[hackerspaces] Career Networking

[Nathaniel Bezanson]

On the i3detroit-public list, we get occasional job postings (and plenty
of job-related spam that hits the mod queue), and that's tacitly
encouraged. For a while, there was enough such traffic that people
discussed forking it off into its own list. But that's died down, and
really, very little came of it in the first place.

All the actual job-getting I can think of (ten individuals, off the top of
my head) has happened through in-person and word-of-mouth contact at the
space itself. Email is worth very little, but the actually meeting a
competent person and then finding out they're looking? That makes things
happen.

The number of i3'ers landing jobs because of such connections has become a
bit of a joke, and last I heard, there was at least one journalist working
on a story about the phenomenon. If anything ever comes of that, I'll
suggest this list as a way to connect with other groups and individuals
who may have anecdotes to share.

As to the original question about networking? I'm gonna advocate the
in-person approach. If I moved to a new city and wanted a job there, I'd
start by hanging out at the local hackerspace(s) a fair bit, contributing
what I could, and then mentioning that I was looking.

-Nathaniel-

> One idea I think we might adopt is to put an Employers link on our webpage
> with information stating that we have a broad talent pool and can connect
> to
> potential employees. Basically allow job postings on our mailing list.