He rants about overly narrow descriptions. One reason companies do this is to favor or eliminate specific internal candidates.
We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
161–170 of 810 posts
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#162I had a ludicrous experience with an AR startup in Toronto last year where I was offered $35 an hour - worked a week, and then was told they could only afford to pay $20/hr. They made me work 60-80 hour weeks and didn’t pay me overtime. When I criticized them, they fired me after a month. I’d love to expose them here, but I’ll be the better person than them.
Please share. As a community knowing about scams can be very helpful.
I saw the same thing happen in the same city to another developer. In the fitness space though but didn't get paid at all.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
The current data we have about hiring practices seem to disagree with you. So either, this process is not as expensive as you think it is, or companies believe it is less expensive than it actually is. Either way, the effect on hiring is the same.
searching is easier in terms of internet ads and reviewing candidates. But hiring dev candidates is extremely hard. Virtually everyone has a job who is experienced already, college students get offers somewhere in the early junior year, so you hire them with at most 2 internships. It's very difficult to pull people out of an existing job, it's kind of begging them to consider you. Then for random applicants to a comp…
> but many people end up failing our interview
If you are having this much trouble hiring, are you 100% sure your interview process is correct?
What is the KPI for your interview process?
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#164I had a recruiter call me a year ago with what sounded like a really amazing offer. Working for a well funded startup on a problem in which I happen to be a domain expert. They're aren't many expects in my field with my background and skill set and they said the right things to get me to interview (compensation won't be a concern). Anyway... Went in for 4-5 interviews. Took me about 10 hours in total to interview wit…
I had the same thing happen to me a couple times. Long and tiring process. Blackboard, make a project, lots of dirty laundry about "long gone incompetent developers" that made the current system a giant mess. Lots of red flags but lots of promises including a large maximum salary, including bonuses and stock options. The final offer, however, was 60% of my current pay. Lower than the average for someone with my exper…
Is this an American thing? I live in Eastern Europe and make decent buck here (close to 5000 EUR/mo after taxes in a country where you can cover all expenses under 1000 EUR/mo). I never had any trouble getting quality work in my country but a few times I got approached by companies from the US and oh boy, weeks of tiring recrutation process and the pay was ALWAYS worse than local. I feel like they do it on purpose maybe some people really fall for it after investing so much time? Once or twice an US SV startup asked if I’ll allow them to install some tracking software on my machine. Meanwhile no developer in my country even responds to offers if the salary is not given in the offer even before the interview kicks in. What’s wrong with the American market? Are there too many developers or what?
(sorry for the typos, fat fingers and small phone)
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#165Based on my experience this is very true. It's very annoying when you want to find a job, but you don't want to be a sucker, so you end up looking for a job for a long time. I don't get it. You want to hire someone talented or smart, obviously, you are gonna have to pay them good money. What's the problem with that? I'm sure they will bring much more value than a usual sucker. Personal story ahead. I've been looking…
Where are you located?
I'm located in EU. I think this is part of the problem. Based on my job search, I've noticed that there is much more (interesting) jobs in USA.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've done that, and during peak hiring periods it does get a bit intense, but I think it's essential it's done by a coder, not an HR person. It's also something to give your day a bit of variety. And the big plus is you get to decide who you want to work with.
Why should you get a say in who works with you? As a team lead I'm trying to find the right balance. If we hire only people the current devs like we endup having too many similiar developers with the same mindset and shortcomings. Trying to have a more diverse, balanced team means you don't get a say.
Why do you think your good people don't want to work with people that complement them?
Why do you think you are so much better than them
at balancing a team? I pity the team that has to work with such an egostistical openly hostile lead, but I imagine it must give you plenty of experience with recruiting and hiring.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rule number 1, IMO, never discuss salary. I find listing your salary requirements before starting a process weeds out a lot of silly interviews. If you know your worth and have a goal for your salary, it is the most effective way I know to avoid dumb offers.
But that's exactly what I did? Sorry, I didn't phrase it right. My non-negotiable requirement was 20% more than I was getting. I gave a hard number and they said "yeah we can give that" before the interview. However the recruiter just assumed I was bluffing and went ahead with that colossal waste of time.
They promise that amount up front, and then renege? That's not even deceitful, that's just intentionally wasting your time. I would send them an invoice for the time spent on the interview.
What a bizarre way to run a business.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I see this all the time too, they offer 50-60% of market rate and wonder why they get no takers.
The ones who are good salesman do get takers. I don't really know why or how but they get them. Not the greatest engineers but also not bottom feeders. It's surreal. Granted it's usually people who don't realize their own worth or are naive about how much equity is actually going to be worth.
Hey, uh. So, I'm going to be graduating with a B.Eng soon. Any tips on how to realize my own worth? I have a tendency to let myself be taken advantage of... I mean, I'm currently doing a research internship at a computer vision lab at my uni for very little compensation (grant + departmental top-up). I told myself I was doing it "for the experience." I... I feel like I might be a candidate for the behavior you describe, so I'd like to snap myself out of that if possible. Any resources you could point me to would be stellar, please and thank you.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#169Like a lot of people here, I've been on both sides of the table. Currently on the hiring side of the table interviewing web application developers. I agree with a lot that's said in TFA, especially as someone who's suffered through a months-long motivated job search where I shared the pain. For example: > There are easily several thousand people in the town who are capable of building that business. Get over yourselv…
Maybe laws are different where you're at, but mentioning or considering gender in a role is the biggest of no-nos. Grounds for firing and large lawsuits.
Re: We Don't Have a Talent Shortage. We Have a Sucker Shortage
#170I had a recruiter call me a year ago with what sounded like a really amazing offer. Working for a well funded startup on a problem in which I happen to be a domain expert. They're aren't many expects in my field with my background and skill set and they said the right things to get me to interview (compensation won't be a concern). Anyway... Went in for 4-5 interviews. Took me about 10 hours in total to interview wit…
Maybe I'm out of touch but 4-5 interviews when they have sought you out and you're a domain expert seems like a big red flag.
I've had a few short interviews that quickly turned into a sales pitch on why I should work for them. I've also had the same you experienced: they act like they really want you specifically then feed you into the human resource machine. Basically made me feel scammed so I bowed out after the first 30 minutes.
I get the sense that a lot of tech companies' hiring playbook is all about making you feel special and elite then feeding you into the machine.