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I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

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Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#261

Post by wwweston »

Johnny555 wrote: post #65

I can get cooking with a programming language I’ve never seen in my life in a matter of days because most programming languages are either very similar to each other or they’re similar to some paradigm most of us already know like functional programming. The companies looking for 5 or 10 years of experience with a language aren't looking for someone to "get cooking" and learn as they go. It's true that most experienc…

At a certain level of experience, you do have an idea of what kinds of things can be nuances and pitfalls, though. And for certain team/codebase sizes, the effort required to learn and adapt to the specifics of the in-house systems will almost certainly dwarf the pitfalls of the general parts of the language/platform/stack.

There's some shortcomings of the algo-oriented interviewing practices FAANGs are famous for, but IMO one of the things they get very right is that language/stack knowledge is considered less interesting compared to general problem solving skills (and I say that as someone who failed to get an offer on his last round of trying).

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#262

Post by willhinsa »

calt wrote: post #238
speedgoose wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During an interview?

Yes. If you're ever talking to someone one on one and they're not paying attention find a way to address it.

Absolutely. It can be quite painful in the short term, but the long term benefits (both for you and that particular relationship) can be huge, especially if you're naturally averse to confrontation.

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#263

Post by bradlys »

ditonal wrote: post #244
anchpop wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now new grads feel lowballed at 200k TC As a new grad, was I supposed to feel lowballed at getting an offer quite a bit less than that? I know senior devs who make less than that. Is this just for stanford/mit grads?

Yes, a new grad "feeling lowballed by 200k" was hyperbole because I waste too much time on Blind. But FAANG new grad TC is pushing that number, which is a stark contrast to my new grad numbers ~2010. But it was probably confusing for me to phrase it that way.

Cost of living is also wildly different since 2010 though too.

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#264

Post by Axien »

Every time I hear of developer shortages the next sentence involves increasing the H-1B visa pool.

I’m now in upper management. I’m told I can hire as many Indian developers as I want (based in India) but must limit my US development team. Why? Cost of course. There is no real shortage, just an attempt to clamp down on real wages.

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#265

Post by nwellinghoff »

dasil003 wrote: post #110

Hard to take this seriously with all the straw men and broad generalizations. Reality check: there has never been a hotter seller's market for software engineering talent. The fact that you have not landed a job does not mean that supply is not short in general. Rather than blowing your stack at some recruiter who you heard on a podcast interview, you might want to reflect on yourself and how you might be coming off…

Great advice

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#266

Post by JAlexoid »

FpUser wrote: post #86
imstate wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. A good programmer could learn it, but it exposes concepts that python and java abstracts from the programmer. C++ requires you to think quite a bit about memory. Modern C++ not so much. However the kind of job that requires C++ will probably require you to know some hardware / embedded which is a completely different domain than web devs and could make java / python transitions even more difficult.

I develop business backend servers in C++, no problems there and no hardware / embedded is required. I also happen to be familiar with electronics and do develop firmware every once in a while but I mostly use plain C for that.

That sounds like you're trying to stab yourself in the face...

The unfortunate bit is - there is a lot of people that are learning Python or TypeScript that can develop that business logic as fast as you at a fraction of the cost.

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#267

Post by MattGaiser »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #79
_2d30 wrote: post #14

I literally can’t relate to this on any level. I’m an HM at a company that pays on the order of a FANG and at best matches one of these credentialist barriers and yet we can’t come close to hiring targets on devs. I don’t get how people can see the plethora of individuals under 10yrs experience in SWE and other tech roles in SV/NYC/SEA with incomes of $250-600k/yr and think this happens without a “shortage” of talent…

I'm also a HM. It's unbelievable to see the number of people who are "Senior" after 12 months of actual experience. Some of them are actually legitimately senior, despite short tenures on paper - but many are barely entry level qualified.

I know a company where "Senior" is anyone non intern.

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#268

Post by NAG3LT »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #184
dr_kiszonka wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a Google research scientist telling me during an interview that they don't like their job and don't recommend it. At a different occasion, Google's VP showed up 15 minutes late, asked one question, and stopped paying attention for the rest of the interview too busy with their laptop. I understand that these are probably outliers but I will not be reapplying soon.

I interviewed for a company that was (maybe still is?) the leader in industrial cameras. I was being vetted for a EE role by a bunch of non-EEs until I got to the one poor woman who was the only EE left in the company after they had gutted their in house development and switched to using fancy enclosures around SZ commodity cameras. I was asking probing questions and had her on the verge of tears during the interview…

Is that the same company that produces a lot of thermal cameras?

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#269

Post by [deleted] »

sen wrote: post #260
bee_rider wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if it is possible that the recruiter said something like "ah, damn" which would be unprofessional of course, but seems in the general range not-completely-absurd human reactions.

I just recently had someone ask me not to curse when I said “ah, damn” in relation to some trivial thing (from memory I was just expressing disappointment that a project wasn’t going ahead, or part of a project). It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever met someone (over 10yrs old) who considered “damn” to be cursing but apparently they do exist.

[deleted]

Re: I am sick and tired of hearing tech companies complain about developer shortages

#270

Post by missedthecue »

bradlys wrote: post #263
ditonal wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a new grad "feeling lowballed by 200k" was hyperbole because I waste too much time on Blind. But FAANG new grad TC is pushing that number, which is a stark contrast to my new grad numbers ~2010. But it was probably confusing for me to phrase it that way.

Cost of living is also wildly different since 2010 though too.

Widly? I don't think there's ever been a decade of lower inflation. It's certainly not 4x as expensive as then
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