Why is recruiting developers so difficult?

Because you make it a complete nightmare. I'd rather wait in line at the DMV all day than go through a typical 6hr tech interview.

Hire me based on my resume and a phone call, give me a task, and if it's good enough keep me. Problem solved.

One thing is for sure, Polyfill is going to do a terrible job addressing the problem.

1) Because recruiters don't understand the subject material. 2) Because companies are hilariously risk adverse.

I have over a decade experience in a consultancy environments (faster paced and more rigorous than a lot of other jobs, sorry not sorry). My work was independently driven and I provided input to the projects I was on at the highest levels. I've set IT and SWE policy for and introduced leading products at more than one company.

The CircleCI chart from yesterday was interesting. I was doing principal work under every column except maybe one. I've plenty of stuff to talk about to put any doubts to rest. But... no bites. In my case I suspect the issue is/was, as related to me years ago by some other HN poster, that I was in the Midwest and people are biased against Midwesterners for reasons more than just relocation costs.

Personally, I've never found it difficult. Have 1-2 interviews with a take home or in person coding exercise or however they want to prove to me they can actually code. Pay high, have great benefits, high equity, treat your employees well, and fire those that don't perform up to expectations quickly. It's really not hard to spot talent. Don't make them jump through hoops. If they are talented and get along with your team, make a quick and generous offer. It'll pay off in spades.

Also, tailor your job listings to tell them what they get out of the job. Don't list what you need. You're just culling potential applicants. Most talented developers can adapt to a new language or dev environment quickly. You don't need someone who already knows X, Y, Z and 20 other things. Attract people to your company, don't make a list of needs. Get them excited to work for you. And put your high salary range in the listing.

Every time I do this, I'm inundated with resumes from top quality applicants and can pick and choose the best fit. I've hired over 100 developers this way, almost all of which worked out great.

People just go about the whole process wrong. Make the job and company attractive to work for and talent will come to you.

In my very recent experience (specifically in the UK for roles to do with Ruby), the shirtage of developers mean it's way less painful than it used to be, cos companies are marketing themselves on their ease of interview process. I went from sending out CVs to getting a good offer in a week, and that offer was from a 1-stage, 1-hour interview process. Don't get me wrong, I basically spent that entire week on the phone to recruiters, but still, massive improvement on the last time I was in the market.