vanessa

Batman movies would be great for this list - he's one of the few superheroes that doesn't claim to have any actual super powers, but rather derives his power from kickass, well-engineered gear.

CodeMontage's fee covers the cost of helping you find projects that are right for your level (perhaps you can navigate this on your own, but many people new to development and new to open source struggle with this), facilitating feedback and making sure you get code reviews, and helping you measure your improvement as a coder, not just asking you to volunteer without measuring your impact.

This is the first formal session of CodeMontage, and in the future we plan to make the whole platform and participation much more flexible than formal sessions. Hope that helps!

Cool post! I've seen a lot of beginners learn to code (I started a non-profit to help bring more women into software development) and while we're addressing the issue of code literacy, there's still a huge skills gap between those who "can code"/ have done some tutorials and those who are ready to flexibly architect software.

I'm hoping to make the process of going from newbie to experienced easier and more meaningful with CodeMontage (http://bit.ly/CodeMontageLaunch) - you get to work on real, open-source and social-mission projects, you get feedback and code reviews from experienced developers, and you build a portfolio of open source, quality code that you can reference later or use to get a job. It's also really nice for the experienced developers / experts in a language to be able to give code reviews on important projects - it's nice if you have a friend willing to pair on your side project, but definitely can wear on a relationship over time (and when all your friends are learning to code...).

Really great point re: ignoring self-proclaimed awesome anything. I automatically filter out meaningless words, but I also read through job posts quickly so sometimes I'm inexact and accidentally filter out the entire post. I guess it's up to the company if they want to read this post and improve, or risk getting ignored by busy readers?

Being any kind of founder is all about shipping - closing the gap between idea and execution. Melissa learned to code on the side, while running a business, and most importantly, she actually shipped that code.

This isn't about perfect code or Melissa becoming a software developer, it's about a kickass founder doing whatever it takes to see her vision become reality. So much respect for this lady! She is exactly the kind of non-tech founder worth working for.

1 - Everyone has something to offer! Maybe you can offer feedback on an entrepreneur's concept, in trade for hearing more about whatever you want to learn about their business?

2 - Ohours has the ability to cancel and send messages to people who request appointments, so I always say go for it! Let the host determine if there might be a better way to spend time. A no is better than missing the opportunity when they might have been thrilled to talk with you.

I think iOS shows something slightly different about the employer's motivation, since they're deliberately including iPad by saying iOS vs narrowly referring to iPhone.

Do you think charting them separately and also together would be better? Or just consolidate them and lose the subtle difference?

Is it possible the company may not have more than 6 months of runway? 1000 hours couldn't possibly be a well-scoped amount of work. You're not being given the security or compensation a full-time hire deserves OR the finite scope a contractor deserves. Even if you believe in the company and think the 5% is/will be worth something, consider what specifically you're being asked to do and be very clear with expectations. I'd also break up the agreement into smaller projects, with both cash and equity if you want equity, so that you have the opportunity to part ways on good terms instead of an all-or-nothing equity lump.

Sony: "Oh, no! Not a hacker! They're the ones that know when we sneak DRM into our products and rat us out to our customers!"

The hacker solidarity here is awesome, but I agree let's not overestimate Sony's recruitment team.

I think the author probably meant this on a broad, business and marketing strategy level, but the concept holds for programming and database design as well. Until you have worked with highly scaled or long-lived programs, you probably shouldn't make calls on what kind of "hacks" are okay and what aren't. It's the knowledge of the rules and the experience of learning why they're the rules that really enables you to break them with little cost and sometimes huge advantage to your organization. I think this is true of NoSQL solutions in some shops - until you understand the purpose of normalization and the ways it affects data integrity, maintainability, performance, etc you really shouldn't be allowed to "break the rules" by denormalizing, using only unstructured document storage, etc. They certainly have a place and can be great tools, but all of their weaknesses and problems manifest when implemented blindly/without regard for "the rules" and where they came from.

Thanks for posting this - I think regardless of market rate you've identified a key problem in the hiring industry, especially in software. The incentives for recruitment agencies/headhunters to do ridiculously shady things like copy your ad and then sell you candidates (without even necessarily telling you they promised the candidates more money) are high because companies feel so lost in the hiring process, sometimes they are willing to pay. And they usually get burned/waste a lot more time and money (in my experience).

Good for you for calling them out when they're clearly not providing a respectable service to you OR the jobseeker.

You'll need to tell the employer before signing any paperwork, for sure, but you don't necessarily need to mention it in your first or second interview unless it comes up. I'm not suggesting you deceive the employer, just that you can take time to evaluate them and let them evaluate you for your skills before providing details on your off-time projects. If they discount you for being passionate enough about development to start your own, non-competitive thing on the side, they're probably not a great fit for you.

This comes without the bogus $30/mo Pro membership fee PayPal charges for checkout on your site. I have limited experience with both, but sounds like a score for Amazon to me.

What a generous offer! Thanks for sharing your experience. One of the key things Catchafire is hoping to do is guide non-profits to determine discrete, short-term projects. Clear goals help them get organized and have been proven to facilitate quality volunteer experiences. Obviously, though, it's not an easy thing to accomplish.

I’m working to startup a web service called Catchafire that connects professionals who want to volunteer their skills with non-profits and social ventures who need them. Catchafire just finished a pilot program in NYC – I was able volunteer my tech skills then and it was a great experience – and we’re currently working on alpha. We’re always looking out for development help, so feel free to contact me (info in my profile) if you’re interested or have questions or suggestions.

Has anyone else on HN been able to volunteer tech skills directly? What was your experience?