

Ask HN: Is there really a shortage of developers in the startup world? - karlcoelho1

I&#x27;ve read a lot that there is a shortage of developers for startups to hire, but I don&#x27;t really believe it. Can someone in the industry confirm that there is in fact, not enough developers up for grabs, for startups?
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patio11
There is a shortage for developers with certain skill sets, in certain
locales, at certain prices which companies are willing to pay.

If we get away from the baggage of the word "shortage", it is a true statement
that the hiring market currently favors those who are selling talent as
opposed to those who wish to purchase talent, across a wide variety of first-
world metropolitan areas, in many fields of software engineering, including
but not limited to fairly generic web and/or application development.

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nostrademons
I think there is a shortage of developers of the quality that startups want to
hire for the price they want to hire them.

Digging a bit deeper - I do think there's a pretty universal shortage of high-
quality developers in the software world. Understand your CS fundamentals +
current technologies and have decent social skills and you will never lack for
work. I think that Google and Facebook have gobbled up the vast majority of
these developers, because they are willing to pay higher wages than most
startups can. That's the way economics works: the people who can pay the most
get first crack at the supply.

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notduncansmith
As others have stated, the shortage is in the number of quality developers
that are willing to work for under market rate. I had several startups in SF
offer me 60-80k, and I laughed my way out of each of those interviews. I get
that startups have to stay lean and not overspend, but development talent is
one place you absolutely don't want to cut corners.

I think that's the real sticking point - quality developers are going where
they'll get paid what they're worth, and in most cases that's not startups on
shoestring budgets that could go under at any minute. It helps to keep in mind
that quality developers are often older, with families, who want to find
somewhere they can be well-compensated for putting in a solid day's work
before going home in time for dinner. This doesn't seem to jive with what a
lot of startups expect of their employees.

By the way, I don't mean to put _all_ startups under this generalization: this
purely based on anecdotal evidence from myself and people I know.

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schmidtc
As a developer looking for work I found a ton of startup job opportunities in
the NYC area. But I found the companies hiring for a very specific set of
skills (frameworks, insert random buzz words) instead hiring for general
ability and knowledge. It's an interesting dynamic as the startup has limited
funds and limited time. They want someone who can jump in on day one without
any learning curve. The smaller startups are willing to wait for the perfect
candidate because hiring the wrong person could be a disaster.

In my own startups I've found the developers I know love the idea of working
for a startup. But when it comes down to it, they are risk averse and value
job security and cash compensation over the freedom and equity that a startup
offers.

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hashtag
As echoed by others on here, there is a shortage of __good__developers for
hire. I've seen plenty of developers get interviewed at some startup companies
only to be turned down for the job and I've known a few that were trying to
apply and get denied. Majority of companies are hiring but that doesn't mean
they'll hire just any developer. The issue is developers are not all created
equal and I've been around enough developers to know that rejection is common,
some times several rejections, before they finally are able to land a job
somewhere (not necessarily even a startup by the time its done).

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wikwocket
I can vouch for the fact that in Chicago at least, there seems to be a
shortage of quality developers. Or perhaps rather, our company (and every
other tech-focused company I know of) has a continual burning need to hire
more quality developers than they can find.

I don't know what "for startups" has to do with it, but if it matters, I work
for a 90-person company that calls itself a "mature startup." :)

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alphagenerator
What sort of business do you operate? There are a lot of qualified developers
in this town. The price is the sticking point.

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chrisBob
In addition to the pay issue addressed in all of the other answers so far, the
top tier programmers are also likely to be looking for more stable employment.
A single college grad with no experience can take a gamble on a startup, but
someone with a few years of experience and a family is more likely to want a
job that they know will be around for a few years.

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rmc
There's a shortage because employers don't want to pay enough. Hence employees
take advantage of the free market for their labour and go to places which pay
more (competition at work!).

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2ndgreen
We had a personal issue with recruiting developers The main problem is the
high cost you need to pay for these developers to make your startup a real
option for them.

