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I totally agree that they -can- do the job. The most important thing for a software developer is the ability to learn. We need to give people chances so that th

by Jemmeh 10y ago

I totally agree that they -can- do the job. The most important thing for a software developer is the ability to learn. We need to give people chances so that they even even enter the field to one day become senior level. But I also understand how a lot of business owners feel about it. It takes time to learn these things vs someone who has basically already done this project before in this stack before. A business in a hurry (most of them) would rather have someone who already knows how to do it. Look at Stack Overflow Careers. Look how many more ads there are asking for senior devs.

Apocryphon 10y ago
I think what you're getting at taps into the heart of the issue- it's not just that the software industry is fast-paced in terms of innovation, it's fast-paced in terms of business requirements, in getting products out of market to scramble for users, which translates to higher valuation, and more VC dumb money. So in SV we kinda have a HFT-type situation where companies have to continuously get more and more speedy and optimize greater, even if it comes at a human cost- i.e., everyone's hiring only for senior engineers and there's not enough openings for junior developers, much less the resources to train juniors. As an aside, it's paradoxical that the industry simultaneously desires 10x seniors, while prizes youth (who they don't have to pay at senior salaries). So the true profile of a unicorn coder is basically a 10x dev with 10+ years of experience who is also a new grad that requires no training. Keeps down the cost, all around.
- Jemmeh 10y ago
  Right. It's that dream candidate who started programming at 9 and has no other hobbies besides coding. Even jobs that don't really need developers of that caliber will hire like they do. I need someone to yet another billing app? Let me just hire one rockstar genius and squeeze the life out of them instead of two regular developers because it's cheaper.

by Jemmeh 10y ago

Apocryphon 10y ago

I think what you're getting at taps into the heart of the issue- it's not just that the software industry is fast-paced in terms of innovation, it's fast-paced in terms of business requirements, in getting products out of market to scramble for users, which translates to higher valuation, and more VC dumb money. So in SV we kinda have a HFT-type situation where companies have to continuously get more and more speedy and optimize greater, even if it comes at a human cost- i.e., everyone's hiring only for senior engineers and there's not enough openings for junior developers, much less the resources to train juniors. As an aside, it's paradoxical that the industry simultaneously desires 10x seniors, while prizes youth (who they don't have to pay at senior salaries). So the true profile of a unicorn coder is basically a 10x dev with 10+ years of experience who is also a new grad that requires no training. Keeps down the cost, all around.

Jemmeh 10y ago
Right. It's that dream candidate who started programming at 9 and has no other hobbies besides coding. Even jobs that don't really need developers of that caliber will hire like they do. I need someone to yet another billing app? Let me just hire one rockstar genius and squeeze the life out of them instead of two regular developers because it's cheaper.