
Recruiting: There is no such thing as a developer shortage - wolfgke
http://sarajchipps.com/post/75810450152/recruiting-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-developer
======
fiatmoney
There is no such thing as a developer shortage; there is a shortage of wildly,
identifiably competent developers willing to work for the salaries you're
offering. Offer more money (and especially, advertise it), and perhaps offer
remote work to expand your search pool if you'd rather pay "Cincinnati well-
off" than "Mountain View well-off" salary, find yourself with no shortage. The
sense of entitlement is astounding.

Or, as this article states, you can offer interesting work in a good
environment - that's worth something (have you tried offering a 4-day week?),
but really, your core problem is probably building something very boring with
very high maintainability and reliability.

So just offer more money, and advertise as such. It's really really simple.

~~~
azakai
> There is no such thing as a developer shortage; there is a shortage of
> wildly, identifiably competent developers willing to work for the salaries
> you're offering.

Depends on the subfield.

If you want to hire 1,000 ARM JIT superhackers, those people just don't exist
in the entire world. There are just not 1,000 people total that know ARM, know
JITing on ARM, and are strong hackers.

You could advertise double the usual salaries for those positions, and still
those people would not show up, because they don't exist. So your only hope if
you need 1,000 of them is to train them, which takes time and has risk.

For something like web development on the other hand, sure, I do think the
market is far more flexible and if you double salaries, more developers will
show up fairly quickly.

~~~
IAmARealDev
> ...if you double salaries, more developers will show up fairly quickly.

Because throwing money at a problem is always the best way to solve it, right?
Why would anyone consider hiring the type of developer they actually need?

Here's the inconvenient truth about startups in the Bay Area... lots of them
have basic CRUD apps with little to no traffic that a self-taught programmer
out of high school could build. They don't need "engineers" with CS degrees
from top schools who are Google or Facebook material.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
> lots of them have basic CRUD apps

What's hilarious is they love to throw CS interview questions at you. There
should be some sort of term for it; delusions of grander[sic] engineering?

Let me make it obvious: technologists _don 't_ want to write CRUD apps.

------
cobralibre
> If you gave me a pile of resumes, and told me I had to hire one of the
> developers in the pile, the first thing I would do is schedule a party and
> invite all the developers on that list. This is what you need to do. ... At
> Levo League we had (and we still have) the developer potluck, which was a
> monthly event where we all drank wine, ate each other’s food, and discussed
> thigns [sic] that were important to us. Find a way to promote developer
> fellowship and then they will come.

A lot of good developers (or testers or whatever) will see no appeal in that
sort of thing, and it doesn't mean that they're bad developers or unpleasant
to work with. Maybe they're busy. Maybe parties make them uncomfortable. Maybe
they're perfectly sociable but prefer to spend their free time with people of
more diverse backgrounds and interests than other developers.

~~~
touristtam
> Maybe they're perfectly sociable but prefer to spend their free time with
> people of more diverse backgrounds and interests than other developers.

Specially when you have a good amount of subculture involving "star" in the
name ..... Nothing against those ones, but the amount of time a reference is
totally lost on me is staggering.

------
calroc
"KNOW HOW THE DOUGHNUTS ARE MADE"

In my recent experience working for startups in the SF Bay Area I saw this
pattern repeatedly, and it shocked me. Otherwise intelligent and competent
people are, in effect, setting their money on fire and wasting lots of time
and energy _playing_ at having a real company.

For some reason people think they can start and run a "web startup" without
the most basic understanding of what they're attempting to do (technically.)
At one point I said to a developer co-worker, "These folks have only ever seen
the Internet _from the outside_." He agreed.

It seems to me that part of the issue stems from the invisible nature of the
machinery we build. If it were cars, or houses, I don't think folks would be
quite so ready to blindly charge into business.

But part of it is just weird.

I'm actually looking for work right now but, because I no longer wish to work
as a carpenter on the Winchester Mystery House (look it up) I'm having a hard
time finding a job I can feel good about. More pay doesn't tempt me, nor the
prospect of warm fuzzy social interaction with co-workers. I want to work with
people who know what they're doing.

~~~
mgkimsal
"setting their money on fire"

Usually they're setting someone else's money on fire...

~~~
calroc
Well, waste is waste.

Burning VC money is practically criminal when you think of the "opportunity
cost" of what might have been achieved with it.

The saddest was overhearing a (retired) doctor I worked for attempting to
mortgage his house.

------
theg2
As someone in the younger age bracket (mid-late twenties), I think the "don't
post ad's they'll come to you" idea is kind of an age-ist statement. I found
my current job through a job posting, I'm passionate about my job, and work
very hard to get the organization to meet it's goals. Sometimes when people
are moving to new cities they will only find those jobs through recruiters or
job postings.

~~~
fecak
This article doesn't reflect the market for entry-level or even junior/mid-
level talent. Once someone develops a reputation and a network, applying for
jobs becomes much less common.

~~~
theg2
While I agree, it doesn't address the issue where people decide to move. Even
at my age I know networking is the best way to find the jobs you often want
but excluding people because they aren't in your network is kind of limiting
your options.

------
invalidOrTaken
Think what you will about his conclusions for action, but I don't think anyone
has laid out the shape of the problems with "developer shortage" better than
michaelochurch: [http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/corporate-
wor...](http://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/corporate-work-is-the-
most-elaborate-victim-shaming-structure-ever-devised/)

------
jmillikin
Having a developer shortage doesn't only mean that it's difficult to hire
developers. It means that to hire developers, you must hire them away from
their current employer. There is no pool of unemployed software developers to
hire out of, so if you're launching a startup or expanding your team then your
only option is to entice a developer away from their existing job.

Some observers are confused by the very large population of non-developers who
apply for development jobs. These people do not know how to write software[1],
and so should not be counted as developers for the purposes of this discussion
any more than someone who can't use a multimeter would be called an
electrician. One of the earliest blog posts I remember about this phenomena is
from Joel Spolsky circa 2005[2], in which he observes that the top 0.5% of
applicants is likely to include 99% of the applicants who are developers.

[1] FizzBuzz is still the gold standard "can write software" test.

[2]
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/01/27.html)

------
brianfitz
A good article, but poorly titled. TL;DR -- there is a developer shortage, but
you can overcome it by being smarter than your competitors.

------
adamconroy
That is a very strange post. Is the article actually "There is no such thing
as a developer shortage in the Bay area startup space"?

Because the rest of the world doesn't work like that, where the rest of the
world equals London, New York and Australia. In those places perfectly good
developers are found by job ads, word of mouth, former colleagues, recruiters
and nepotism.

Throw a fucking party, what a tedious idea.

------
zedpm
>The developers you want to hire are never applying to job listings. The are
either gainfully employed, or directly contacting you because they have found
your company and love what you do. This field is so saturated right now that
the good developers can pick and choose the companies they want to work for.

There is certainly some truth here. I don't consider myself a particularly
great developer, but I didn't apply for either my current job or for the
previous one; I was contacted by management or the founder. At my previous
job, we filled multiple development positions by contacting people we knew and
convinced them to join us.

~~~
fecak
Referrals and working for past co-workers seem to account for a good amount of
hires at most of the small companies I've represented (independent recruiter),
particularly over the past five years. It's not unusual to see teams reform
again and again at new firms. But when a company grows significantly or needs
to grow fast, it's difficult for that hiring model to scale.

------
crazygringo
Let me get this straight. There is no developer shortage...

...but "the developers you want to hire are never applying to job listings",
"good developers can pick and choose the companies they want to work for", and
then the author starts suggesting that you need creative things like parties
and potlucks just to find and attract developers?

Um... sorry, but that's a shortage. If there weren't a shortage, then the
developers you want to hire _would_ be applying to your job listings, and you
wouldn't have to be writing this blog post about all these special things you
have to do to find developers.

~~~
randomdata
A shortage isn't characterized by your inability to acquire something you
want. There is a price component. If throwing parties and potlucks is working,
then it is clear that the price equilibrium has not been reached, and
therefore anyone offering less are simply not in the market.

------
fecak
This article does a good job to demonstrate ways to attract and retain talent.
The only thing I'd disagree with is that they won't come to you. If you do the
other things listed, and become known as a shop that does things right and
treats employees well, they will come to you. Reputation of several companies
makes their recruiting efforts much easier.

The article doesn't really address the alleged developer shortage referenced
in the title. Even if every company did these things, and did them well, would
they still all be able to meet their hiring needs?

~~~
devilshaircut
I agree with you and I would add one other small thing on the "they are not
going to come to you" point. Working from the assumption that this is a true
proposition, it still wouldn't make recruiting a problem which is easily
unpackable. Many HR and recruiting departments very actively look for
candidates. The latter part of the article discusses how to set apart your
company; I just wanted to make the distinction that although they may not
"come to you", it is still the case that many employers are aware of this
already and do actively recruit.

------
softbuilder
Posts like this have an almost PUA quality to them. Weird.

Developers are people. To hire them you have to establish a relationship with
them. If you try to shortcut that, you're gonna have a bad time. It's a long-
term game. Yes, you can get some attention with parties and other stunts. That
is no guarantee of quality or retention and it isn't sustainable. pastProlog
nails it elsewhere on this page.

------
pastProlog
Companies throw up barriers in front of themselves, set up a high jump bar,
and then wonder why people aren't running to them, to what is often a not-
that-great opportunity.

To me, the whole interview process is about companies achieving social
dominance over you. No matter how desperate they are, they still need you to
be crawling to them, not vice versa.

Sometimes an outside headhunter calls me and asks if I want to talk to a
company. I call and talk to someone at the company, and before I've even met
anyone they want three references from me, preferably (or absolutely) former
bosses. So before I even meet anyone, I'm supposed to call three former bosses
and ask them all for a favor.

It might happen a little farther down the process, but still. What it really
means for me is I don't do "one off" interviews. Every few years or so I
decide to get a new job, I fix my resume etc., ask my former bosses if they'd
give me a recommendation, and then start interviewing at lots of companies.
What this means is I'm only available for several weeks every few years. It
wouldn't be a big thing for me to check out some new company half-way into my
employment somewhere, but I'm not going to bother my old bosses every few
months for one-off interviews. And why bother going and stammering in front of
some officious HR person or manager about how you don't feel comfortable
giving out recommendations so early on. Their expectations already turn the
interview sour, "what am I hiding"?

Then interviewers also expect you to work on their schedule. I have a job,
things aren't going well there, yet they expect me to come in the middle of a
work day and spend some hours there. I might even take the day off and the
interviewer might call and cancel. Then should I wear a suit (I'm not in the
Bay Area)? I used to drop my suit off in a friend's office, go to work, go to
my friend's office, get in the suit, interview, go back to my friend's office,
change, go back to work, then go to my friend's office, get the suit and go
home.

Or the interviewer asks very officiously why I want to work at the company.
The answer I usually want to give is that I don't necessarily want to, someone
called and asked if I was interested so I'm checking it out. But if an outside
headhunter asked me to, it sounds kind of hollow. Blog posts with tips on
interviewing say I should have a set BS answer for this but why should I? I
want to work there for a fucking paycheck, why do you think I want to work
there?

Then other bullshit. Obviously I wouldn't badmouth people at my current or
former employers. But if they ask me about the process at my current job and
I'm honest about how fucked up it is it becomes my fault. Let's say I said we
have no revision control, no staging servers, everything goes straight into
production, no code reviews, no integration tests etc. Or maybe not that bad,
but whatever. Or the company won't spend money to hire the amount of personnel
they need, the machines they need, the software they need, whatever. Then they
say why not? I say I've asked management and management said no. It becomes my
fault when I'm honest and say I couldn't shake the pennies from management to
set up a proper system. Even if I'm just a lowly developer and not even a team
lead or something.

Then there's the requirements. BSCS from a good school required. A few classes
short and lots of experience? Tough luck. Or super-specific requirements for a
number of technologies, all at a high level and for many years. Often for a
crappy company, a crappy position that doesn't need anywhere near that kind of
experience. Sometimes there will be a posting on some tech forum where people
are laughing about a Craigslist posting asking for "9 years of experience with
iPhone apps". It kind of drives home the point. Nowadays I usually don't even
have the experience problem, but it's ridiculous when a requirement is for
their version control system or something. I mean, how long would it really
take me to learn perforce if I know subversion, git etc., as well as all the
other job listing requirements?

Companies make the interview process unpleasant, throw up all kinds of
barriers and then wonder why they can't find good candidates.

They also wonder why person to person recruiting is so effective, people
bringing in people they know. The reason is because the inside person usually
tells me "the job is yours if you want it". Most of my jobs have been gotten
this way, I've only worked at two companies where I went in cold via a
headhunter. It's just too unpleasant.

~~~
greenyoda
And that, exactly, is why I have no desire at all to even look for a new job.
My work isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but I'm reasonably happy
where I am and quite well paid. Why should I put up with all the stress and
abuse of looking for a job if I don't have to?

------
IAmARealDev
> Here is something that boggles my mind, I don’t know how it’s possible that
> so many people with web startups have no idea how the internet works? If I
> were to open a shoe factory, I would learn all about making shoes. I would
> make a few shoes of my own. I would make sure that I knew everything that
> goes into making a shoe. Especially if I need to hire shoemakers, how else
> would I know if they are any good?

> Developers can smell a non-technical founder from miles away. It tells them
> that you have zero respect for what they do, and you think they are just
> tools. The Twitter book by Nick Bilton mentioned no developers. Somehow that
> company was built with no developers. Your developers don’t want that to
> happen to them, and if you don’t care enough about what your company
> produces to learn how it works that’s the message you’re sending.

Funny. The most attractive and profitable opportunities I have ever been
presented with involved non-technical individuals with domain expertise and
strong relationships in their market. They didn't unnecessarily pretend that
they were something they weren't (read: a techie), and they didn't act like I
was a god just because I knew how to code.

They had spotted an interesting, potentially lucrative opportunity that
required a website/web application and they were looking for a qualified
_partner_ who could help them exploit it.

What boggles my mind is the number of "startups", most of them consumer
focused, with:

1\. A basic CRUD app.

2\. A track record of "pre-traction" (read: modest usage/traffic _at best_ ).

3\. Too many developers on staff using way too many [programming
languages/frameworks/technologies]. You know, because it's cool to
overengineer and prematurely optimize real-time distributed architectures, and
stuff.

4\. Compensation packages and office space that look great assuming you don't
perform the burn rate math, which doesn't really matter. Unless you want to
know how long your salary will last and your key to the office will work. And
who wants to know that?

5\. The mistaken belief that their employees don't have a social life of their
own. You know, because everyone knows the best developers don't have friends.

6\. The delusion that their use of AWS makes them a "technology company." You
know, because that's more fashionable than calling your web-based staffing
agency for animal trainers a staffing agency.

The OP is right. There is no shortage of developers. But she's wrong about why
so many companies can't seem to recruit them. These companies are not looking
for developers. They're looking for developers who have more experience and
skill than their "businesses" require _and_ who also happen to be suckers. And
there just aren't that many of these people out there.

~~~
mattgreenrocks
This is so dead on it hurts.

Hordes of companies swarming in, eager to hire 'top' engineers who continually
fight with yesterdayshotness.js (as seen on HN!) and who spend their whole
lives at the office fixing problems few people ultimately have while burning
loads of VC cash.

I used to beat myself up that I wasn't in SF. Recently, I realized I am
_incredibly_ lucky for not being there; and that includes the massive burnout
I had 3 years ago. The typical SV startup abuses people for little pay.

------
bobfirestone
Having problems hiring a senior level developer? Increase what you are
offering by $50k.

In the current market a competent developer who want a job, has a job. If you
want to be taken seriously start with a serious number.

------
alien3d
Yes ,there is a shortage. It depend based on what language and framework.
Nowdays php or java or javascript got lot of framework.For a junior developer
to master each of it,quite some time.

------
GrahamsNumber
> If you gave me a pile of resumes, and told me I had to hire one of the
> developers in the pile, the first thing I would do is schedule a party and
> invite all the developers on that list.

Because programmers are very social creatures that would jump on the
opportunity to go to a party thrown by some random recruiter. Especially the
ones that already work 8-10 hours a day. But you're not looking for
programmers, you're looking for brogrammers, aren't you? Carry on then.

