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Unless you're competitively _desirable_ to work for then your hiring strategy should be something close to: _hire literally anyone you can afford_[0]. This ind

Unless you're competitively _desirable_ to work for then your hiring strategy should be something close to: _hire literally anyone you can afford_[0]. This industry too often overlooks the enormous value that can be harvested by training under-skilled hopefuls into fully productive team members. There's often an associated fear that, once trained, the individuals in question will jump ship for greener pastures. The answer to that problem should be obvious: be a green pasture. 0: http://arches.io/2016/01/hire-literally-anyone/ http://arches.io/2016/01/hire-literally-anyone/

quicklime 6y ago
But do the "undesirable" places have enough senior engineers to train and mentor these under-skilled hopefuls?
- capableweb 6y ago
  Yes. Most of us are not working towards society changed stuff can easily afford half hour a day and sometimes more on making another member of society productive and contribute to the economy. That you also get employees that are very grateful to the company for the initial chance is just a plus.
  - RussianCow 6y ago
    I don't think this generalizes. If you're a larger, more established company, sure, but most startups and small businesses can't afford to spend significant engineering time not building features that customers pay for. For those companies, there is a ton of value to hiring someone experienced who is at least somewhat familiar with your stack.
znpy 6y ago
> This industry too often overlooks the enormous value that can be harvested by training under-skilled hopefuls into fully productive team members. I can vouch for this. I've personally seen young people with interest and little formal professional experience get up to speed and become great professional.
peruvian 6y ago
The issue is most companies don't want to be greener pastures - which usually means they don't want to promote or give raises internally too often. No idea why.
user5994461 6y ago
> _hire literally anyone you can afford_[0]. You realize there can be hundreds of people applying to any position? Even after some basic filtering, there can still be tens of qualified candidates. Deep down. Hiring is mostly about rejecting people because there are simply too many people.
- goatinaboat 6y ago
  Hiring is mostly about rejecting people because there are simply too many people. The myth that there is a desperate skills shortage exists to sell training and to drive down wages. The industry is actually saturated except for a few particular niches, of which generalist webdev isn’t one.

quicklime 6y ago

But do the "undesirable" places have enough senior engineers to train and mentor these under-skilled hopefuls?

capableweb 6y ago
Yes. Most of us are not working towards society changed stuff can easily afford half hour a day and sometimes more on making another member of society productive and contribute to the economy. That you also get employees that are very grateful to the company for the initial chance is just a plus.
- RussianCow 6y ago
  I don't think this generalizes. If you're a larger, more established company, sure, but most startups and small businesses can't afford to spend significant engineering time not building features that customers pay for. For those companies, there is a ton of value to hiring someone experienced who is at least somewhat familiar with your stack.

znpy 6y ago

> This industry too often overlooks the enormous value that can be harvested by training under-skilled hopefuls into fully productive team members. I can vouch for this. I've personally seen young people with interest and little formal professional experience get up to speed and become great professional.

peruvian 6y ago

The issue is most companies don't want to be greener pastures - which usually means they don't want to promote or give raises internally too often. No idea why.

user5994461 6y ago

> _hire literally anyone you can afford_[0]. You realize there can be hundreds of people applying to any position? Even after some basic filtering, there can still be tens of qualified candidates. Deep down. Hiring is mostly about rejecting people because there are simply too many people.

goatinaboat 6y ago
Hiring is mostly about rejecting people because there are simply too many people. The myth that there is a desperate skills shortage exists to sell training and to drive down wages. The industry is actually saturated except for a few particular niches, of which generalist webdev isn’t one.