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Ah, the old "shortage" "issue". More likely, there is no shortage - just a shortage of engineers willing to be paid the low wages most likely on offer at these

Ah, the old "shortage" "issue". More likely, there is no shortage - just a shortage of engineers willing to be paid the low wages most likely on offer at these companies

noamsml 10y ago
Low wages? Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- dsp1234 10y ago
  Silicon Valley is in the US. This article is about the UK.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- sp332 10y ago
  SV isn't complaining about a skills shortage.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
  There are 49.75 states in the country that are not "Silicon Valley."
- criley2 10y ago
  > Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid... I mean, yes the worlds most pre-eminent software developer culture demands high prices. What about the 98% (fake statistic) of American software developers who do not live in or around San Francisco ...?
  - wingless 10y ago
    Even they aren't paid that highly. Most of them make chump change compared to a world class lawyer or a doctor. I guess we can thank Steve Jobs for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > Low wages? Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid... But as far as I heard the accommodation costs are also strongly increasing - from which I would conclude that the actual wages do not increase so much.
- ryandrake 10y ago
  SOME Silicon Valley engineers are fairly highly paid. Especially so if you only read HN, where there's always someone who's brother's girlfriend's roommate knows someone at Google who makes $250K, therefore this must be an average salary.
  - scarmig 10y ago
    $250k isn't at all unreasonable for a SWE who works at Google. And there are tens of thousands of them in the Bay Area. These are not imaginary unicorns we're talking about.
    - vonmoltke 10y ago
      "Tens of thousands" of $250k/year engineers in the Bay Area at a company that only employs 67k total people worldwide? I find that hard to believe.
sotojuan 10y ago
In my experience it's not so much a shortage of people willing to work for peanuts but rather a shortage of "experts" whom the company doesn't have to train at all and will magically sit down in their desk and print money. Every industry has their own version of the perfect employee but in tech, companies actually expect to get them.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
  The internet has made that a pernicious aspect of our culture that seems impossible to shake. "Whatever you need, whatever you want, the perfect answer is out there, somewhere, and you can communicate instantly. You just need to know where to look. All the mountains are flat."
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    > "Whatever you need, whatever you want, the perfect answer is out there, somewhere, and you can communicate instantly. You just need to know where to look. All the mountains are flat." This might even be true - but it does not say for which cost/salary it is available. :-)
- petra 10y ago
  >> a shortage of "experts" In such situation, wouldn't using standard tools would benefit companies, but also benefit employees. And from the tecchnical point of view, this seems achievable , because many companies do similar stuff. But instead we get the currrent situation(one example is javascript frameworks). Why ?
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    > But instead we get the currrent situation(one example is javascript frameworks). Why ? Each time you use or refuse to use a particular Javascript framework you make a democratic vote on the situation. So the existence of lots of JS framework is a result of a democratic election.
ggggtez 10y ago
I've given the advice to many associates to hold out for a job they actually want in their field. Waiting for a higher paying and more satisfying job is worth being unemployed temporarily, especially in tech, where you can be assured the job you want does exist.
- ryandrake 10y ago
  > especially in tech, where you can be assured the job you want does exist That's a very bold claim. I (and I'm sure many other people) have been looking for decades.
caseysoftware 10y ago
I'm hesitant to put 100% of the blame on employers. Like any field, there are people who are good, people who aren't good yet but have potential, and then the rest. I wonder how much of the ~11% who are still looking for jobs fall under the "rest" group? I'd love to know how many of them were getting 1st round interviews, how many were getting followups, how many were getting job offers. If they're falling out at the first round and not getting invited back, that would shift some of the blame their way.

Ah, the old "shortage" "issue". More likely, there is no shortage - just a shortage of engineers willing to be paid the low wages most likely on offer at these companies

noamsml 10y ago

Low wages? Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dsp1234 10y ago
Silicon Valley is in the US. This article is about the UK.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
sp332 10y ago
SV isn't complaining about a skills shortage.
GFK_of_xmaspast 10y ago
There are 49.75 states in the country that are not "Silicon Valley."
criley2 10y ago
> Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid... I mean, yes the worlds most pre-eminent software developer culture demands high prices. What about the 98% (fake statistic) of American software developers who do not live in or around San Francisco ...?
- wingless 10y ago
  Even they aren't paid that highly. Most of them make chump change compared to a world class lawyer or a doctor. I guess we can thank Steve Jobs for that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
wolfgke 10y ago
> Low wages? Silicon valley engineers tend to be fairly highly paid... But as far as I heard the accommodation costs are also strongly increasing - from which I would conclude that the actual wages do not increase so much.
ryandrake 10y ago
SOME Silicon Valley engineers are fairly highly paid. Especially so if you only read HN, where there's always someone who's brother's girlfriend's roommate knows someone at Google who makes $250K, therefore this must be an average salary.
- scarmig 10y ago
  $250k isn't at all unreasonable for a SWE who works at Google. And there are tens of thousands of them in the Bay Area. These are not imaginary unicorns we're talking about.
  - vonmoltke 10y ago
    "Tens of thousands" of $250k/year engineers in the Bay Area at a company that only employs 67k total people worldwide? I find that hard to believe.

sotojuan 10y ago

In my experience it's not so much a shortage of people willing to work for peanuts but rather a shortage of "experts" whom the company doesn't have to train at all and will magically sit down in their desk and print money. Every industry has their own version of the perfect employee but in tech, companies actually expect to get them.

rm_-rf_slash 10y ago
The internet has made that a pernicious aspect of our culture that seems impossible to shake. "Whatever you need, whatever you want, the perfect answer is out there, somewhere, and you can communicate instantly. You just need to know where to look. All the mountains are flat."
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > "Whatever you need, whatever you want, the perfect answer is out there, somewhere, and you can communicate instantly. You just need to know where to look. All the mountains are flat." This might even be true - but it does not say for which cost/salary it is available. :-)
petra 10y ago
>> a shortage of "experts" In such situation, wouldn't using standard tools would benefit companies, but also benefit employees. And from the tecchnical point of view, this seems achievable , because many companies do similar stuff. But instead we get the currrent situation(one example is javascript frameworks). Why ?
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > But instead we get the currrent situation(one example is javascript frameworks). Why ? Each time you use or refuse to use a particular Javascript framework you make a democratic vote on the situation. So the existence of lots of JS framework is a result of a democratic election.

ggggtez 10y ago

I've given the advice to many associates to hold out for a job they actually want in their field. Waiting for a higher paying and more satisfying job is worth being unemployed temporarily, especially in tech, where you can be assured the job you want does exist.

ryandrake 10y ago
> especially in tech, where you can be assured the job you want does exist That's a very bold claim. I (and I'm sure many other people) have been looking for decades.

caseysoftware 10y ago

I'm hesitant to put 100% of the blame on employers. Like any field, there are people who are good, people who aren't good yet but have potential, and then the rest. I wonder how much of the ~11% who are still looking for jobs fall under the "rest" group? I'd love to know how many of them were getting 1st round interviews, how many were getting followups, how many were getting job offers. If they're falling out at the first round and not getting invited back, that would shift some of the blame their way.