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There is a shortage of actual developers. But there is no shortage of people who don't care about what they are doing or whether they can do it at all. When yo

There is a shortage of actual developers. But there is no shortage of people who don't care about what they are doing or whether they can do it at all. When you are looking through piles of thousands of people, you are looking for ways to pare it down so that you are left at every step with higher concentration of the first group. Because spending same amount of effort on everybody is not a viable strategy.

sarchertech 4y ago
> There is a shortage of actual developers. But there is no shortage of people who don't care about what they are doing or whether they can do it at all. In nearly 20 years of doing this I’ve have never had one of these dreaded fake developers make it through the resume screen, initial phone call, and a conversation with an engineer. And if I did, we’d just fire them as soon as it was clear they lied about their ability. I have had plenty of the other extreme, very technically proficient developers who turned out to be terrible employees for other reasons. My initial point is that if you can afford to make your screening process arduous enough that you’re turning away otherwise qualified people because they don’t want to work for you bad enough to jump through your hoops, then there’s not a shortage. If there was really a shortage, you’d do what every other industry does. Hire based on resume, and fire the fakers.
- jacobyoder 4y ago
  > In nearly 20 years of doing this I’ve have never had one of these dreaded fake developers make it through the resume screen, initial phone call, and a conversation with an engineer....And if I did, we’d just fire them as soon as it was clear they lied about their ability. I've spent most of the last 25 years working independently. A large number of the 'fakers' (or just... currently-low-skilled) don't apply to large companies with screening processes. They build custom one-off software/websites/etc for small businesses. Those small business people have no ability to judge skills or quality. Some of the tech folks doing that may, at some point, try to apply 'up' in to larger companies, moving away from independent/freelance, and some of those may get weeded out.

sarchertech 4y ago

> There is a shortage of actual developers. But there is no shortage of people who don't care about what they are doing or whether they can do it at all. In nearly 20 years of doing this I’ve have never had one of these dreaded fake developers make it through the resume screen, initial phone call, and a conversation with an engineer. And if I did, we’d just fire them as soon as it was clear they lied about their ability. I have had plenty of the other extreme, very technically proficient developers who turned out to be terrible employees for other reasons. My initial point is that if you can afford to make your screening process arduous enough that you’re turning away otherwise qualified people because they don’t want to work for you bad enough to jump through your hoops, then there’s not a shortage. If there was really a shortage, you’d do what every other industry does. Hire based on resume, and fire the fakers.

jacobyoder 4y ago
> In nearly 20 years of doing this I’ve have never had one of these dreaded fake developers make it through the resume screen, initial phone call, and a conversation with an engineer....And if I did, we’d just fire them as soon as it was clear they lied about their ability. I've spent most of the last 25 years working independently. A large number of the 'fakers' (or just... currently-low-skilled) don't apply to large companies with screening processes. They build custom one-off software/websites/etc for small businesses. Those small business people have no ability to judge skills or quality. Some of the tech folks doing that may, at some point, try to apply 'up' in to larger companies, moving away from independent/freelance, and some of those may get weeded out.