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Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
21–30 of 103 posts
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#22I've noticed a surge in contacts from recruiters, almost daily now from linkedin asking if I'm looking. Last year was a very different story.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#23If startups branched out from Silicon Valley more often, new technological epicenters would form, alleviating the shortage.
The guy who started Funambol talks very highly of having the company HQ in silicon valley, and development elsewhere. In his case, Italy, which really does have a lot of bright people who tend not to have as many exciting options locally. So building a 'bridge' like that can get the SV company good talent at good prices, and give the 'locals' a better job, perhaps at better wages, and with more interesting work to do.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#24The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
I have never met anyone who was not technical and then became a coder.
In pre-2000 dot.com you could've gotten a job with a word 'Internet' on your resume, but nowadays you should at least know decent coding.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#25The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
Really good software engineering is that hard. If you want to argue the point, compare mundane, "easy" software engineering with the average desk job that people can slide into without much training. Companies fight tooth-and-claw to hire good engineers because they don't want the idiots you worked with in the past. A good developer is 10x more productive than an average one, and a bad developer can be a net negative.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#26The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
I have never met anyone who was not technical and then became a coder. In pre-2000 dot.com you could've gotten a job with a word 'Internet' on your resume, but nowadays you should at least know decent coding.
Yup. There are people with the logical mindset and problem solving ability to just naturally pick up coding. But most are not, and that's just an ability that's very hard to develop in later phases of life. In most cases it develops during teen age. Guess the last few decades did not really encourage these kind of developments, which is why we are running short now. It's not easy to fix though.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#27The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
It properly takes 3 years of work before you can program well enough to be hired - looking at the calendar, it still hasn't been 3 years since the economy tanked.
Adding time for people to realize that there is actual jobs, coupled with the "we only hire the best" and not that many people become software engineers.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or just rent a room in an apartment with roommates for $700/mo and don't get a car. Now you can get a job at an exciting startup instead of a 12 year old advertising company with 15,000 programmers.
Facebook and twitter are advertising companies too ;)
But at Facebook and Twitter the chance to become very wealthy within the next few years is substantially greater than at Google.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#29The national unemployment rate is over 9% while Silicon Valley is fighting tooth-and-claw to hire. What's wrong with this picture? Software engineering is technical, sure, but it's not that hard -- if some of the idiots I've worked with in the past could hold down jobs, then anyone can. Which dying industries should we be looking at to fill the gaps in the software industry?
To become a successful software engineer you need ratlike cunning, a plausible manner, and a little logical ability.
Re: Is The Silicon Valley Talent Shortage Getting Worse?
#30The developers I know are mostly trying to be founder level at a startup. I actually feel sorry every time I run into a company trying to hire a Rails developer because I feel their pain.
What's the solution for you companies desperate to hire? In my opinion, your outlook on equity needs to change. It's regular practice to offer a "rock star" developer 0.25% of your pre-diluted shares when you have $2M dollars in the bank. I've had this debate a number of times with arrogant founders and been told how that's just the way it is - investors this, B round that, $1B exit blah. Fine - but your offer is not appealing to me. I can make $100K+/year consulting part time, usually with a small equity stake, plus have a founder share of my own startup. Why would I take $100k plus 0.1% to work 12 hours a day at your startup?
Offer several percent, maybe 10% if you don't have a product yet. Get a few good people committed to your company on the inside. This is particularly true if you are very early or have a less "cool" startup. You are going to wallow in crappy developer misery and your product will fail if you don't have awesome techs who are TRULY dedicated to your vision.