Top 10 Ways to Find Open Source Software Developers besides resume/CV search

by Glenn Gutmacher

Q: Do you have any recommendations for skill sites to find LAMP, PHP and Python developers? I found a few but nothing great.

A: You will increase your possibilities greatly if you realize that you are basically talking about open source developers (what you mentioned are some of their primary tools/platforms - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Python). The ones who are skilled in this arena don't need to promote themselves much (open source is hot, though don't count Microsoft out yet ;-) so they don't have to post resumes, and if they do, may not include the obvious programmatic keywords in their online footprint to minimize communication overload ("Funny, you are the 35th recruiter to call me today!").

I'm not saying you shouldn't do standard resume/CV search strings, but there are other options if that doesn't turn up enough of what you need. Your question was a bit vague - LAMP/PHP/Python developers are plentiful - so by skill sites, I assume you mean places that will let you search by number of years of a particular programming skill? I don't know any free sites that offer that in the aggregate (an example of a big tech job board with this option is Dice, but requires a paid login). I imagine you have some other job requirements that would narrow the field (e.g, by industry vertical expertise, geography, etc.) which would help narrow your search string criteria.

In any case, here are my top 10 most fruitful categories of sources that will lead you to open source candidates (I'm open to suggestions of others that have worked for my blog readers - I'll dig up a prize for the best one), not necessarily in this order:

1) Niche industry news portals: like OnLamp where you can find out about open source development projects. You can find other such sites simply by adding the word "portal" to a keyword/phrase string (e.g., python portal) on any major search engine.

2) Speaker/panelist lists: Find them from open source developer conferences (e.g., this was last week). They may be over-qualified, but querying their names on search engines will lead you to like people.

3) Blogs: On that note, also check out their blogs, because their blogrolls will link to other qualified folks and their posts will talk about interesting projects/people (e.g., look at this post - and don't forget that the people who post reply comments are potential candidates!)

4) Certifications: search on some of the unique open source certification acronyms (can add it as keyword to resume/CV queries, too) like CMDEV for MySQL developers.

5) Training: On a related note, you could ping companies that offer such cert training to see if they'd promote your opportunities to their alumni (maybe this) or request their list to reach out yourself (you never know if you don't ask!).

6) Discussion lists/forums: This is a goldmine for your needs. Find the niche ones where these types of developers ask and answer technical questions, and you've got relevant talent. One of several ways to do this is to search on Google Groups. Use the "search for a group" search box halfway down the page, not the default "search groups" at the top. The latter will search for your keyword within all postings, whereas the former just searches the group name/description. (There are valuable uses for the default search, but not in the case.) For example, try this. Since you're looking for quality candidates, remember that large groups aren't necessarily better than small ones. Once you're perusing group posts, people's names, what they say, and usually companies and emails, are revealed so it's not hard to track them down. Tip: the ones who answer questions tend to be more knowledgeable, all else equal, than the ones who ask questions (on Google Groups, use the insubject:re command to limit results to those).

7) Company names/titles: You're going to start finding company names that these people work for - those are fabulous keywords to use on search engines, social networks, etc., in combination with the job titles associated with developers at those companies. If you're unsure what those job titles are, use a job aggregator like Indeed or SimplyHired and in the left-hand column of search results, it will show you the variations.

8) Competitions/Awards: Search for people or companies who have won things in this space. All else equal, award-winning software tends to be designed by better developers (high revenue software would be another nice way to search, but we're talking open source where the money trail is harder to come by). As an example string template geared to companies, you can use phrases like award winning, best of, etc., along with your open source keywords to find things like this (hat tip to this post by my former Microsoft sourcing colleague, Jim Stroud)

9) What-they-do keywords: I probably should have said this earlier, but think about what open source developers do (in addition to working on software/IT services for companies). For example, they create toolkits (that or SDK is a keyword), they use open source licensing (GPL is a keyword), they contribute modules or libraries, they work on open source platforms/operating systems with unique names (Debian, Eclipse, Ubuntu), etc. That should give you plenty of fodder for search strings and places to go.

10) Project Portals: Last but not least, you can go to the sites where open source software projects are hosted, which leads you to people, because the contributors (who are mostly volunteer) are typically listed publicly. The largest is http://sourceforge.net - start by using its default search with a few keywords, then click on the Members link next to any result. Instant contact list!