Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 132 posts

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#21

Post by crdoconnor »

freyfogle wrote: post #11
x0x0 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an awesome situation. Two interview cycles ago, I wanted a full month of unpaid vacation on top of the normal vacation package. I told each I would take a 1/12 pay cut in exchange. It was a huge obstacle for employers.

The problem is if they give you your special deal, they have to give everyone their own special deal which becomes an absolute nightmare to manage.

I think that's bullshit. I think it's purely about trying to keep everybody in the dark about each other's compensation packages.

It's easier to keep employees in the dark about money because of the taboo talking about it. If Tom spent the last month sunning himself in the Maldives, on the other hand, he's probably not going to shut up about it.

Compensation secrecy is a fairly straightforward way of dragging down payroll costs, which are going to be the biggest drag by far on the bottom line in a software company.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#22

Post by kreetx »

adjkant wrote: post #2

I usually hate posts about top job, top tech talent, etc. This post was a lot of great stuff. The idea of pairing talented people of different levels is crucial. A senior lead with shit backup can only do so much. The right balance I think can turn two mythical 10x devs into 100x total instead of 20x. Of course, make sure those people are also compatible, as half the 10x devs I know are loners who don't mix well and…

Agreed, this post gets a lot of things right IMO.

An idea I've had on 10x developers (or whatever the multiplier..) is not that they can code and solve problems this much faster, but in the long term they steer the code base as a whole in a direction such that the impact is that large. (But of course recognizing this, or being able to compare it to the other would-be ways the code could have gone, is a non-trivial matter :).

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#23

Post by qaq »

madamelic wrote: post #19

Are people really making these salaries? I mean like mid-level, not god-tier type people. I don't know if I am stupid or just don't say the right things but are there really mid-level devs not at huge companies making $160k a year? I mostly hang out at startups and it is normally around like 130k for a senior dev.

"startups" is the keyword here

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#24

Post by Nursie »

TamDenholm wrote: post #18

Senior developer salaries in my local area (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) are £30k-£40k which is about $42k - $56k USD. On a £40k salary you pay roughly £9,500 in tax. Ive no idea what the tax rate is in America but the difference in salaries between the UK and the US is astounding.

The UK mostly pays developers a derisory salary.

Australia seems to pay roughly on a par with the US, or did when I lived there. But most of the UK is dreadful - software folks are paid poorly and treated like drones.

Unfortunately there are enough people that will take the bad salary, have mediocre performance and deliver mediocre software slowly, that a lot of British companies now expect to pay peanuts and get monkeys.

I've found the only way to replicate the money you can get elsewhere is to be a contractor. You can make about double your quoted figure outside London (my experience in the Hampshire/Wiltshire/Dorset region), or triple or more if you land something bank related in London. No idea what might be available in Edinburgh.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#25

Post by ldarcyftw »

TamDenholm wrote: post #18

Senior developer salaries in my local area (Edinburgh, Scotland, UK) are £30k-£40k which is about $42k - $56k USD. On a £40k salary you pay roughly £9,500 in tax. Ive no idea what the tax rate is in America but the difference in salaries between the UK and the US is astounding.

What's the point in getting all those $$$K if a single major medical event (like cancer) will bankrupt you? Ah, and I just checked my retirement calculator. It claims that once I retire at 67 I'll have to pay $8K/month for my medical insurance.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#26

Post by neebz »

I loved remote work and did a lot of effort to ensure that we adopt a remote-friendly culture.

However I will never get over the fact that we found some of our engineers ended up doing freelancing work, over-estimating work and basically just slacking around in the freedom of their homes.

I would love to hear if anyone had similar experiences or how they prevent such in remote environments.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#27

Post by weeksie »

I really wish we'd start using a term like journeyman to talk about what people insist on calling "senior developers". A person with 3-6 years of experience isn't senior. That's preposterous on its face. Nor is a 3-6 year developer a junior, but we are woefully inept at using meaningful terms for developers.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#28

Post by freyfogle »

crdoconnor wrote: post #21
freyfogle wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is if they give you your special deal, they have to give everyone their own special deal which becomes an absolute nightmare to manage.

I think that's bullshit. I think it's purely about trying to keep everybody in the dark about each other's compensation packages. It's easier to keep employees in the dark about money because of the taboo talking about it. If Tom spent the last month sunning himself in the Maldives, on the other hand, he's probably not going to shut up about it. Compensation secrecy is a fairly straightforward way of dragging down pa…

In my experience as founder of a 20 plus employee start-up, I assumed all employees would find out each other's salary. There is no way to enforce secrecy, people talk. For exactly this reason it is better to have a clear policy. Having 20 different special deals - like "I want to work one month less, but get paid less" etc - means you spend all of your time managing HR. Everyone thinks the other person's deal is better. Absolute nightmare to manage. Much better to transparently say "This is what we pay, this is what we offer in terms of benefits / flexibility (location, time off, etc). If that matches your needs, great. If not, we are not the right employer for you."

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#29

Post by maxxxxx »

sharkdesk wrote: post #6

Lots of good ideas in the article - the key is to really stand out. I take 10 weeks off a year to go travelling - true vacation time, not remote work. I know I can get a 20% raise if I switched companies (I know that because I got an offer), but I stay where I am because i can't imagine going back down to 3 weeks of vacation a year.

I would love that. I have offered a pay cut in exchange for more vacation but management couldn't even compute the suggestion. It's a foreign concept to them.

Re: Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent

#30

Post by maxxxxx »

crdoconnor wrote: post #20
sharkdesk wrote: post #6

Lots of good ideas in the article - the key is to really stand out. I take 10 weeks off a year to go travelling - true vacation time, not remote work. I know I can get a 20% raise if I switched companies (I know that because I got an offer), but I stay where I am because i can't imagine going back down to 3 weeks of vacation a year.

It's weird that more companies don't offer more vacation as a perk. Offering 40 days instead of 25 means 15 days of foregone work for the company - 6% fewer days worked a year. But, it looks a lot better than a 6% increase in pay on paper. Moreover, you probably lose much less than that because you'll have better rested, less stressed, probably more productive employees and it will help cut down on employees making t…

From me experience at least in the US there is a moral component to more vacation. The managers I have dealt with acted a little as if wanting more vacation is a moral failing of the person.
Post reply on HN