Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only

#101

Post by amorphous » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 11:37 AM UTC

mbrameld wrote: post #72

silveroriole wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really true? Maybe some, but I don’t know about “many”. I’d imagine when most people start on their dev career, they don’t imagine their dream job to be “teaching,” they imagine it to be coding. I think you’d have a tough time getting responses for a “senior engineer” job ad that says you’ll actually be a full time mentor.

I'm just an anecdote, but if I could earn the same salary teaching and mentoring as I do as a tech lead I'd do it with very little hesitation.

This route exists, it's called training and you can earn even more doing that. Absolutely doable, but it's a long road to get there (salary- and lifestyle wise).

Re: Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only

#102

Post by SJMosley » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 2:46 PM UTC

Salesdude wrote: post #96

SJMosley wrote: post #51

As a product manager, I have gotten to the last round of multiple interviews (3 or more, meeting full teams and different departments). Then been turned down as they are "going with other candidates", only to see the job reposted. This has happened on multiple occasions. Maybe I wasn't the right person for the role. One specific role has now been up for 5 months. Which likely means the company is looking for an unrea…

Some companies post "non-existing jobs" for the following reasons: 1- Gather information from candidates about how other companies are doing the same job or about their strategies 2- Go deeper into discussion with candidates who work for a competitor. 3- Look to be hiring for investors/competitors..etc

True, seems like a great way to disrespect candidates (good or bad). Then you can complain about not being able to find people cause the job has been up for so long.

Re: Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only

#103

Post by edhowzerblack » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 3:02 PM UTC

blizkreeg wrote: post #89

edhowzerblack wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So in the above reply I completely ignored the fact that he said the homework is only given to people who haven't worked with their tech stack. I also swore and went on a rant. Sorry! It's still something that needs to be said though. Just not to that guy...

Haha thank you for not directing that at me. Hiring and having a welcoming but selective process is rough :)

Indeed it is my friend. One more thing I'd like to share... A lot of companies start their process by having someone in HR reach out to the candidate. Often these calls provide little of no value to the candidate. They are simply another hurdle. Here are some things I wish the HR folks would take into account:

1. Please be prepared to actually sell your position. Most recruiters simply explain what the business is and then tell you that their engineering team is really tech focused. It's totally generic. It's nothing the candidate hasn't already heard from their recruiter or read on the web site.

What's special about your product or company? What kind of benefits do you offer? What makes your tech team so great? Have you built some amazing open source library? Is the CTO an ex-Google guy?

2. Please be prepared to answer some basic questions that an engineer will have. For example, what is your tech stack. "We use JavaScript on the front end" is not an acceptable answer (unfortunately, It's one I've received several times). Tell me what frameworks you use. I know you're not an engineer, but you could ask one to write it down for you.

3. Please know what the technical assessment process is. "We have a technical assessment" is not an answer. Is it a take home assignment? A hacker rank test? A remote code pairing? If it's a take home assignment, how long does it take? Again, you are likely not the only company the candidate is interviewing with. The candidate needs to know how long the process will take and how much time he has to invest.

Re: Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only

#104

Post by mattkrause » Thu, Feb 28, 2019, 5:35 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #15

There is no such thing as a labour shortage. There is only an unwillingness to pay. If you can't afford to attract talent at market rates then your business model as it is exists isn't viable. A big aspect to this is that the equity lottery of startups is largely gone because companies going public is increasingly rare, companies stay private longer (which presents real problems for the liquidity of employee options)…

> There is only an unwillingness to pay.

Or train!

It amazes me when places want PhD-level employees, but also insist on them having very specific experience. The one thing that a PhD indicates is the ability to quickly get oneself up to speed in an area.

Re: Ask HN: Finding tech talent is getting harder. It's not a Bay Area problem only

#105

Post by user5994461 » Sun, Mar 03, 2019, 1:51 AM UTC

LoSboccacc wrote: post #45

cletus wrote: post #15

There is no such thing as a labour shortage. There is only an unwillingness to pay. If you can't afford to attract talent at market rates then your business model as it is exists isn't viable. A big aspect to this is that the equity lottery of startups is largely gone because companies going public is increasingly rare, companies stay private longer (which presents real problems for the liquidity of employee options)…

> There is no such thing as a labour shortage. bullshit. we are looking for talent as hard as we can and we pay premium rates compared to market. 90% of the people that enters the door can't code a for loop. a lot of the candidates, especially those on the younger side, have terrible work ethics, like they find hard to work in a team or under direction and to follow instructions; they won't listen to anything and the…

I'm curious in what city is this?

It's possible to find no developers in small cities and rural areas, where there are usually no developers and no companies. Having issues with work ethics is something else entirely though.