1. A strong management system in place that's committed to helping folks succeed. 2. A willingness to honestly evaluate people and let them go if they aren't working out.
I've seen enough bad hires even in places that have well planned hiring processes that I'm having trouble believing this would be any worse.
IT pay is well-known for being better than average, so I'd bet you'd have people who can move a mouse trying to get entry-level IT work at a company known for hiring anyone.
I can only infer from this statement that you have never been in a hiring position in which you are receiving the raw resume submissions from the field. You either have never been in a hiring position, or you've only had the post-filter resume stream sent to you.
However, I'd argue that unpaid contribution to open source software as a way to build reputation is not absurd, because the value you are creating is still available for you to use and benefit from. Additionally, you are free to work on anything you like - something you can't do at an organization which is compelling you to work for free.
I really don't think this can work. Whenever we post for a position, I get flooded with a bunch of garbage resumes from people who barely have an idea what programming is. We have work to do, and deadlines. We literally can't afford to turn ourselves into a technical training school.
A bakery, like in this example, seems like it could pull this off, since janitorial work at a bakery is straightforward but unlikely something you'd want to subcontract, and presents a natural place to interact with other workers in more specialized positions, through management or through learning more.
In software this is more difficult, because there's no longer a pipeline for things like data entry, assembly, or basic IT support (traditional inroads), especially at a smaller company, much less janitorial or food prep work that presents an opportunity to advance.
I think the hidden cost here, though, is that progression from one stage to another starts to resemble interviewing at a new company, with all the same biases and problems that result from hiring processes in general, with the possible exception that there's more direct information on personality and work ethic that can feed into the pipeline (for better or worse).
During the time I was there one guy turned out to be a genius and after a few years left to work for a big bank and another guy got enough experience to start his career as a dev somewhere else. The rest of us learnt a lot mentoring these guys and feel quite proud of them.
This was no more than 5 years ago.
That is exactly my story ('85 or thereabouts), with the added caveat that I didn't learn anything from the Cobol training program. The bank where I worked did not even have a way for mailroom people to get into IT, it was mostly because they got sick of my continued applications to IT jobs for which they though I wasn't qualified that I got the chance to do the course (with the qualifier that if I didn't succeed they never wanted to see me again).
So, I passed (and was the quickest person to complete the course) and ended up making a very rapid career in the IT department and after that started my own company.
Some observations:
- the entry level IT job paid four times as much as what the mail room job did
- work went from 5:30 am to 2 pm to 9'ish to 4'ish (ish because nobody ever checked who appeared when and when they left again whereas in the mailroom attendance was very strictly policed)
- in the mailroom you felt part of critical infrastructure, in IT there was zero pressure to perform
- bringing the mailroom attitude ('let's get some work done') to the IT department was not appreciated by the rest of the department
- the mailroom had zero office politics, if you stepped out of line you would get chewed out and that would be that, by comparison the IT department was a huge web of intrigue, and quite a few of the people there were downright mean and backstabbing each other all the time
- the mailroom was all guys, the IT department had exactly two women programmers on a total crew of about 120, the only other woman was a secretary to the head of IT
- There were a few talented people there but on the whole the talent level was rather low, but they were big on process and that really helped to get stuff out the door