The Colorado law is silly, arrogant, unhelpful. And, it's backfiring in all sorts of ways. I have many friends in Colorado who are having a hard time finding work because they think that any company who "refuses to comply" with the law must be a terrible, unfair, toxic place to work. They've taken a moral high ground, preaching pay transparency and cataloging job descriptions from companies who aren't "following the law" and reporting them to the bureaucrats.

There are many reasons a company doesn't list salary ranges on job descriptions. Hell, most companies don't even know the damn law exists—they're just hoping to hire good people to do good work.

Yes, the hiring process at a lot of companies is not awesome. Yes, recruiters are useless, and technical interviews suck. But there are a lot of great companies out there that pay really well and care about their employees. If you want to talk about salary, put in a good application, make a good first impression, and you can talk money early on in the interview process. I've hired a lot of people throughout my career. These days, I'm absolutely dumbfounded by the amount of applicants who don't seem to care about anything at all—sloppy résumés, half-assed and poorly written cover letters, days go by in between scheduling emails.

You want to make $200,000 a year? Become a better writer and don't be a fucking idiot during your interviews. Stop swaying in your chair, and playing with your hair, and reprimanding your dog. Fix your lighting and your audio, put a clean shirt on—take things seriously. You might be "qualified" for the role on paper, but no one wants to work with unthinking slobs who seem completely uninterested in actually getting the job.

The longer people whine and complain about "pay transparency", the longer they'll remain unemployed.