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I agree with you and generally this is a great way for a startup to save money as well because new grads are cheap. The problem that you'll then have though, i
by physcab 16y ago
I agree with you and generally this is a great way for a startup to save money as well because new grads are cheap.
The problem that you'll then have though, is that when you encounter a tough technical challenge, you won't have the benefit of having someone on your team who has seen it before.
So there must be some golden ratio. A solid emphasis on college recruiting to serve immediate needs, with a focus on building out a technical knowledge base accompanied by many years of experience.
- tkaemming 16y ago"I agree with you and generally this is a great way for a startup to save money as well because new grads are cheap." I'd argue the opposite case — if it's true that a good programmer is at least 5-10x more productive than an average programmer[1], you'd actually save money by paying the experienced programmer significantly more when compared to hiring a team of beginning or average programmers. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month#The_surgical_team http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month#The_surg...
- physcab 16y agoTrue. But you're not accounting for the time it takes to hire a programmer that is 5-10x more productive.
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoThere's also costs that scale with headcount but not experience. For instance, you've got to get computers and chairs and desks for everyone whether they're a rookie or an expert. Ditto things like healthcare. Sure, the rookies may have cubicles and slightly worse plans, but those costs aren't going to be 1/5 or 1/10 as expensive. And while the good programmers probably need less oversight than average, support personnel costs (internal IT, HR, recruitment, whatever) still scale with headcount.