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I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

cushychicken.github.io

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Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#3

Post by mikewarot »

cushychicken wrote: post #2

Author here. Questions, comments, vitriol - all gratefully accepted.

It seems well written, and well argued to me.

The completionist in me notices you didn't mention NeuroLink - his wiring of brains to computers. It's not often in the news.

Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#4

Post by cushychicken »

mikewarot wrote: post #3
cushychicken wrote: post #2

Author here. Questions, comments, vitriol - all gratefully accepted.

It seems well written, and well argued to me. The completionist in me notices you didn't mention NeuroLink - his wiring of brains to computers. It's not often in the news.

I have never heard of NeuroLink! I'll look it up. Thanks for telling me.

Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#5

Post by netizen-936824 »

mikewarot wrote: post #3
cushychicken wrote: post #2

Author here. Questions, comments, vitriol - all gratefully accepted.

It seems well written, and well argued to me. The completionist in me notices you didn't mention NeuroLink - his wiring of brains to computers. It's not often in the news.

Honestly neuralink is a bigger joke than his other projects. Maybe it will go somewhere but its highly improbable, we simply don't understand the brain well enough to make an input/output device meaningful yet

Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#8

Post by hguant »

There comes a point where the money just isn't a motivating factor anymore, and companies are struggling to figure out how to work in that environment. This bit from the author hits the nail on the head:

>Is an extra $10k per year worth learning a new org, a new skillset, a new set of expectations, a new set of coworkers, and a new boss?

For many engineers, the answer is: “No.”

Yes I could quit and get a ~20k raise by shopping my resume around, but I don't need the money. I have enough for a down payment on a house, I meet my expenses for the month with 1/2 of one paycheck, I can buy a new car on a credit card if I wanted to. More money would be _nice_, and I imagine I'd be singing a slightly different song if I had kids, but it's much less important than knowing the work that I do has meaning and an immediate impact on the world, and about as important as working with new/interesting technology. I imagine there are a lot of early career (26-30 year old) software engineers who are in a similar boat. If money was a motivator I'd be serially founding companies and striving to be The Next Big Thing. I'm just not. I'm happy being hire number 13, or 99, and working with people I like doing work I find value in.

Edited for spelling

Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#9

Post by tforcram »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #5
mikewarot wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems well written, and well argued to me. The completionist in me notices you didn't mention NeuroLink - his wiring of brains to computers. It's not often in the news.

Honestly neuralink is a bigger joke than his other projects. Maybe it will go somewhere but its highly improbable, we simply don't understand the brain well enough to make an input/output device meaningful yet

Wouldn't trying to interface with the brain be a good way to understand more about it?

It does sound unlikely that neuralink actually accomplishes anything impressive, but I don't think it's a joke to try and maybe it will be a step towards something that does succeed.

Re: I think I know why you can't hire engineers right now

#10

Post by sylens »

I think the article begins to touch on it with autonomy and doing cool stuff, but one thing I believe should be called out is that engineers really like to learn new stuff. If you’re the type of business that has a use case for new technologies, talk to prospective hires about their interest in that area - it may be something they have been meaning to try for a while. If your company isn’t exactly on the cutting edge or even relatively adventurous, you probably need to make sure you mention your training and conference budget. Any place that doesn’t value me enough to let me go learn something new once a year is at a disadvantage in the hiring cycle.
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