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It's basic supply and demand: if hiring remote, you're drawing from a larger talent pool, and therefore increasing supply. In theory, this works the other dire

It's basic supply and demand: if hiring remote, you're drawing from a larger talent pool, and therefore increasing supply. In theory, this works the other direction (remote workers have access to more employers), but the reality is that the supply/demand ratio for devs is radically distorted in the Bay Area (and other tech hubs relative to the rest of the US, and the US relative to worldwide), so it isn't symmetric. To flip it around: if I'm purchasing labor, why should I pay a 200% premium because the employee is located in SF rather than Nebraska? If you're trying to hire top talent, one has to consider SF salaries (offset by high cost of living) as BATNA. But if you find someone willing to do the job at lower cost (factoring in lower cost of living, and location/schedule flexibility as a form of compensation), what's the problem?

aantix 7y ago
I understand the business's motives. I've been on both sides of the hiring process and to get a solid candidate into advanced stages of the interview process isn't trivial. Time is always an issue - time to screen resumes, engineering time for phone screens, for online interviews, engineering time for onsite interviews all the while continuing to release new features. While the pool of candidates is virtually infinite, time isn't. And so for a solid engineering candidate, that works to your advantage. So yes, push back on discounted salary requirements. Or reach a middle-ground - offer a short term contract up front to ensure "you're a good fit for each other" and so that you can properly demonstrate your skillet. And then kill every task you're assigned. Protect your value.
chrisweekly 7y ago
BATNA - Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (for others like me in the TIL camp)
mantas 7y ago
Coming from a relatively cheap country... It does work the other direction. That's why dev salaries across the world are much more similar than in other sectors.
- aantix 7y ago
  Doesn’t your country experience the same lack of quality engineering talent? Even in SV, we could interview 100 candidates but maybe one or two really knew the stack and one of those was a great coder. That scarcity and high standards pushes the qualified candidate in to a pretty small pool, hence the high salaries.
  - mantas 7y ago
    Scarcity (and resulting wages increase) wouldn't be as big if there were no foreign companies coming in. Either hiring fully remotely or opening up dev offices. Purely local scarcity would have had similar effect but I believe it'd be much much much slower and with lower ceiling. Local companies paying 2x average wage seemed fine. You're making good money compared to your neighbours and feels sort of wrong to ask for more than your boss makes. Then foreign money come in and pay 4x average wage light it was nothing. Suddenly all the social stigma is removed. That's literally what happened when a major bank's back-office was opened. They were willing to pay 1.5x-2x local market salaries and hire lots of people (compared to market size). Pretty much everybody in the industry had to follow, raising salaries effectively overnight.

aantix 7y ago

I understand the business's motives. I've been on both sides of the hiring process and to get a solid candidate into advanced stages of the interview process isn't trivial. Time is always an issue - time to screen resumes, engineering time for phone screens, for online interviews, engineering time for onsite interviews all the while continuing to release new features. While the pool of candidates is virtually infinite, time isn't. And so for a solid engineering candidate, that works to your advantage. So yes, push back on discounted salary requirements. Or reach a middle-ground - offer a short term contract up front to ensure "you're a good fit for each other" and so that you can properly demonstrate your skillet. And then kill every task you're assigned. Protect your value.

chrisweekly 7y ago

BATNA - Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement (for others like me in the TIL camp)

mantas 7y ago

Coming from a relatively cheap country... It does work the other direction. That's why dev salaries across the world are much more similar than in other sectors.

aantix 7y ago
Doesn’t your country experience the same lack of quality engineering talent? Even in SV, we could interview 100 candidates but maybe one or two really knew the stack and one of those was a great coder. That scarcity and high standards pushes the qualified candidate in to a pretty small pool, hence the high salaries.
- mantas 7y ago
  Scarcity (and resulting wages increase) wouldn't be as big if there were no foreign companies coming in. Either hiring fully remotely or opening up dev offices. Purely local scarcity would have had similar effect but I believe it'd be much much much slower and with lower ceiling. Local companies paying 2x average wage seemed fine. You're making good money compared to your neighbours and feels sort of wrong to ask for more than your boss makes. Then foreign money come in and pay 4x average wage light it was nothing. Suddenly all the social stigma is removed. That's literally what happened when a major bank's back-office was opened. They were willing to pay 1.5x-2x local market salaries and hire lots of people (compared to market size). Pretty much everybody in the industry had to follow, raising salaries effectively overnight.