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Ask YC: Are talented web developers hard to find?
A quick glance at TechCrunch's Job Board shows lots of employers looking for talented web developers. Their requirements usually include all the latest web 2.0 technologies like JQuery, YUI, Dojo, Prototype, Rails, plus PHP, SQL, etc etc...
I don't work in the industry, and am not sure what its actually like out there: Is it hard to find people who possess all of these skills?
- icey 18y agoIt's not hard to find people who claim to possess those skills. It is hard to find people who are proficient in them, and exceedingly difficult to find people who are very good at them. If you're hiring, and you live in a metro area, and you don't know any hackers yourself; then I would suggest frequenting some user groups in your area to get to know some of the people there. People who go to user groups are far more likely to be good developers. In fact, anyone who does programming related stuff in their free time is likely going to be much stronger than someone who just does it for the check. If you're not hiring and are instead thinking about getting into the industry, then there's a corollary somewhere in my second paragraph for you.
- markbao 18y agoI'll agree with this. If you're hiring or looking for a job - do attend user groups, found on Meetup.com or the site for your local networking site for your city, if there is one (I know for Boston there's MarksGuide.com and myeventguru.)
- astrec 18y agoIt's not too hard to find people who actually possess those skills, but it's very difficult to hire them: They don't generally apply to you, you apply to them.
- gaius 18y agoLOL yeah, it was like that in the late 90s too. Then NASDAQ imploded and all the "rockstars" got a reality check.
- icey 18y agoDefine the "Reality check" you're talking about? When the dotcom burst happened, I got a big fat pay raise to guarantee I'd stick around at the firm I was at. [Edit: I realize this wasn't terribly clear. Those of us who knew what we were doing at the burst generally didn't hit hard times; but the developers who were in the industry because they saw it as an easy paycheck are the ones who got hurt. In that way, the burst was good for our industry - it helped separate the wheat from the chaff.]
- astrec 18y agoThose "rockstars", by definition would be the wannabes, who then, as today, are in ample surplus.
- gaius 18y agoIt's always difficult to hire people based on a long shopping list of very specific skills. What're the chances that someone who is in exact match is in your area AND looking for work AND wants to work for you? Especially when the skills overlap... Why would someone use Rails and PHP? I bet you could find plenty who had one or the other, etc.