Turning a Job Opening into a Dream Job for Top Talent • Hacker News Board

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

#111

Post by crdoconnor » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 7:31 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #108

crdoconnor wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get what you're saying, but contractors by their nature tend to be mobile and motivated by pay. This strongly increases the likelihood of an outflow, especially if companies don't react to the extra taxes by raising pay. The effect is compounded because a) good techies really like to work with other good techies and b) losing most of the good ones also means losing all of the people who can recognize other good tec…

Contractors are mobile in the sense that they can change company every 3 months. They stay in the same area. They are not mobile to move themselves and their family across the border periodically.

shrug half the ones I know have done precisely that already and I've done it too.

I don't doubt that there will always be some that won't or can't cross a border though.

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

#112

Post by chx » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 7:47 PM UTC

sailfast wrote: post #73

chx wrote: post #15

What this doesn't talk about enough is work impact -- mentioned yes but doesn't emphasize it. These are shitty years and it eats me I am working for an enterprise gardening their websites instead of literally making the world a better place. I mean, sure, it pays and challenging and whatnot but I miss NowPublic dearly because we made a god damn difference. We ran one of the biggest Katrina missing person boards. We w…

USDS is hiring. Defense Digitally service is hiring. VA Digital service is hiring. Other government agencies responsible for these missions every day are hiring. It’s a weird climate, sure, but all those missions still need doing. Further, organizations like Urban institute, NCRC, other advocacy groups are getting deeper into data visualization and web platforms for advocacy and need help - sounds like you know where…

I am Canadian here.

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

#113

Post by Nursie » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 8:02 PM UTC

muse900 wrote: post #39

Nursie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mon…

Completely agree with you. In the London area it’s white expensive to live due to how expensive housing is. Contracting might be a good thing for a tech guy with a specific skill but a lot of people like me like to have something standard and be more secure in a way that they won’t need to search for another gig in 3 months. I guess the more contracting you do the more reliable you become and you constantly close dow…

(Trying not to sound patronising but...) I used to think thay way, until I got confident in my own abilities.

It helps I enjoy interviewing and seem quite good at it.

--edit-- it also helps I don't have a family to support, so consistency of income is less of a concern for me.

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

#114

Post by pinewurst » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 8:03 PM UTC

rhapsodic wrote: post #106

pinewurst wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really need to stick up for city bus drivers, speaking as a regular passenger. They deal constantly with crazy, disruptive, violent people whilst getting other riders safely from point to point operating a large vehicle. It’s a difficult and socially valuable job and they earn their money.

>It’s a difficult and socially valuable job and they earn their money. I was not implying otherwise, if that's what you thought.

Not at all! It was a reply to further back comments about bus drivers.

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

#115

Post by sailfast » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 8:43 PM UTC

chx wrote: post #112

sailfast wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USDS is hiring. Defense Digitally service is hiring. VA Digital service is hiring. Other government agencies responsible for these missions every day are hiring. It’s a weird climate, sure, but all those missions still need doing. Further, organizations like Urban institute, NCRC, other advocacy groups are getting deeper into data visualization and web platforms for advocacy and need help - sounds like you know where…

I am Canadian here.

Heh - yeah, then obviously the US versions won't work.

Perhaps the Canadian one? https://digital.canada.ca/work-with-us/

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

#116

Post by barleymash » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 9:20 PM UTC

kod wrote: post #68

humanrebar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having had twins in the last year it's been vital. Employers that actually want workplace diversity should really consider how many lifestyles their work culture can accommodate. Some people adopt lots of kids and need more room. Some people love their families and won't move more than a few hours from them. Nearly everybody needs flexible work arrangements from time to time: health problems, ailing family members,…

The problem is that not all humans are decent. The more of them you hire, the more likely one of them is the asshole who will take advantage of flexibility and ruin it for the rest.

I'm not sure I agree with this. Do you think an otherwise good person/employee with a newfound ability to work remote would become an asshole and abuse the privilege? Seems like they'd probably be an asshole to begin with. Also, if someone is an asshole and taking advantage of the flexibility, why not fire them? I'm not sure how keeping them in an office solves this issue of people being bad employees.

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

#117

Post by hrktb » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 11:36 PM UTC

humanrebar wrote: post #46

chx wrote: post #15

What this doesn't talk about enough is work impact -- mentioned yes but doesn't emphasize it. These are shitty years and it eats me I am working for an enterprise gardening their websites instead of literally making the world a better place. I mean, sure, it pays and challenging and whatnot but I miss NowPublic dearly because we made a god damn difference. We ran one of the biggest Katrina missing person boards. We w…

> These are shitty years and it eats me I am working for an enterprise gardening their websites instead of literally making the world a better place. It's a peculiar quirk of the tech industry that "changing the world through X" is a reasonable expectation. Bus drivers don't wonder how they can make a difference through bus driving. They do their shifts and then go volunteer at the hospital, food bank, homeless shelt…

I worked in a ad agency and people had the same gripes about their role in the society. Helping brand X to get market share from brand Y can feel like a huge waste of one’s life .

I’d expect it to be the same for a lot of media industries.

BTW a bus driver physicaly helps people by moving them from A to B. Isn’t it one of the most useful job of our society, until driveless cars come along ?

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

#118

Post by MrMorden » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 11:42 PM UTC

crdoconnor wrote: post #37

Nursie wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 mon…

The contractor premium will get dragged down in a year or two as well - the Tories are planning on kicking up taxes for them in order to bring in an extra £200 mil. That will probably lead to an exodus of the experienced developers from the UK. This will not only have a negative effect on UK software houses it will also exacerbate the existing problems with UK government IT projects, which have already have a multibi…

Has any party even suggested moving council tax to a percentage of assessed value rather than the band system?

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

#119

Post by ldarcyftw » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 11:47 PM UTC

TheCoelacanth wrote: post #103

sethammons wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you pay for Medicare after you are eligible for it. My dad just hit Medicare age and was surprised to find out he gets to pay for it.

Seems like the absolute maximum for that is a bit over $1k/month, and that's only if you didn't Medicare taxes for less 10 years, have an income of over $214k/year and get the most expensive part C and part D coverage. A typical amount would be roughly $200/month, less than even someone in their early 20s would typically pay for health insurance.

That’s the number adp.com gave me. Note that it’s like 35 years from now and yes, it includes (I think) C and D parts. Of course a lot of things may change in the next 35 years.

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

#120

Post by humanrebar » Sat, Feb 03, 2018, 11:58 PM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #92

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And sometimes they invent a framework that hits all the right design points, but junior engineers can't read a book about them or take a class about them, so don't understand and badmouth them as crappy and a result of boredom or ego. Its hard to invent something, and have it get no traction because nobody else wants to move forward. I've been at two startups that had frameworks that solved all the problems in the pr…

This is an incentive alignment problem. Developers want to maximize their human capital since they usually don't have significant capital in the business itself. With experience in all the latest buzzword technologies, they can get good offers elsewhere, or use the leverage to increase their pay. Whereas sinking all their effort into an in-house framework is fantastic for the business in multiple dimensions: it's a c…

> Whereas sinking all their effort into an in-house framework is fantastic for the business in multiple dimensions

Well, it's fantastic until it isn't anyway. Companies do fail, at least fail to own new markets, by being tied down into legacy architectures.