Would you hire this developer?

Both sides have a problem with an attitude and are worthy of each other.<p>&#62; <i>Contributing to open source projects matters more than your marks in school to us and to a lot of other companies around.</i><p>Maybe it matters more to <i>them</i> and perhaps it's specific to India, but in Canada participation of a candidate in open source projects is of just a cursory interest. Besides quoted exchange states that they simply wanted to look at guy's code. If so, then just ask for it. Getting into "thou shalt contribute to the open source" tirade is pretty much pointless given the context.

Maybe something's lost in translation there, but I can't believe the attitude of some people applying for jobs these days.<p>I mean, you need to convince the person that is reviewing your application that you are somehow extra special. I find it hard to understand how you'll do that by being arrogant and rude.

There are tons of developers in India, check this out:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=programming" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/trends?q=programming</a><p>The problem is for many, its a job, just like working at McDonalds — they aren't like us, they don't go home and work on open source projects and the like.<p>Also, with the mass of people doing it, especially those with little passion for the industry, they sometimes don't take care when it comes to security, etc..<p>Now thats not to say all developers from India are bad programmers, I've worked with quite a few code ninjas...you've just got to be careful!

Under most circumstances I would not and have not hired any programmer who could not provide some sort of demonstration program with a clean source and stable compile (depending on the language).

No -- but not because the developer didn't contribute to an open source project.<p>Communication skills are important in development, especially when you're working on a team and for someone else. The cover letter / intro email is the first test in the hiring process. Even if English is not your first language, you should be able to effectively introduce yourself, your skill set, your experience, and your interest in the position -- plus answer any other questions in the job posting.<p>This candidate failed the very first test. The "delete" key -- or, if the hiring manager is super nice, the "no thanks, good luck" reply -- should have been used immediately.

"We only work with devlopers who are willing to donate 20000$ to charity"????

Historically, I've only ever hired developers I've found through their contributions to Open Source software...but I've always built Open Source software, predominantly, so I wouldn't know how to select developers otherwise. But, it pretty much rules out the process of weeding through dozens of pointless applications like this, since I usually approach the developers I want to hire.

honestly I wouldn't hire anyone that can't take the time to spell out "you"

I would have ignored the application when I saw the first email. 1 year experience + no English is a bad combination.<p>+ lack of open source and 1 year, tells me that this is someone who just picked up a book and hasn't really done anything yet

&#62;<i>attitude of Indian developers towards contributing to open source projects</i><p>Huh? I know plenty of Indian open source developers (myself included)

No.