On: Why we use progressive enhancement to build Gov.uk

[toyg]

I'm just back from this year's PyCon UK. There were quite a few GDS people there, they've attended for several years now in increasing numbers. All good geeks doing good work (and recruiting!).

[OJFord → toyg]

    > and recruiting!

When I looked previously it seemed the department was hiring only for short-term contracts?

Which worries me a bit if that's the case - I think it's fantastic what and how they're doing it, but not if the philosophy is "ship it and forget".

[robin_reala → OJFord]

Nope, go to https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/ and put Government Digital Service into the organisation field. We’re currently recruiting developers / senior developers and web ops. No pure front-end developers at the moment though.

Re short term contracts, we hire for two year contracts but it’s not explained well that it’s trivial to extend those. We’re also trying to make roles permanent as well in general.

[nikon → robin_reala]

do you hire contractors, too?

[robin_reala → nikon]

We do, although that doesn’t go through a central system and is on a team by team basis. If you’re interested get hold of me on Twitter and I’ll see if I can point you in the right direction.