Red Hat: a decade and a half in Brno
Tyler Siprova manages the recruiting team for Brno as well as other locations around Europe and the Middle East. She relocated to Brno 3 years ago to join Red Hat and calls the city her home now. BEC asks her about her business experience.
How would you describe the business Red Hat is doing to someone who does not have a clue? What products could our readers possibly know?
Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions via subscriptions and related support, training, and consulting services. Readers will probably know the operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux via Dreamworks movies like Shrek and Kung Fu Panda that were created on machines running our products. Readers may also know Fedora, the community operating system.
How long has Red Hat been active in Brno and how has your foreign crew changed over time?
Red Hat has been in Brno for almost 10 years, and it is one of the greatest success stories of our local community. Our population of foreign employees has increased over time and become more diverse. We’ve seen them creating their own communities both at work and around they city.
Can you tell us how many foreign employees do you have and what nationalities are represented the most?
Excluding Slovaks, more than 10% of our employees are foreigners; we currently have around 80. They are from EU countries including Italy, Spain, Hungary, and Greece and from non-EU countries; for example Russia, Moldova and the United States.
What do they usually appreciate in Brno? Is there anything that they especially miss here?
In Brno, they generally appreciate the reliability of the public transportation system. They also like the fact that the city is very safe. We have had a lot of positive feedback about city events like festivals, concerts and holiday markets. Of course, they love the Czech beer. In general, we receive very good feedback about Czech culture, arts and personal freedom. On the other side, many foreigners miss the lack of diversity in food. They would like to see more variety, fresher ingredients and better healthy options. You can already see this in Prague – it is quite easy to find high quality international or ethnic food there. We hope this will continue to improve in Brno as well.
What should the city improve to become more attractive for a hi-tech international company like Red Hat and its senior professionals?
The city must improve the general offerings of public services in English. Also, the public school system must find a way to offer Czech as a second language instruction for children. Right now, there are very limited opportunities for foreign families to enroll their children in Czech schools. The English school is quite expensive so many professionals do not have the option to send their children there. If they can‘t enroll them in public schools, they will have to relocate.
What specialization or skills should the candidates applying for a job at Red Hat in Brno have?
Our office in Brno is primarily an engineering center, so we are looking for very technical employees. We hire software engineers, test engineers, technical writers and technical support specialists. We are looking for people who enjoy working with Linux and are passionate about open source software. Our core values are freedom, courage, commitment, and accountability – if these are values you believe in, then you’ll be a great fit for Red Hat.
