Thursday, February 27, 2014

Python Job Board - Call for volunteers

Dear Python Community,

for many years, the Python Job board was run by volunteers - most of the time by just one volunteer at a time until they moved on to spend their time on other things. We've now reached such a point again.

In these years, the volume on the job board has significantly increased, as it got more and more popular. It is now at around 2-5 postings per day and most of those positions get filled quickly
- which is an indication of how useful this service is to the Python community.

To scale up and revive the job board, the PSF would now like to setup a *team of volunteers* to run the job board and this is our call for help.

How does the job board work ?


At the moment, the job board is maintained on the legacy site , but since we've launched our brand new website, we'd like to move the job board over to that site.

Instead of the repository based approach used on the old site, the new site has database support to aid in more easily processing and filing job listings.

There's a job board mailing list which helps coordinate the task of reviewing and filing job offers. Currently, all job submissions get sent to this mailing list, but with the job board app, the submission process can be moved over to the website's database.

What does it take to run the job board ?


You have to review the job postings, request changes if they are too long, don't clearly state the need for Python skills, or have quality issues.

After review, the job board app will then allow posting the jobs on the website by simply setting the status to published.

Communication with the submitters is usually done by email and via the mailing list, so all team members can see the communication and help out if necessary.

Please note: This is just a high level overview. The details need to be hashed out by the new team.

Does the job board app work already ?


It does, but is disabled at the moment due to lack of volunteers.

Since the site just launched there may also well be some issues with the job board app.

On the positive side there's a lot happening around the site at the moment, so if you have change requests, these will usually be implemented quickly - or you can jump in, hack on the job board app and submit a pull request yourself:

These are exciting times and this is your chance to make a difference !

Ok, I like new challenges - where do I sign up ?


Great :-) Please write to jobs@python.org

I have a question...


If you have questions, you can write to the jobs list at jobs@python.org or the PSF board at psf@python.org.

Many thanks,
Marc-Andre Lemburg
Director, Python Software Foundation