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The real reason you can't hire developers....

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Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#261

Post by goodweeds »

sabat wrote: post #71
goodweeds wrote: post #66

1998 called and they want their resume blasts back. I find work (contracts) by looking for interesting companies whose money I would like to take, then I look them up on LinkedIN to see how connected I am to them. Sometimes I ask my friends to connect me to them, sometimes I just google stalk them to find the appropriate hiring manager's twitter address or email address, then I email them, whether or not they're hiri…

In a normal job market that's good common sense, but in the current tech job market, where unemployment is somewhere around 3%, resume blasting ought to be more than enough. The problem is that companies -- particularly larger companies -- are still in Arrogance Mode and think that the job-seekers need them. They don't.

According to the BLS, San Francisco's unemployment rate is 9.1%[1] (lower than the 15% I had misquoted earlier), California's unemployment rate 11.7%[2], and the national unemployment rate is 8.6%[3]

1 http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm 2 http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST06000003 3 http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#262

Post by bearzilla »

Reading through some of the comments and have come to the conclusion that A LOT of people have no sense of humor. I read this post and chuckled a few times with the understanding that this was not how you actually composed your emails. I cannot believe that someone read this seriously thinking it was similar to what was submitted to companies. Let's hope that the "pretentious arse" learns to take a joke on the future. Thank you for sharing your experiment in a humorous way.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#263

Post by achompas »

jrockway wrote: post #260
chrisbennet wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Their justification was "it wouldn't be fair if you negotiated a better offer than other people on your team". Translation: "We hire for mediocrity and you would skew the curve."

They also claim they have a "startup-like culture" which means that instead of getting a real desk, you get a door with some dowels holding it up. Not making this up. WTF?

Ohhh yep, Yegge has talked about this. Meanwhile, at NYU some MS students are excited to interview with them. Hope they know what they're in for...

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#264

Post by sabat »

goodweeds wrote: post #256
sabat wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a big dish of good old american entitlement. Not at all. It's a reflection on the current technology job market in the Bay Area. It doesn't last. f you were on the market during the last boom, the demand for engineers was far greater than it was today. I was, and my recruiter friends tell me that demand (again, mainly in the Bay Area) is about the same as it was then (late '90s). We're sitting on 3% unemployme…

Huh? Can you cite your 3% unemployment source? Outside of the tech industry it's pretty difficult to find temporary work, let alone full-time work. I've heard closer to 15% for the greater bay area.

I've heard closer to 15% for the greater bay area.

Not in technology, it's not.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#265

Post by rudasn »

compay wrote: post #175

After many years I was back in the job market earlier this year. I ended up writing to 6 carefully-chosen companies. I got responses back from 5 of them, interviewed at 4, and got job offers from all of them. The fact that you applied at 50 places is a bit of a deceptive statistic, because first of all, there's no way you carefully crafted your initial contact to each one. At each of the places I contacted during my…

> If you just send a generic form letter to a company, they're going to give you the same consideration you have given them: very little.

I think this may be true as I had a similar experience. Since March I have contacted many companies (both for contract work and full-time) but I only really wanted to work at 3 of them.

For the first company I spent 2 weeks crafting my job application and it took them more than a month to get back to me, and only after I directly emailed one of their HR staff.

For the second I spent about an hour or two writing an e-mail but was quite well thought out. I got a reply the next day and went through the whole process in about a week.

For the third company I sent a code sample to the senior developer and my resume to the CEO. Within two weeks I got an offer.

In all three cases I tried to make it very clear that I am choosing them, why I choose them, and what my thoughts are about their company/market. It seems that only in the third case, when I talked with the CEO, this approach worked.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#266

Post by wnight »

Jacquass12321 wrote: post #96
dman wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have stopped doing puzzles for companies because I had the same experience everytime I solved a puzzle on a companies website. Common courtesy dictates that if you have a problem on your site that would take more than a couple of hours to solve then you should at least bother to reply personally when a candidate solves the problem (I am looking at you Quora). At first I thought it was just because my solution and r…

I think it varies from company to company. A day or two ago there was a link here on the main page to a company's recruiting puzzle. Being unable to resist such coding challenges I knocked out a solution and fired off an e-mail afterwards asking a question about their expected approach. I suspect they were getting a lot of responses. Despite that I got an answer to my question (even after the disclaimer that I wasn't…

Some companies get it right. They post a fun challenge, not a rote test, and attract skilled programmers with it. Most companies seem to just pick the most annoying thing they've ever had to do (C with non-standard pointer use, etc), obfuscate it, and call it a 'puzzle'.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#268

Post by itmag »

devs1010 wrote: post #184
Timothee wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny how every single time there are discussions of salary on HN, there will be wild differences in opinion. You're saying an entry level engineer is getting $110k while some comments later are saying $115k seems high for a senior engineer. I never know where the truth lies…

It depends on location, in Arizona, 115k for senior is looked at as good, in the Bay Area its crap

In Sweden, it would be viewed as in the realm of fantasy. I don't know anyone who makes that much.

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#269

Post by count »

SeoxyS wrote: post #103
thoughtsimple wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He clearly said that he targeted companies claiming that they accommodate telecommuting. >Especially at 115k. If you think $115k is a lot for a senior position in SF, you are going to have trouble finding good people.

It's a lot for a remote employee. For a good senior on-site dev I'd gladly pay that, or more.

Why does their working location matter?

Re: The real reason you can't hire developers....

#270

Post by sabat »

goodweeds wrote: post #261
sabat wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a normal job market that's good common sense, but in the current tech job market, where unemployment is somewhere around 3%, resume blasting ought to be more than enough. The problem is that companies -- particularly larger companies -- are still in Arrogance Mode and think that the job-seekers need them. They don't.

According to the BLS, San Francisco's unemployment rate is 9.1% [1] (lower than the 15% I had misquoted earlier), California's unemployment rate 11.7% [2] , and the national unemployment rate is 8.6% [3] 1 http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm 2 http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST06000003 3 http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

I meant (and said) in technology. Not in general. In technology, in the Bay Area, right now, you can make a paper airplane out of a resume and get a job.
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