Hacker News Reader

Comment by jcadam | Hacker News Reader

There is not a shortage of developers. And no, there isn't even a shortage of good developers.

Then why is it that most of the people I interview can barely write a for-loop?

My best guess has been that there's an oversupply of incompetent "developers" trying to play the numbers game, doing enormous numbers of interviews hoping they'll find a company that will hire them anyway.

If incompetent developers do 100 interviews per job, and only last at jobs for 6 months before being fired, and competent developers do single-digit interviews (or 0, getting hired through networking) and stay employed for years at a time, a very small proportion of bad actors can be severely over-represented in interviews.

I think this is correct, however, it doesn't completely explain why I'll go months without meeting a better applicant. If there were a surplus of capable mid-level engineers then wouldn't I see them too?

Location, the kind of position, perceived company reputation and pay...

I've been on your side of the table for a similar role and had the same experience. Literally 20-30 candidates who can't answer basic questions for every 1 who can (and usually the 1 is "just ok").

I think it's just due to the particular pool your company is dealing with. Maybe there is a surplus, maybe there isn't, but you're not able to judge that objectively from your vantage point.

Well, why would those capable mid-level engineers, who probably already have decent jobs, want to interview at your company?

I'm not saying this to be snarky. If you don't have a good answer to this, that probably points to your issue. If you have to think a bit to answer that, it's probably also an issue.

People who can barely write a for-loop go to dozens of interviews per job they get. People who are very competent go to two or three, tops, per job they get.

It's pretty simple logic from there.

Nobody with talent wants to interview at your company. Either your company has a bad reputation, or you're offering crap pay.

Do you interview everyone who applies? Have you considered that your process of choosing who to interview may be flawed?

I wouldn't know because I don't choose the candidates; I just do the coding interviews

An engineer needs to be involved in the initial phone screening.

At my previous company we usually were able to find someone within a reasonable amount of time to fill an open position. One day, HR decided to seize control of the hiring process. They would conduct all of the resume and initial phone screening and then hand us a few "approved" resumes. It became impossible to find anyone after that.

There will always be a shortage of any type of worker...

  ...willing to commute from their home to your premises
  ...and work with your crazy cargo-cult process
  ...on your badly-architected, tech-debt-riddled legacy system
  ...for the crap salary you are offering.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com