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

cushychicken.github.io

101–110 of 927 posts

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

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a rule, I don’t trust any third party recruiters but that generally limits me to mid sized and up companies unless I actively seek them out. On the other hand, I get an email from Amazon recruitment nearly every day and I have zero desire to work the bozos.

Yup. AWS really wants to hire me as another cog. I’ll pass.

AWS didn’t want to hire me as a cog. I was mildly insulted.

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

#102

I’ve gotten 7 recruitment emails since Sunday and none of them have come close to sufficiently explaining what the company or job is for me to even consider responding. It’s bizarre how secretive they are. I imagine the recruiters are looking out for their own interests. Recruiters are in the way.

It’s because if you apply directly, they don’t get paid for their work. So they hide the details until you talk to them.

I’m a software engineer that started a recruiting company. The current state of the industry is pretty bad. We are trying a different approach- we are transparent. We share all the details about the company right out of the gate. Including salary info. We refuse to work with companies that won’t let us publish salary ranges. I’d love feedback (https://app.facet.net/jobs/search)

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

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The absolute value of your salary doesn't tell you anything about how long it takes to get to retirement (or more accurately, financial independence). That's exclusively a function of your spending and saving rates. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...

The absolute value of your salary does highly correlate with cost of living, unfortunately. Which may have an effect on your savings rate.

Yes it does.

If you have a high salary, you are probably living in a HCOL area.

If you have a low salary for the same kind of work, then you are probably living in a LCOL area.

The savings rates of these different individuals could be the same if the salary difference is proportional to the cost of living difference.

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

#105
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salary is the absolute ceiling for savings rate, so I'd say it's a big factor.

You clearly didn't even skim the link I posted.

Yes I did. Your comment indicates that you don't understand ceiling. The article is overly simplistic in regards to things like cost of living, inflation, and returns on the savings.

Do you really think you can save 90% of your income and retire after 3 years? This is terrible financial advice and completely ignores functions and changes in spending due to life events. Not to mention, I don't believe that function is legitimate depending on retirement age and current age combinations.

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

#106
post #74
post #8

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 b…

> There comes a point where the money just isn't a motivating factor anymore That's cuz your numbers are too small. Offer a 50% raise instead of a 20k raise and you will see different results. > Yes I could quit and get a ~20k raise by shopping my resume around, but I don't need the money Plenty of stories on Blind of people shopping around and going from 150k TC to 350k TC, so I guess it really depends on your situa…

This.

Also, those highly paid engineers in other companies might be tired of working on surveillance tech but aren't willing to stomach 50% pay cuts because your company is shooting for "market rate" compensation instead of market clearing compensation.

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

#107
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked my normal week and 1/1-1/2. Now I'm officially on call for the next 7 days. I'm a midlevel with 10 years experience making under $100k. Fml

It's an under-discussed topic that this apparent utopia isn't available to everyone. Race, gender presentation, academic background, country of residence or origin, Twitter blue-check, etc. all seem to be correlated (no numbers; purely anecdotal) to those who enjoy (or don't) this utopia. Being masterfully technical, social, or political have a lot to do with it too, it seems.

I apparently check the right boxes. I just suck at life.

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

#108
I don't care about your company. I don't particularly care about how clever the people I'm going to work with will be. I don't even care about what I'm going to build, although I will do it with complete professionalism to the utmost of my abilities.

I do care about how much money you'll pay me, and how little of my time you'll ask for in return though. I don't need a corporation to provide me with "meaningful work" in my life. I need them to pay me an obscene amount of money with as little commitment as possible to facilitate my own self actualization.

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

#109

That’s weird. I like money more than “work for cool stuff”. Cool stuff don’t pay bills. Heh, maybe this is why I am an average engineer.

It's funny that most of my high school buddies grind their jobs for a paycheck, but as a software developer I'm supposed to "find a company I'm passionate about" so work "has meaning". Hard lessons I learned over the last 24 months: - Titles don't matter. Promotions provide minimal pay increases. It's better to focus on finding another job. - Job difficulty doesn't scale linearly with salary. I'm working roughly the…

What are RSUs?

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

#110
You're not hiring because the average person is looking at salary data on levels.fyi. If you can't compete with the FANG's, if you're Crunchbase rank is six-figures, I don't see a high likelihood of those stock options going anywhere (especially if your startup is a decade old). Anecdotally, >9/10 recruiters and I politely end the discussion when I name my desired total compensation, which is N+20%.
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