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U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

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Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#131

Post by maxxxxx »

Maybe they should allow people a little time to learn the exact skills needed? These days you need to have done already what you will be doing on the new job. No time for learning anything even if it would take only a few days or weeks to get up to speed. How are people actually learning new stuff?

If Uber had looked for a CEO that way they would have rejected any candidate that hadn't run a fast growing ride sharing company with HR problems and an extremely high valuation and no clear path to profit. They would also complain about not being to find suitable candidates.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#133

Post by WalterSear »

havetocharge wrote: post #43
kartickv wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But maybe the job isn't economically worth it at the higher salary? You seem to be assuming it's worth doing at any price, as does the article, and that's untrue. Besides, I don't know about others, but I've recently put out multiple job ads for one vacancy. Our app, Noctacam, uses computational photography to take great photos at night. I was looking for someone with computational photography knowledge and/or iOS. A…

This is a great point. One can think of a job posting as a bid on the market. Not every bid results in trade. Similarly, not every job posting is a job, like your example demonstrated.

How many market bid values are covered until you go through a vetting process so extended that you can realistically only look at a relatively tiny number bids before making a decision?

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#134

Post by ChuckMcM »

I've been watching this tension grow for a while (otherwise qualified workers unwilling to work for the pay offered). I keep expecting the system to crack and boost pay, and then we'll see some more severe inflation in the US economy as a cycle of product costs go up rather than down. And yet it is stubbornly hanging in as employers try ever more intricate ways to avoid having that cost bump.

It is very much a prisoner's dilemma sort of situation. If one company boosts their pay (and their product prices to cover that pay) then they lose market share. If both boost pay they both make a bit more money as their prices go up simultaneous (no change in market share). If neither boost pay they continue to operate at a restricted level which doesn't allow them to do additional development or increase sales.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#135

Post by HillaryBriss »

thatcat wrote: post #82
icebraining wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? Does having the position open harm anyone?

It needlessly wastes peoples time.

yes.

it also adds noise to the information provided by the market, confusing job seekers who may adopt sub-optimal strategies

e.g. in reaction to a real job posting, the potential applicant may erroneously think "this listing is bullshit. i won't waste my time applying."

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#136

Post by WalterSear »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #95
existencebox wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done a good handful of interviews, I tend to look for "generic problem solving" (not in the sense of trick questions, but in the sense of running through ambiguous engineering and mixed social/engineering scenarios to see how they'd move forward) communication skills (the ability to communicate the above effectively, talk about past work, problems, successes) and frankly track record. (this is obviously harder…

Are you hiring programmers/developers or people like sys admins? It sounds like the latter, I can't imagine anyone hiring the former claiming dev skills are easy to pick up.

I think they are talking about picking up unfamiliar tools and languages that are reasonably close to their existing skillset rather than 'learning to code'.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#137

Post by alain94040 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #134

I've been watching this tension grow for a while (otherwise qualified workers unwilling to work for the pay offered). I keep expecting the system to crack and boost pay, and then we'll see some more severe inflation in the US economy as a cycle of product costs go up rather than down. And yet it is stubbornly hanging in as employers try ever more intricate ways to avoid having that cost bump. It is very much a prison…

That dam has burst years ago. Facebook, then Google, significantly increased their pay to software engineers and it lifted all the salaries in the bay area.

What's interesting is that this tide hasn't propagated very far outside California yet.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#138

Post by talmand »

jarsin wrote: post #19
5trokerac3 wrote: post #6

Insert comment about requiring 5 years of experience in a 3 year old language HR gating really is the worst thing going in American hiring practices today. "Do you have multiple years of experience with 99.9% of the skills listed as requirements, which only a handful of people in the country have? Yes, but I see that on our web form that you had to use to submit your resume you didn't check the box next to 'Degree in…

Or in the software world...I see you have essentially built my exact company before and have tons of experience, but what I really need to know before I hire you is...Can you show me how many queens you can put on a chess board in code!

let numQueens = 64;

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#139

Post by corporateslave3 »

cynicalkane wrote: post #113
altotrees wrote: post #91

Recently had a recruiter call me, interview me over the phone once, in-person once, and via skype once. The job seemed to be a great fit, the pay was there, everything seemed to be lined up. The recruiter called me again to tell me that they were going to be taking the next steps with me very shortly. A week of silence goes by, then another. I email, inquiring about the position. "Oh, we gave that to someone we had b…

I feel like there's two tiers of the software industry: those employable at AmaFaceGoogFlix or a competitor, and everyone else; but the "everyone else" is completely unaware that the first tier exists. It's like if minor league baseball had no idea about major league baseball. You even see it on HN. Someone will come along and talk about how a senior dev at Google can expect $250k a year. You'll get two categories of…

Yeah I see this as well. Some recruiters will name a number less than my current comp, and be completely astounded that I am already making that much.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#140

Post by damnfine »

altotrees wrote: post #117
jedmeyers wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It turns out I knew the person who did get the job"

They were in my Linkedin network, and a college friend coincidentally. I simply pinged them and asked them a few questions about the new job and interview process. I disclosed that I had also interviewed for it. They were a bit leery of their own skill level upfront, so even they were surprised when it was offered. An interesting situation.

Sounds like they simply took the job for less.
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