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“I’m sending out lots and lots and lots of applications, to everywhere within a 50-mile radius,” says Rosamaria Carbonell Mann, 49.... ... We are firing up our

by ojbyrne 16y ago

“I’m sending out lots and lots and lots of applications, to everywhere within a 50-mile radius,” says Rosamaria Carbonell Mann, 49.... ... We are firing up our college recruiting program, enduring all manner of humiliation to try to fill these jobs,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin" No disconnect there.

tptacek 16y ago
The disconnect is called "572 miles of Interstate 5". Unfortunately, if we were talking about, say, Intel instead of Redfin, the disconnect would be called "81 miles of Interstate 5 to Portland", because this woman's problem is that she lives in the middle of nowhere.
- maxawaytoolong 16y ago
  I have to agree with this. A startup I worked for long ago sold a contract to HP in Corvalis, Oregon. I spent two weeks getting things set up and training the staff. It took an hour to get there from Eugene, which required a 2-connection flight from Boston. I was surprised there was such a huge campus out there where programmers could work. It would have been great to work out there while it lasted. One of the software engineers I worked with had a pretty typical programmer salary and owned a small ranch, horses, an expensive BMW motorcycle, could support 3 kids and a wife who only worked part time, etc. Unfortunately, I think this sort of situation is rare and a bit risky to your career... if your job disappears there aren't many alternatives unless you move far away.
  - ojbyrne 16y ago
    The key part of the article might be this bit: "The experience of Ms. Mann and others like her suggests that the technology industry may not be the savior of the American job market and a magic bullet for a moribund economy." Fred Brooks told use quite a while ago that there's no magic bullet.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
kiujygtyujik 16y ago
The disconnect is that can (or want to) hire college graduates for $25K - or preferably as unpaid interns. They don't want to hire 20year experience engineers for $100K
- paulbaumgart 16y ago
  Where in the Tech Sector do recent grads get $25K? Most internships pay about twice that (if annualized).
  - patio11 16y ago
    Central Japan, for one. And they wonder why our recruiting pipeline sucks... Great opportunity for startups though. If you can pay $40k you'd be making engineers comparatively rich.

by ojbyrne 16y ago

tptacek 16y ago

The disconnect is called "572 miles of Interstate 5". Unfortunately, if we were talking about, say, Intel instead of Redfin, the disconnect would be called "81 miles of Interstate 5 to Portland", because this woman's problem is that she lives in the middle of nowhere.

maxawaytoolong 16y ago
I have to agree with this. A startup I worked for long ago sold a contract to HP in Corvalis, Oregon. I spent two weeks getting things set up and training the staff. It took an hour to get there from Eugene, which required a 2-connection flight from Boston. I was surprised there was such a huge campus out there where programmers could work. It would have been great to work out there while it lasted. One of the software engineers I worked with had a pretty typical programmer salary and owned a small ranch, horses, an expensive BMW motorcycle, could support 3 kids and a wife who only worked part time, etc. Unfortunately, I think this sort of situation is rare and a bit risky to your career... if your job disappears there aren't many alternatives unless you move far away.
- ojbyrne 16y ago
  The key part of the article might be this bit: "The experience of Ms. Mann and others like her suggests that the technology industry may not be the savior of the American job market and a magic bullet for a moribund economy." Fred Brooks told use quite a while ago that there's no magic bullet.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

kiujygtyujik 16y ago

The disconnect is that can (or want to) hire college graduates for $25K - or preferably as unpaid interns. They don't want to hire 20year experience engineers for $100K

paulbaumgart 16y ago
Where in the Tech Sector do recent grads get $25K? Most internships pay about twice that (if annualized).
- patio11 16y ago
  Central Japan, for one. And they wonder why our recruiting pipeline sucks... Great opportunity for startups though. If you can pay $40k you'd be making engineers comparatively rich.