Most companies say they need the best people. In practice: 1. Most companies deliberately choose not to pay at the top of industry pay range, instead aiming fo

Most companies say they need the best people. In practice: 1. Most companies deliberately choose not to pay at the top of industry pay range, instead aiming for 70th percentile or 50th percentile or whatever. 2. Majority of programmers are employed. By definition more programmers are average than "the best". So in practice most companies hire average programmers and it's just fine. 3. "Average" is a misleading concept. Programming (or any job) has a wide variety of skills, and is basically a group effort. Most programmers have strengths in some skills, weaknesses in others, and that's OK, because they work as a team with other people. So, don't worry about it.