When I was young I would have seen your job posting as a dead end position. My thoughts would have been: What possible fun could you see on writing code for PHD

When I was young I would have seen your job posting as a dead end position. My thoughts would have been: What possible fun could you see on writing code for PHD's all day long? My suggestion is that you stop advertising for "brilliant software engineers" and instead look for solid people that actually fit your team. For what is worth, what did caught my attention fresh out of school where lots of smart peers, unlimited budgets, foozball, ping pong and the rush of beating the competition with our smarts. (Of course a couple of years later the bubble pop'd, stock options fizzled and reality kicked in)