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Comment by tetris11 | Hacker News Reader

The Senior Inkscape developer post seems to be one of those postings where a company already has someone in mind, and phrases the job listing to be specific only to that person. (But hey, good that an FOSS dev on the project finally gets paid!)

The GTK post seems more real, and I hope they find a good candidate

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> The Senior Inkscape developer post seems to be one of those postings where a company already has someone in mind

Agreed, but considering the circumstances, I'd be much more confused if they didn't already have someone in mind.

> But hey, good that an FOSS dev on the project finally gets paid!

It's a strategic choice whether your company wants to employ FOSS tools for your production, but if you do, or you base your company on consulting for other companies who use those tools, then it is of course in your interest to also influence the continued relevance of said tools. This is why FOSS isn't necessarily cheaper for companies, because if you want to defend your interest, you eventually have to hire software engineers to - at the very least - gain an overview, if not some measure of "ownership" or stabilizing influence over the code base.

I know this from the government, because they often have to officially open the position due to policies forcing them even when just renewing a contract. Is this the same for certain foundations?

Same in higher (university-level) education in the UK due to legislation. It forces institutions not to become closed shops. In many cases the institution has a preferred internal candidate, but forcing them to open it up at least gets external people a foot in the door. In many cases the internal candidate is the best for the job because they know the institution well so they don't need to be brought up to speed on many systems and are familiar with its pedagogical philosophy, although there are obvious downsides where a department can become stagnant if it's always the internal candidate, like a kind of academic inbreeding. But I know of at least two cases where the external candidate won despite there being a preferred internal candidate because the external people were so much more suited to the role.

Yeah I also had cases where we made the job so specific they had to do the interview with another candidate knowing they would not hire the candidate, if you ask me it's a puppet show. I understand it protects against certain things, but also make a lot of people dance around bureaucracy needlessly.

Im sure, like many of us, you've sighed about things being needlessly bureacratic at some point in your live, this is one of those things that cause good people to feel very frustrated.

It's also the same in at least some, maybe many or most, large private businesses, not because of any legal requirement or regulation but as part of their internal ethical standards.

    Source: personal experience at the company where I work.

It is the same in many areas I think. You get in if you know someone, or have a prior established rapport. At the very least that is a way more pleasant way of finding a new job.

yeah but why you have to make an official job post? and not offer the job directly? In gov they are forced by policies, but most private orgs dont need to do such gymnastics.

Depends where you are (jurisdiction)... in some countries the law requires an open offer.

If the job requires a visa, there's sometimes requirements to demonstrate you can't fill the position with local labour.

Yeah, lots of negativity here but I think its nice someone can get paid for their work on a foss project.

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