Checking Our Privilege – Changing our job ads in response to a good challenge

I recently read a post by Ashe Dryden which has led me to edit a job advert we currently have online. I thought the story might be of interest.

Ashe notes that it is becoming increasingly common to look at a coder’s public GitHub pages and contributions as a way of getting a quick view of their skills and energy. The basic idea is that someone with loads of public, well documented code is probably a good coder you want to have on board – and someone with an altruistic interest in free and open source technology to boot. What could be wrong with that?

The gist of Ashe’s argument is that there’s actually quite a big problem with this. What it all boils down to is the fact that contributions to GitHub aren’t just a sign of someone’s enthusiasm or skill, it’s also a sign that they have the good fortune to have lots of spare time. And guess what – the people who have lots of spare time are also people who tend to have a lot of other privileges in life.

So, as a response to Ashe’s challenge, I have removed the requirement in our latest job advert to have proof that you have been willing and able to do impressive things in your spare time. We will still vet people for enthusiasm and passion – especially important at a mission-driven non-profit like mySociety – but we won’t do it in ways that potentially exclude people who could make a big contribution to our goals.

NB We are advertising for three different roles right now, not just coders. Do please take a look.

2 Comments

  1. Privileged Hacker

    Well, you’re just not going to avoid filtering out unprivileged people unless you allow incompetents in. The opportunity to develop talents into skills is itself a product of privilege that requires spare time and material security.