ProvinceRB

Leaving Paris

Paris is a great city to live in and have fun.
It's tougher on families, especially due to prices.

Many people want to leave Paris, and go to some countryside or smaller town: their own childhood city, their partner's, or any other.
Of course a main problem is finding a job there.

As a rubyist and railer I get a huge lot of job offers.
As ParisRB's organiser many people ask if I know devs open to new opportunities.

The only advice is: be different, give them what they want (autonomy, mastery, purpose, money). I push the agenda of remote working quite a lot, but many people are not ready.

What it is: a proxy

I don't have names and numbers to give.
I'd love to say "yes I have plenty of skilled people, but one is in Toulouse, two in Lille, and two are in Paris but would only consider changing jobs if you hire for Rennes or Grenoble."

So I'd be a proxy: devs send me they're willing to change jobs, and where they want to go. This all stays anonymous until I get a firm opening and promise for the city.

Would-be employers would have to provide either the city, or the days they are willing to let you do remote working. Let's even ask how many days in which city they want (2 days a week/month in Paris is OK for many big french cities).
We'll ask a few things everyone wants to know (salary range, actual company so recruiters are out), and whatever the candidate tells me they want to know.
As an experiment I'd love to ask the full team composition for small companies: "oh really, how many devs and bizdevs, what stacks or companies has the CTO tried before?" kind of thing.
Also that'd expose team which are too uniform "how come you don't have any 30 somethings, is working with you incompatible with kids?".

That'd make my filtering much more efficient, while pushing YOUR agenda. "Too bad you can't find a dev in Paris because Nantes or Marseile would allow you to have two great interviews."

What it is not: a recruitment company

I have a real company, thanks. I'm not becoming a recruiter. This is all free, for happiness, sharing, efficiency and karma.
Also I'm less of a "remote" person and more of a "nice city except Paris". This is the direction I want to give ProvinceRB, but not mandatory.

What's in for me? Mostly nothing but trouble. I will take care of your personal data the best I can, I promise I won't tell your employer anything, but that's it. I can't be screening every company or recruit.

Of course my company wants to hire the best, but the rules are clear. If I notice a handful of great people going in the same direction I might push my partners to get a local antenna there, that's all, as any other employer. I think that's giving back to the community anyway.