

Why Hiring for Start-ups is so Hard Right Now. - dell9000
http://ryanspoon.com/blog/2011/03/06/tech-hiring/

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rdouble
An unmentioned reason it's hard for startups to hire, is because most startups
sound lame. Very few programmers dream about moving to Atlanta to work 12
hours a day at a startup for corporate marketers using Facebook.

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bmelton
When I read recently that the average pay for Valley developers was around
$100k, I balked.

In the DC area, I don't know of many 'good' developers making less than that,
and I'd wager to say that most of them don't possess the core competencies
required to work somewhere like Google, for less money. The soft cap around
here is closer to $160-170k for a good developer, working for a regular job
where you can work 8 hours and go home at the end of it.

Hell, if you're clearable, and do work in security, the cap goes way up.

~~~
true_religion
I'm curious what the age and experience of these developers is... because I'm
also in the D.C. area, and of all of my friends who are relatively recent
graduates (2004-2007), absolutely none of them are making 160-170k. Some even
work for major defense contractors with top secret clearance, and don't make
that much money.

~~~
bmelton
So, the general mantra for defense contractors is that fresh college grads are
hired to do work for very very cheap rates, and are given workloads that are
near impossible to sustain. The churn rate on that sort of position is very
high, but the ones that last more than three or so years who are able to
negotiate a decent rate will definitely end up with 6-figure salaries.

To put it in perspective, I'm 33, and most of the peers of mine I speak of are
loosely similar in age. That said, I had a friend of mine who was hired to the
company I was working for at $40k (recent college grad, absolutely zero tech
skills, but otherwise hard-charging, motivated and eager to learn) and within
a year of my advice, his salary had been chipped up to $85k a year.

A part of it is obviously being able to market yourself personally, and a big
part is actually being able to deliver -- a lot of defense / federal work is
actually structured such that you can't succeed, so working against that is
non-trivial -- but yeah, generally speaking, the money will come.

Long story short, with three years of experience and references (and a good
reputation) working in contracting, you should be asking for at least $90k.
The real trick in defense contracting though is that you become more
marketable the wider your knowledge set, which is counter to almost everywhere
else wherein your pay is derived from the depth of your knowledge.

