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Comment by mywittyname | Hacker News Reader

Engineers are treated like crap at a lot of companies. Not everyone works at a FANG where they are treated like top-tier employees. Most of us are seen as overpriced means to an end.

When companies complain that they "can't find qualified candidates," they really mean people willing to work cheap enough. I've given the okay to my manager on several hires and none of them were actually hired.

Lots of people in our industry deal with hazing and harassment that goes unchecked. And there's no guarantee that the next job will be any better. Personally, my last job was horrible, while several people left due to harassment, those that stayed were the ones that got it the worst and couldn't leave due to being a contractor or an industry specialist.

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> Not everyone works at a FANG where they are treated like top-tier employees.

But virtually any IT worker with demanded skills can find a job where they will be treated similarly well. Compared to most of other industries, tech has the lowest incentives to have labor unions.

> a FANG

What's this?

> When companies complain that they "can't find qualified candidates," they really mean people willing to work cheap enough.

Well maybe they can't find anyone who will work cheaply enough to justify hiring them based on how much they will generate the company? That's just economics.

Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

It's mostly used in reference to their stocks.

As for your edit: you could be right, but if that's the case, they really should say that. Because not being able to find qualified people is different than not being able to find affordable people.

FAANG: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google -- It's a generalization for tech companies that have been doing exceedingly well in the public market in the last 5 or 6 years.

Also written as FAANG: Facebook Apple Amazon Netflix Google

> FANG

An acronym invented by Jim Cramer: Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google

> Maybe they can't find anyone who will work cheaply enough to justify hiring them based on how much they will generate the company

While we're on the topic of FANG, these companies post profits in the billions of dollars. They could afford to pay their engineers 5x what they get now, if they were so inclined.

As you said, economics (read: the profit motive) means they will actually pay them what the market demands (and no more). As rational actors (again thinking with our economics hat on), big tech companies would love it if the market for SWEs were a little less hot, and they could get away with paying less. Why make 1 billion in profit when you could make 2 billion, amirite??

So it's not a conspiracy theory to suppose that a big part of what motivates the "we need more STEM grads!" narrative is a desire to saturate the job market and thereby depress engineer salaries.

Yes someone people seem to think that if you can't find anyone qualified for the money you want to pay, that you should just keep increasing what you're offering to pay.

But obviously at some point it just becomes not profitable to employ someone to do that job at that pay rate, even if you want the job done.

Certainly, and it's probably difficult for smaller tech companies just barely making a profit to cover the high cost of hiring a software engineer.

But typically the companies who complain the loudest about "not finding qualified engineers" are not small consulting shops, but big firms that are already very profitable. They _could_ afford additional engineers, but they'd rather make another $1 on their dividends. It's often just a question of priorities.

Why in God’s name would they raise salaries 5x just because they earn billions of dollars? Do you really think that’s how it should work?

I own stock in all the FANG companies, I would be beyond pissed if their costs when up 5x or even 2x just because they decided they wanted to overpay employees.

These companies are businesses, they are not a big happy family or a charity. When you work for them, you agree to a price for your services. Go to work, do your thing, and go home. That’s it. An employee does not need to be compensated anymore than what the market is willing to bear, and on average the payout is usually a bit less anyway.

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