazing people all over.

I'm sorry for the long email but i hope this program helps a few companies needing people to help them and a few students who want to up their games. I have attached a google doc for everyone to fill if interested. First the students and then the companies select who they want. Cheers and #morevim.

Regards,

Kirk Saviour

[yaw]

Pretty good explanation of a problem (and kind of an ad hoc solution). How can we address this (to Jobs Board team especially)? Any suggestions?

[Nana Ewusi Precious Nyarko]

The problem is very interesting and to be honest we haven't factored this into the current game plan for the DevCongress Jobs board.

However, I see a possible use case where we can also roll the platform out top Universities & provide their students with access to 'College Programmes/ Internships' section of the platform. From here students can access, summer jobs/internships and other placements that are available in Industry. We will essentially bridge the gap between between recruiters & and the talent they seek, while providing college seniors the opportunity to gain some cash and experience while still in school.

This is just off the top of my head. However, we can talk about this in more detail to see how it really fits together :)