
Why are there no evening and weekend jobs? - epicureanideal
There is supposedly an extreme shortage of engineering talent in the Bay Area, and yet...<p>When I was on the job market a few months ago, not one company would agree to phone screens after 7pm (I was booked up otherwise) or interviews on the weekend (again, I was booked up otherwise).  There was obviously high demand, with dozens of companies to talk to, but none of them would operate outside normal business hours.<p>I also have not been able to find any software engineering jobs posted for evening and weekend work.  And yet, if it were available, even if only 1 in 20 people were interested, companies would be able to add 2% (5% x 40%) to the labor force, which is equivalent to an ENORMOUS number of work visas.<p>Does anyone know why this is?
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csmdev
The shortage isn't real. It's an illusion meant to drive the wages down.

Most companies are pretty comfortable with the current market. They don't need
to bend over backwards in order to find new employees. They all rush to them
from all over the world because of the apparent high demand. If there really
was a shortage, wages would skyrocket. Instead, they are staying low and
barely growing with inflation. Only twice the national average last I checked.

When a company says it cannot find talent, it's actually saying it cannot find
talent at the price they are willing to pay. Everybody just wants cheaper
workers.

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notduncansmith
I'm curious - what about the "illusions" of a shortage of developers would
drive wages down? Basic laws of supply and demand would suggest a trend in the
opposite direction.

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csmdev
Companies complain there is a shortage. Everybody rushes to fill the demand,
including students choosing a CS major over something else. Companies are then
over-flooded with supply and get to pick what they want. It's a common tactic
in capitalism.

If there really was a shortage, CS students would be recruited straight out of
college. Instead, every software company wants years of experience for entry-
level jobs. If they afford to put up ridiculous job requirements, they don't
really need you. They simply want someone better for less money.

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dllthomas
_" If there really was a shortage, CS students would be recruited straight out
of college. Instead, every software company wants years of experience for
entry-level jobs. If they afford to put up ridiculous job requirements, they
don't really need you. They simply want someone better for less money."_

This assumes that CS students straight out of college are a (presumably
imperfect) substitute for an experienced programmer. That very well might be
the case, but it should at least be made explicit and ideally supported.

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lifeisstillgood
For the lack of out of hours interviewing - I cannot say. Mostly a dissonance
between the owners of the company (hurting for lack of talent) and the hiring
managers (overworked and not seeing hiring as their top priority)

But as for weekend working - why hire a part time programmer ? They will not
be able to absorb the current teams practises and idioms as easily as they are
not online at the same time, they will not be able to come up to speed as
quick if they only work 10 hours a week. Seems a bad option.

But yes, if you want to hire make it easier by doing evening interviews -
seems sensible to me.

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epicureanideal
I would think weekends would be more like 20 hours per week (10 hour days, 2
days per week) or at least 16. Maybe with a one week on-site weekdays-only
training period, or spaced out on-site training during the week.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
So you are suggesting I hire someone who has a full time job already, and is
unwilling to give it up to join me, but wants to then burn themselves out
doing 10 hours a day Saturday and Sunday - and this is a good deal for me?

Why would I want to hire someone like that? If they cannot tell that's a bad
idea how will they judge O(2^n) ?

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mattl
My guess: nobody who already works there wants to work weekends.

If you have weekend hackers, eventually you need weekend HR, managers,
janitors, chefs, receptionists, etc.

