A cultural difference

There's an interesting difference between the UK and US, regarding volunteer work. I've run into it before, but I've just encountered it again.

The US company wants to know why our names aren't all over the tools we built, since it would be great promotion and a boost to the CV. In the UK in certain industries like computing, doing volunteer work or even hobby coding is not a boost to your CV. In fact, it has the opposite effect.

For example, an agent who became aware I'd built them promptly offered me a lowered rate for my next role on the grounds that I must be desperate since I'd done work for free. It is a sadly common attitude.

I wrote a small chat program for free for my own use as few years back, only to have a later potential employer say that since I could do that for myself, I could give it to them for free, uncredited. They remained a potential.

In general volunteering isn't viewed by the value of the code or the experience or the skills it demonstrates, just the price tag: the classic "price of everything, value of nothing".

This view also has the side effect of stifling innovation. After all, why try to develop something in your spare time or do coding research, if the company will either a) dock your pay or b) demand the rights? It is generally not good for anyone.

The problem right now is how to communicate this politely to a US company, where the idea that displaying useful and effective coding skills could be a liability on a CV seems to be rather alien.

(For any coders not put off by this, IT4Communities is a useful place to find charities who need help.)