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Ask HN: Are companies ever willing to hire non-“top-talent”?
Maybe it's impostor syndrome or something but I'm just curious: do companies ever look at "promise" or "loyalty" when considering a candidate for a job? I wouldn't consider myself top-tier, but I'm definitely more productive and a much better programmer with busy work and clear tasking...but that comes after the interview. How do I market my "willingness to learn" more to companies who apparently love that in their candidates?
- troydavis 9y agoAlmost all companies hire “non-top talent” now, but usually without admitting it to themselves. Any company with geographic limitations, and any company not willing to pay absolutely top dollar plus equity, is probably not hiring the absolute best. Probably rightly, they’re seeking the best value - that is, maximal results for the work environment and compensation they can offer. So: 1. Don’t stress over not being the best. 2. Focus on demonstrating (through actions much more than words) the things that you’d like a prospective employer to realize. If that’s a willingness to learn, spend a month or two of weekends learning 3 or 4 new technologies and demonstrating that knowledge with a blog post or small app that solves a problem you found. At that point, your explanation to prospective employers is (a) you were interested in things so you learned the basics about them, and (b) some examples of you synthesizing that knowledge (maybe even attached to your resume). Best case, following your interests means that you’re applying to companies using the technologies/concepts/libraries you tinkered with.
- greenyoda 9y agoMost jobs in our industry (or any other) do not require "top talent". If a company needs to implement a CRUD app, they're not going to be able to attract (or afford) someone who is capable of designing the next-generation web browser or inventing new AI algorithms. So there's lots of room for people with average skills who can cooperate with their co-workers to get the day-to-day work done. Even in legendary companies like Google, most of the software development work that goes on is pretty mundane, e.g., writing some tiny piece of a huge system that's being worked on by dozens of other developers.
- gregjor 9y agoIt should be obvious that it's not possible for every programmer to be in the 5% or 10%. And it's not possible that every company boasting they hire only the top can actually do that. It's just simple math. And there are no objective measures or tests for "top" or "best." Productivity is highly situational.