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