Ubuntu Jobs: What does it take to work for Canonical – I am asking?
I suppose there is lots like me that would love to work for Canonical. Now there is the why and the what. Here is my why and hopefully my readers can pitch in with the what part.
So why?
- I believe in what Canonical is trying to achieve with Ubuntu and the way they are going about doing it.
- I use Ubuntu daily as both my work machine and also my home and entertainment machine.
- It would be great to be able to say that I had a small part of bringing Ubuntu to the world. Had some small part already in doing some translations and reporting some bugs.
- Working with the best there is, is just awesome.
- I can work at home in the beautiful Cape Town and at the same time travel to other destinations all over the world.
- I am a professional Project Manager and believe that with my experience and skills, I can contribute and add value to the process of bringing each Ubuntu release to market. Running time-based projects is not the easiest of things particularly when the resources delivering that is spread across the world.
- Since Ubuntu has it’s roots in South Africa, I would love to work for Ubuntu as a South African. About time some South African blood and culture gets added to the Canonical mix :). From what I believe, Mark is the sole South African working at Canonical.
Some of the jobs that would suit me:
So what do you think it would take to work for Canonical? Here is some that I have come up with:
- Be able to operate in a global diverse team.
- Be able to work across various timezones.
- Be able to diligent, logical and precise.
- Have great time-management skills.
- Have great communication skills particularly electronic communication skills.
- Be great at what you doing … in my case Project Management.
- Be passionate about Open Source and the promotion of the Open Source environment.
- Be innovative and prepared to change and accept change.
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Hi,
I share your feelings about what it takes to work for Canonical. I while back I applied for a job, Project Manager, since I’m a project manager and Open Source (Ubuntu) evangelist, had a interview with one chap and that was that. Heard nothing else, not even a email saying you weren’t successful. So I must say, I don’t know. Maybe you need to know people that know people 🙂
I hope you get some response or joy with the chaps. I would like to work for them as well. Nothing better to work for a company that you share believes with/in.
I’m aware of at least seven South Africans (besides Mark) who have worked for Canonical, including myself. It’s been years since I was involved and I don’t know how many of them are still with Canonical.
Canonical’s grown a lot in the last few years and no doubt the company culture has changed, but when I was involved, we used IRC constantly to stay in touch, and had regular IRC meetings that rotated to different time slots to accommodate people in different time zones.
Attending the UDS summits and sprints and additional staff events means the travel adds up.
From observing the Ubuntu community since the beginning, the best way to get a job at Canonical is to just start doing whatever you want to do for the Ubuntu community, and those who make an impact seem to end up on the Canonical payroll sooner or later.
Work toward Ubuntu membership. Blog about Ubuntu. Participate in alpha and beta testing – hug days. Sign up for lots of mailing lists. Get to know the dev community and interact with them.
Thanks for the comments Morgan and David.
Yes I knew that there were a few SA people working for Canonical in the past but just like you, am not sure how many is left. I believe that timezone is not a real issue these days anymore .. I work for a global company which include both people from US and India and we make it work.