6 ms·

Two in five tech job applicants don't have the right tech chops, survey finds

15 points by sbuttgereit 8y ago

dclusin 8y ago
The article says that salary isn't the most important factor for enticing potential employees but I feel like that's a meme would be employers like to buy into. Maybe you could convince a junior engineer to work for less with the potential of rockstar teams or mission driven culture. But there's always immediate need for senior engineers in highly functioning teams with plenty of upward mobility. I've had several job offers and compensation has been the show stopper. There isn't really a shortage of great teams. There's a shortage of great teams that pay really well.
CM30 8y ago
So, is this really unique to tech? Serious question there. How many people applying for jobs in other fields also completely lack the skills they need for said job? Obviously, it'll be a lesser count in some fields. On paper, everyone applying for a job in medicine or law will have the appropriate qualifications and (presumably) skills. But what about others? I suspect a lot of people going for marketing and design roles don't have the skills needed for the jobs they're applying for too. It's probably a common issue in sales too, though that field at least lets you find out pretty quickly whether someone's bluffing. What's the percentage of unqualified applicants by role and industry?
- jandrese 8y ago
  Some jobs may be easier to buff until you make it. Someone going into marketing can probably get along for awhile on BS, while a welder is going to be put on the spot and actually tested on their skills. Depends how much domain knowledge the recruiter has as well.
LorenPechtel 8y ago
Well, duh! You only consider skills that people have actually used in a job as skills they possess. Thus the only way people can acquire new skills that will be recognized on a resume is if they end up using them in their current job. It should be obvious that pretty soon the experienced people will fail to be able to include some important skill on their resume. Presto, a "shortage" of qualified people. Employers are so obsessed with hiring the best person that they overlook plenty of people who could do the job.
DeonPenny 8y ago
Meh it's usually not as simple as thing especially as in tech. Because we do problems a developer in one interview can do wildly better than the next simply because he is more familiar with a type of problem.
towaway1138 8y ago
Interesting. By coincidence, that's about the proportion of hiring companies that don't have a basic professional environment, a reasonable program of work to be done, and a basic clue of what they need in a tech employee.

15 points by sbuttgereit 8y ago

The article says that salary isn't the most important factor for enticing potential employees but I feel like that's a meme would be employers like to buy into. Maybe you could convince a junior engineer to work for less with the potential of rockstar teams or mission driven culture. But there's always immediate need for senior engineers in highly functioning teams with plenty of upward mobility. I've had several job offers and compensation has been the show stopper. There isn't really a shortage of great teams. There's a shortage of great teams that pay really well.

CM30 8y ago

So, is this really unique to tech? Serious question there. How many people applying for jobs in other fields also completely lack the skills they need for said job? Obviously, it'll be a lesser count in some fields. On paper, everyone applying for a job in medicine or law will have the appropriate qualifications and (presumably) skills. But what about others? I suspect a lot of people going for marketing and design roles don't have the skills needed for the jobs they're applying for too. It's probably a common issue in sales too, though that field at least lets you find out pretty quickly whether someone's bluffing. What's the percentage of unqualified applicants by role and industry?

jandrese 8y ago
Some jobs may be easier to buff until you make it. Someone going into marketing can probably get along for awhile on BS, while a welder is going to be put on the spot and actually tested on their skills. Depends how much domain knowledge the recruiter has as well.

LorenPechtel 8y ago

Well, duh! You only consider skills that people have actually used in a job as skills they possess. Thus the only way people can acquire new skills that will be recognized on a resume is if they end up using them in their current job. It should be obvious that pretty soon the experienced people will fail to be able to include some important skill on their resume. Presto, a "shortage" of qualified people. Employers are so obsessed with hiring the best person that they overlook plenty of people who could do the job.

DeonPenny 8y ago

Meh it's usually not as simple as thing especially as in tech. Because we do problems a developer in one interview can do wildly better than the next simply because he is more familiar with a type of problem.

towaway1138 8y ago

Interesting. By coincidence, that's about the proportion of hiring companies that don't have a basic professional environment, a reasonable program of work to be done, and a basic clue of what they need in a tech employee.