The STEM Skills Gap Is Only as Real as the Purple Unicorn

"Either these companies are alright with the job remaining unfilled, or they are looking for something that doesn’t exist."

I've come the the conclusion that most employers are not serious about hiring anybody in a specific manner. They are looking for someone who is extremely strong technically and also cheap enough to fill a position which they can create on-the-fly. In other words, they are continually fishing with bait which is disgusting to 99% of the fish, and only want the rare exceptional fish who finds the bait tasty to take it.

If someone is made of 100% unobtainium then they'll create a position and hire that person (with H-1B restrictions or a non-compete to restrict them from leaving in the future).

With the glut of talent available worldwide, I don't see this changing anytime soon.

Every time I see an article about 'oh noes, STEM jobs aren't being filled!', I can't help but add '...at the paltry salary we're willing to pay'. I've had a series of job interviews lately where it was obvious I was more than qualified - senior sysadmin, devops engineer, what have you - but the salary on offer was junior wages at best. Even after showing them the Puppet labs 2015 salary report, the response was still 'we'd rather hold out for someone cheaper'. Companies, if you're having trouble filling a role, up your salary budget and make it known. If it's a truly competitive salary, the world will beat a path to your door with exceptional candidates.