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Reason to hire a young programmer based on the confession from CTO: we like college grads because we can drive them hard and pay them minimal salaries. The only

by rdtsc 9y ago

Reason to hire a young programmer based on the confession from CTO: we like college grads because we can drive them hard and pay them minimal salaries. The only thing is they burn out pretty quickly. And yes they also lamented the quality of their software and how releases were buggy and delayed. Not sure they saw a connection there... To attract the candidates they optimized non-salary benefits they thought college kids would like such sports tickets, beer nights etc. The bottom line is companies know exactly what they are doing and just officially claim some culture fit thing. Same with hiring women, minorities,etc. Even with open space offices. They say it's because they want people to collaborate but more often than not they want to save money and monitor people to see if the are "working".

arethuza 9y ago
Low quality - clearly not driving hard enough and not buying enough beer!
satysin 9y ago
I am 33 and have a 4 year old son who will be starting school this September. The biggest benefit for me that any company could offer would be true flexibility with regards to my working hours and location. I have been self-employed for the past ~7 years and it has been great as I have been able to balance work with the first few years of my sons life. Time I will never get back so being able to be there every day has been wonderful. But now I need some consistency so will be looking to find a normal job very soon. I don't care about free coffee/sofa, gym memberships, sports tickets, etc. I just want flexibility so when my son has some school event I can go without having to use up a whole days holiday for a 45 minute show, etc. I am not looking forward to it though. I know I am going to find it hard to adjust!
- rdtsc 9y ago
  I work from home for example and nobody watches over my shoulder how much I type, just that work gets done and releases ship out and such. I can go to my kids school to see a performance and then make up the work if need be later. If it is a nice day I might start work earlier then to have time to go to the pool in the evening with them. So there are companies that will let you do that just have to find them.
  - joshmarinacci 9y ago
    We need more companies like this.
dwc 9y ago
> Not sure they saw a connection there... In my experience, they try not to see the connection. If you try to show it, they'll listen for a bit and then rationalize. If you keep at it you'll begin to see irritation and even aggression. That a fair number of CTOs have a decent technical background doesn't seem to help much, somehow. I've had this confirmed personally when I got together with a coworker from almost 20 ago who had moved into management. He struggled to keep experienced people because they moved for more money, because they were paying below market value. If I suggest something like paying more, he considers it and then some weeks later I find he's still struggling to figure out a way to keep people, having changed nothing of consequence. It's my pet theory that (almost all) management wants programming/IT to be a commodity and are willing to pretend that it is, to their detriment. They demand that it be a commodity.
- vim_user 9y ago
  I also have that theory, and it's not a stretch since the act of business is to commoditize everything. I especially saw it in the IT consulting business.
deleted 9y ago
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by rdtsc 9y ago

arethuza 9y ago

Low quality - clearly not driving hard enough and not buying enough beer!

satysin 9y ago

I am 33 and have a 4 year old son who will be starting school this September. The biggest benefit for me that any company could offer would be true flexibility with regards to my working hours and location. I have been self-employed for the past ~7 years and it has been great as I have been able to balance work with the first few years of my sons life. Time I will never get back so being able to be there every day has been wonderful. But now I need some consistency so will be looking to find a normal job very soon. I don't care about free coffee/sofa, gym memberships, sports tickets, etc. I just want flexibility so when my son has some school event I can go without having to use up a whole days holiday for a 45 minute show, etc. I am not looking forward to it though. I know I am going to find it hard to adjust!

rdtsc 9y ago
I work from home for example and nobody watches over my shoulder how much I type, just that work gets done and releases ship out and such. I can go to my kids school to see a performance and then make up the work if need be later. If it is a nice day I might start work earlier then to have time to go to the pool in the evening with them. So there are companies that will let you do that just have to find them.
- joshmarinacci 9y ago
  We need more companies like this.

dwc 9y ago

> Not sure they saw a connection there... In my experience, they try not to see the connection. If you try to show it, they'll listen for a bit and then rationalize. If you keep at it you'll begin to see irritation and even aggression. That a fair number of CTOs have a decent technical background doesn't seem to help much, somehow. I've had this confirmed personally when I got together with a coworker from almost 20 ago who had moved into management. He struggled to keep experienced people because they moved for more money, because they were paying below market value. If I suggest something like paying more, he considers it and then some weeks later I find he's still struggling to figure out a way to keep people, having changed nothing of consequence. It's my pet theory that (almost all) management wants programming/IT to be a commodity and are willing to pretend that it is, to their detriment. They demand that it be a commodity.

vim_user 9y ago
I also have that theory, and it's not a stretch since the act of business is to commoditize everything. I especially saw it in the IT consulting business.

deleted 9y ago

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