Live data from Hacker News

Tech sector in hiring drive

online.wsj.com

1–10 of 26 posts

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#3
What I find remarkable about the chart is the volume of tech jobs in D.C. relative to the population:

D.C. has a population of about 600 thousand versus about 8 million in NYC and yet tech hiring seems to be roughly on a par in these two cities.

That's mind blowing (to me at least).

If that's correct, it must be virtually impossible to be an unemployed programmer in D.C.

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#4
post #3

What I find remarkable about the chart is the volume of tech jobs in D.C. relative to the population: D.C. has a population of about 600 thousand versus about 8 million in NYC and yet tech hiring seems to be roughly on a par in these two cities. That's mind blowing (to me at least). If that's correct, it must be virtually impossible to be an unemployed programmer in D.C.

It could also mean that it's still relatively hard to find a programming job in NYC, or that a greater proportion of DC companies use dice.com than NYC companies.

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#5
There are different folks qualified for different size companies.

Some people do best at the 1-5 person company. Some people do best at the 5-25 person company. Some people do best at the 25-100 person company. And some people do best at 100-250, and 250+.

The best people are the ones that grow with you as the company grows and take on bigger leadership roles as needed, constantly working for what's best for the company and it's people.

The people Google is hiring at 20,000 are generally not the people I want as we go from 25 to 100. That's not universally true, but when we lose a candidate (which is rare) it's because they go to another start-up and they had to make a real tough choice, often resorting to commute and other lesser factors to decide. It's not because they went to Google or LinkedIn.

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#6
post #3

What I find remarkable about the chart is the volume of tech jobs in D.C. relative to the population: D.C. has a population of about 600 thousand versus about 8 million in NYC and yet tech hiring seems to be roughly on a par in these two cities. That's mind blowing (to me at least). If that's correct, it must be virtually impossible to be an unemployed programmer in D.C.

Is it because of government related jobs?

"So you lived in the imperial seat in the US, the one are where 75% of people are working for the government (directly or indirectly), and the one place that actually GREW during the current recession."

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1271560

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#7
post #3

What I find remarkable about the chart is the volume of tech jobs in D.C. relative to the population: D.C. has a population of about 600 thousand versus about 8 million in NYC and yet tech hiring seems to be roughly on a par in these two cities. That's mind blowing (to me at least). If that's correct, it must be virtually impossible to be an unemployed programmer in D.C.

DC's metropolitan area population is more than a quarter the size of NYC's, so it's as much of a surprise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metropolitan_Area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_metropolitan_area

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#8
I can echo this. I've had two Fortune 500 companies, several recruiters, and even Google all contact me (unsolicited too) within the past month. It's the oddest thing I've seen in the 13 years I've been a developer.

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#9
post #5

There are different folks qualified for different size companies. Some people do best at the 1-5 person company. Some people do best at the 5-25 person company. Some people do best at the 25-100 person company. And some people do best at 100-250, and 250+. The best people are the ones that grow with you as the company grows and take on bigger leadership roles as needed, constantly working for what's best for the comp…

You also have to take into consideration the life status of your employees. As we get older and start families, you tend to value stability, money, and fewer work hours over the start-up culture. Google, LinkedIn, and other late-stage startups offer the best of both worlds.

Re: Tech sector in hiring drive

#10
post #3

What I find remarkable about the chart is the volume of tech jobs in D.C. relative to the population: D.C. has a population of about 600 thousand versus about 8 million in NYC and yet tech hiring seems to be roughly on a par in these two cities. That's mind blowing (to me at least). If that's correct, it must be virtually impossible to be an unemployed programmer in D.C.

There's over 5 million people in the D.C. area (D.C., Southern MD and Northern Virginia). Coupled with a highly educated workforce, plentiful higher education options, and a rapidly modernizing federal government, and you actually see very very few unemployed developers. Most places I know in the area get the vast vast majority of their resumes from incoming immigrants looking for an H1-B sponsor or a Green Card sponsor.

D.C. proper by comparison has very little going on.

Post reply on HN