Dear Wikimedia Community,
Here is an update on the hiring process for the position of Programme Director:
To quickly summarize from my first post: we began seeking applications for this post in August, 2012, and held our first round of interviews with two candidates on October 7th, 2012. Following those interviews, we continued to accept applications for the position of Programme Director up until the 6th of November. At the final closing date, we had received 32 applications for the position in total.
Sunil and I evaluated all of the candidates on their knowledge and experience with openness, civil society, transparency and diversity, as well as their proficiency in Indic languages and technology. Further, those candidates that were being considered for interviews were asked if they were available to attend the interviews on the proposed dates and were informed of the salary for the position. After this evaluation process, 8 applicants in total were longlisted, and their application details were submitted to the recruitment committee. Two of those candidates were invited to the interviews on the 7th of October. Following those interviews, the recruitment committee decided to hold a second round of interviews with 5 further candidates from the longlist.
On November 10th, 2012, we held the second round of interviews at our Bengaluru office. Five candidates attended the interviews. The interviews were carried out by Arun Ramarathnam, Adethya Sudarsanan, Nitika Tandon and Sunil Abraham, who replaced Nishant Shah on the committee as the CIS representative. Unfortunately, Jessie Wild from the Wikimedia Foundation was unable to physically attend the interviews on the 10th, so she carried out interviews with the five applicants remotely during the week leading up to the interviews.
The interviews were carried out in a panel format. The recruitment committee split into two groups of two, and each group interviewed one candidate simultaneously for a one hour period. The interviews began at 9am and went until 3pm, with a break for lunch at 12pm. After the interviews, the four committee members met for a two hour period to discuss the interviews.
In both the first round of interviews on October 7th and the second round on November 10th, the candidates were evaluated on the following criteria: analytical thinking, interpersonal skills, communication skills, relevant experience, understanding of the responsibilities of the position, understanding of the A2K and Wikimedia movements, comfort with unstructured work environments, experience in community driven projects, motivators for job, mission alignment with job and ethical fiber. Other factors that the committee took into consideration were fundraising experience, presentability to media, their proficiency in multiple languages, their experience working with the Wikimedia community, and whether or not they are willing to work out of Delhi.
On the 20th of November, a conference call was held between all five members of the recruitment committee to discuss the interviews and the next steps in the hiring process.
Out of the 7 applicants that were interviewed, two candidates were selected to continue on to the next step in the hiring process. As was mentioned in our first update, we would like these two candidates to undergo an online assignment under community scrutiny before the final candidate is selected.
For this public exercise, we suggest the following assignment: both finalists will prepare a 1200 words (approx. two pages) essay on what they will do/achieve as Programme Director of the A2K programme over a year's time, using the A2K programme workplan (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge/Programme_Plan) as a reference. 300 words must be written about the first 60 days (2 months) of their work. These essays will be posted under pen names, and the community will be given two calendar weeks to publicly pose questions to the candidates and receive responses.
After this point, the committee will use the feedback from the community to make a final decision on which candidate will become the Programme Director.
Thank you,
Jadine