The War for Developers is on. Can you compete?
blog.loftjobs.com
blog.loftjobs.com
Ask a random Googler what he works on at Google. In my experience 9/10 times it's something they could easily do without.
Surely you're joking right? Create a billion dollar company where it snows four months out of the year? Yes and a recent example rhymes with coupon;<).
The problem is not that great developers are expensive, it's that they're expensive and very rare.
It is all about the unconscious mastery.
I'll use the chess analogy, it is very hard to be a top class player, if every time you ponder the position you have to think about how the horsey moves.
There is no such thing as a company paying true market rate, with acceptable working conditions and terms, who cannot find talent. The problem is there are many companies that are in denial about the realities of the competitive market.
All this silly nonsense about only hiring people who started programming at age 8 is just a distraction to avoid contending with the real issues here.
'Average' salary for tech workers is $110K [1] so can you live on $2K/month?
[1] http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-20/business/17829511_1_si...
Also, if hackers were 1/10 as unionized as teachers or other public sector employees OR GM employees the median salary would be double that.
The company site doesn't even have job listings though. This is a problem. In a search I found a single job listing for your company on the web for an iPhone+Android developer. This was on a set of sites under something called MyCareerNetwork.com, which I had never heard of before as a job board. Checking for jobs within 100 miles of Louisville on Joel's board, where many microsoft developers hang out and which is much more well known, there are 0 search results anywhere near your city so I know you are not currently advertising there.
If I've guessed correctly about where you work, then you guys should probably at least advertise in known locations if you are really having problems finding people.
I would assume of course that since you can't find anyone locally you are doing the basic hygiene issues such as offering good packages, full relocation, and paying for interview expenses. But the one ad I found specifically says you won't pay relocation. This sort of thing is a huge red flag.
So, you say you are having trouble finding people. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the market though based on my brief investigation but is a problem with not trying hard and not providing even the minimal incentive necessary.
You should be aware that iPhone and Android skills are both quite hot right now and developers that are expert in both are extremely rare and command a premium. You should be looking at paying full relocation and salary in the $250k range. That's the market.
Other locales have spokespeople who talk about how they are desperate for programmers and how great it would be to work there. Then you find out the reality and it's 50k top salary programming tps reports in an office park in the suburbs.
(B) Many more creative types than just developers are attracted to NYC such as fashion, tv, finance (if you don't think CDOs are creative then look closer).
(C) Because of the diversity of people you get really interesting experiences and ideas you couldn't get anywhere else. The Bay Area's idea of diversity is hackers that like to wear black t-shirts vs VCs that like to wear Polos.
(D) For being a much bigger city, New York is much more compact time-wise because you don't have to drive everywhere, which makes it fundamentally more liveable.
And (E) as for Boston, as an MIT alum currently still in the Boston area, I can tell you that nobody wants to stay here after graduation....the city is tiny and the bars close at 1 AND it's freezing 8 months out of the year.
Another amazing thing about those jobs is that they want you to sell your house, probably at a loss, and move to their obscure location, but they don't want to pay any relocation expenses.
My friends tell me it's pretty strong in Austin, TX too.
While the job scene here is tiny, there's still a lot of demand. Our last 2 hires have been from out of state.
Also, you get to live in the mountains...
Very little action going on that indicates there is a true understanding in the start up community that top talent is needed to invent top products that draw customers.
Heck, there was recently an announcement here from some company that was telling startups they didn't even need to have developers, they had plugin disposable cog developers in india that could do whatever was needed remotely, as if killer product development was a solved problem now handled by line workers. Obviously these nameless overseas developers won't be getting equity.
Really has seemed like amateur hour in the startup community for some time. So little activity is consistent with a desire to build solid companies with good products that are sustainable. Instead, more and more VC funds are run by guys with little successful business experience, who seem mostly interested in living the high life at the expense of the investors they are fleecing.
Taking a look at the site, all the jobs are for less than $500... the war rages on.
If the increase in startups is do to economic expansion around new markets, then the overall increase in jobs can be durable in the sense that they are for viable businesses. If it turns out that the creation of startups is due to rampant speculation from capitol chasing better returns in an irrational way, then the jobs will disappear again when the market corrects.
So far, in this 'extremely reminiscent of previous bubble' non-bubble expansion, the source of capital has been, in theory, from investors who are making risk / value assessments in line with information about the business models they are investing in.
However, there is also evidence to suggest that people who have acquired excess capital but did not experience, nor learn the lessons of, that previous bubble, are in the process of redistributing their new found wealth in unsound ways.
As the previous explosion lasted about 6 years ('95 with 'Netscape' to '01 with 'nuclear winter'), and it was sustained in part by the unbridled enthusiasm of untrained investors, investing in IPOs. If this particular trend continues with simply VC/Angel money we should no in a shorter period whether or not the expansion is durable or illusory.
Check back in 2015, you'll know if it was like 99 or not.
Oh well. Who wants to hire me? I got a fancy-lookin' PhD and I can code quantum mechanical simulation codes in my sleep, so I figure whatever you're doing can't be much harder. I know absolutely nothing about Rails, SQL or Lisp, but how fricking hard can it be? And I'm willing to accept any offer in excess of One Shitload.
People always talk about Apple, Google and (less now) Microsoft. But Amazon is a huge sleeping dragon.
In hardware for example, HP used to have the best possible reputation. But then Fiorina as CEO destroyed the company's reputation among engineers. They are now permanently crippled.
Word gets out.
Maybe everything there has changed and things are better. That's possible. But it doesn't matter. It's like the story of the reformed born again wife beater. Sure, he feels bad about what happened to all his previous spouses and swears he has changed. But does a solid down to earth woman who isn't emotionally damaged really want to be the one to find out if it is true? No.