The Future of Work: MySQL AB and Telecommuting

Fortune has a great profile on MySQL AB, the commercial company behind the popular open-source db. I have met some of these guys, and the article is spot on in its description of how the company works:

... MySQL hires strictly for skills, assessing raw talent by watching prospective workers grapple with technical problems. CEO MÃ¥rten Mickos, who works in the 30-person home base, has hired many an engineer sight unseen. By some accounts that's just as well

... From a safe distance Mickos will ask such questions as "How do you plan your day?"

If a reply comes back that says "I always sleep until 11 A.M., and then I start working," Mickos doesn't want to hear any more. He's sold. "The brightest engineers like the calmness and coolness of the night," he says.

He is also wary of hiring "young men without a wife or a girlfriend or a dog or parents. They are at risk because they can get so immersed in their job that it drives them crazy. We don't want the type who read e-mails on their way to brush their teeth. They need a life."

Naturally his final question is "By the way, where do you live?" "I'm not the sort of CEO who needs to see everybody sweat and work hard," says Mickos. "These are passionate people who aren't going to stop because somebody isn't looking."

Software developer Oleksandr "Sanja" Byelkin, who lives in the southeastern Ukraine city of Lugansk, was hired in 2001 without ever having spoken to a soul at MySQL. "My ability with spoken English was not so good," says Byelkin, 33. While his English has improved, the spotty phone service where he lives still serves as a handy barrier. (We were disconnected twice.)

... Shawn Green, 39, joined MySQL in May and works out of a converted dining room in Blountville, Tenn. A former MySQL customer, he was discovered by one of the Russian developers who was monitoring an IRC channel where Green was active.

MySQL has brought aboard more than 50 employees from its user group, reckons Kaj Arnö, vice president of community relations. The possibility that they might get hired fires up outside contributors. In some circles, it's considered prestigious to have had the company accept a fix you've made.

And MySQL will make sure everyone knows it, touting such achievements in documentation, inserting names into press releases, and bestowing awards at the company's annual users' conference.

Make sure you read the whole article!