Let's assume pay is the only parameter in a job offer.
Also assume Big tech (FANG) set the ceiling for software engineer salary.
These companies hire every engineer that meet their criteria.
Most engineer given an offer from one of them would accept it since that is the highest possible offer they can get.
If there is no talent shortage, these companies should have no open recs or fill them as soon as they're opened because they are the best possible jobs for any engineer.
Since they have open recs (sometimes open for months), there is a talent shortage at the skill level they require.
Think about an ugly, unemployed dude with a bad attitude and bad personality saying that there is a shortage of girls in the dating pool who meet his attractiveness standards.
He is technically correct, the number of attractive ladies who want to date him is much lower than the number of dates he is available to go on.
But no one is going to be sympathetic to that shortage, why should anyone be sympathetic to this one.
> Let's assume pay is the only parameter in a job offer.
It's not.
> These companies [FAANG] hire every engineer that meet their criteria.
They don't hire anywhere close to that. Their hiring practices are notoriously capricious.
> Most engineer given an offer from one of them would accept it since that is the highest possible offer they can get.
I had an offer like this and turned it down because they wouldn't let me work on my open source project.
> If there is no talent shortage, these companies should have no open recs or fill them as soon as they're opened because they are the best possible jobs for any engineer.
These companies have more money than they know what to do with, and more is coming in all the time. The more they hire, the more things they make, and the more they want to hire.
These companies hire every engineer that meet their criteria.
Most engineer given an offer from one of them would accept it since that is the highest possible offer they can get.
If there is no talent shortage, these companies should have no open recs or fill them as soon as they're opened because they are the best possible jobs for any engineer.
Since they have open recs (sometimes open for months), there is a talent shortage at the skill level they require.
Please let me know what is missing in this logic?