Well thats the thing, some of these positions are expecting absolute 0.1% rocket scientists (IMHO unnecessarily) but w/o the rocket scientist pay. Remember tha

Well thats the thing, some of these positions are expecting absolute 0.1% rocket scientists (IMHO unnecessarily) but w/o the rocket scientist pay. Remember that some of that top talent are well into their career, they have families, kids with health costs, school districts, college funds, etc. So its a raw deal to offer them just enough to jam them into a 1br or 2br apartment. Why would someone with years of experience and family obligations take such a terrible deal? The salaries are great for entry level graduates, but in many cases the requirements (either explicit or via tests) are not selecting for entry level graduates. W/r/t the requirements, I'm not even sure being able to rebalance a B-Tree on pencil and paper -- without a computer or debugging code -- is reflective of any real situation i've ever encountered in my career. It is a fair test if you just want really sharp people...but then you better be offerring really sharp salaries.