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The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

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Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#21

Definitely tech companies don't do enough to recruit and train novice programmers. Cue the "Junior level" position with a 3 year experience requirement. That said, certainly the group that face the most racial inequalities and lack of institutional privilege in the American job market are humans who had the unfortunate luck of being born outside her borders.

The phasing out of on-the-job training is an atrocity, IMO, especially since what tends to replace it is training at a university, which ought (imo) be a place where people can get some education that isn't oriented primarily toward making them better workers.

It's especially ironic since often the university is a public institution, and the tech world (and the business world generally) tends to be so down on the public sphere and are big boosters of private enterprise. But they're not above taking a giant, giant handout in the form of worker training and then pissing and moaning when they think it isn't coming fast enough.

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#22
post #14
post #8

> Few businesses give interns real coding assignments or support them adequately. Many can’t or won’t pay interns, which erects a privilege barrier by excluding anyone who doesn’t have savings to weather working for nothing for a few months. I'm a university student in a co-op CS program and most of my classmates, many with no previous programming experience, found good jobs that pay well where they get real experien…

Can confirm, I don't know a single person who studied CS at Waterloo and graduated with $1 of debt. Most had cars and hefty savings accounts along with job offers by senior year.

My company aggressively hires interns and new grads out of Waterloo.

I wish more CS programs would follow their model.

For those that don't know, the CS program at Waterloo is 5 years long. 4 years for the traditional education but there's also a requirement that the student complete FIVE internships at different companies(thus the extra year).

It's a great combination of learning and on the job training, and they get paid for their work.

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#23
post #8

> Few businesses give interns real coding assignments or support them adequately. Many can’t or won’t pay interns, which erects a privilege barrier by excluding anyone who doesn’t have savings to weather working for nothing for a few months. I'm a university student in a co-op CS program and most of my classmates, many with no previous programming experience, found good jobs that pay well where they get real experien…

Where and what are these schools? What about your average state school outside of the tech areas?

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#24
The tech talent shortage is a lie when you don't know what tech talent actually looks like. It also doesn't exist nearly as strong as it does in SV. Remote is a solution, but not everyone knows how to run a company with remote employees.

> And therein lies the problem: The real shortage isn’t of talented people; it’s of employers (and, by implication, society) who are willing or able to nurture talented people.

When everyone has a runway of 18 months, spending the time and money to nurture talented people isn't feasible whatsoever. You need productive people on day 1.

> Despite the tech industry’s propensity to hire people of privilege, research shows that people with different backgrounds are no less capable or successful as software engineers than those from privileged circles. And there are strong bottom-line arguments for a more diverse workplace.

Yet, the author's company is full of white males in their 20's and 30's...[0] It sounds like the author wants other people, with other capital to invest in the hard part of what he's suggesting to be solved.

For the record, Google brings in 1,500 interns per year. That's a pretty significant investment in talented people who many not necessarily be productive...(hint: they take a lot of Stanford CS undergrads) of which many will eventually take full time jobs there when they graduate. I've tried to hire these people and they are extremely difficult to attract when the alternative is a cushy job at Google.

[0] - https://www.vividcortex.com/about-us/#leadership

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#25

"The tech talent shortage is a lie... you just have to train people so there'll be no shortage several years from now." So there is a shortage. But clickbait gets clicks.

You can hire and start training people now. They can start being useful fast. The whole bootcamp model proves this. If there's such a shortage businesses could just subsidize the bootcamps.

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#26
post #16

Of course it's a lie. Like with many industries, worker 'shortages' only exist at the price level the corporations want to pay. So they artificially inflate supply to lower wages. Nothing new here.

I am not sure what you mean by 'want to pay'. It isn't like the companies that can't pay higher prices are rolling in profit. The companies that DO make a lot of money DO pay their engineers good wages. It is just that most companies tech workers don't add enough profit to afford their work.

If a company will make $100k extra in profit a year from the work a developer does, but the worker capable of doing that costs $150k a year, that company isn't going to be able to hire the worker. It isn't about 'wanting to pay them less' it is about the fact that every worker needs to produce more value than they cost, or the company will go out of business .

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#27
post #14
post #8

> Few businesses give interns real coding assignments or support them adequately. Many can’t or won’t pay interns, which erects a privilege barrier by excluding anyone who doesn’t have savings to weather working for nothing for a few months. I'm a university student in a co-op CS program and most of my classmates, many with no previous programming experience, found good jobs that pay well where they get real experien…

Can confirm, I don't know a single person who studied CS at Waterloo and graduated with $1 of debt. Most had cars and hefty savings accounts along with job offers by senior year.

Well, not all universities are Waterloo.

The shortage comes from all companies only wanting Waterloo/MIT/Stanford/etc-like grads, but there's only so many.

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#29
I cringe every time I hear someone say it's hard to find talent. I've been a software engineer for over 12 years now and I know I'm good at it. My problem is that I truly suck at interviewing. I have no social issues whatsoever, I'm just a normal guy outside the interview room, but when I do get in there - I'm at my absolute worse. I've been out of work for going on 8 months now and I just don't get it.

I've tried many things to overcome my severe interview anxiety and I've tried creative ways of getting employers to give a second chance or even a better first chance :) But it fails me each and every time.

Re: The Tech Talent Shortage Is a Lie

#30
post #8

> Few businesses give interns real coding assignments or support them adequately. Many can’t or won’t pay interns, which erects a privilege barrier by excluding anyone who doesn’t have savings to weather working for nothing for a few months. I'm a university student in a co-op CS program and most of my classmates, many with no previous programming experience, found good jobs that pay well where they get real experien…

Where and what are these schools? What about your average state school outside of the tech areas?

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I don't mean to sound rude but it's easy to not see any issues with the industry's hiring when you go to Waterloo/MIT/Stanford/etc.
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