3 ms·

> The folks that do tend to populate the open job market often have one or more dysfunctions that make it hard for them to slot into the corporate job market, t

> The folks that do tend to populate the open job market often have one or more dysfunctions that make it hard for them to slot into the corporate job market, the most common of which are not wanting to slot into the corporate job market and not being able to define yourself enough to identify where you should slot into it. I think this is a pretty good reason to have an org that "speaks corporate job market", but that doesn't evaluate candidates the same way the corporate job market does. A person who is skilled but doesn't want to/doesn't know how to/has moral objections to selling themselves the way employers often want benefits a lot from having an agent who can vouch for them. As for the market-for-lemons thing, yeah, absolutely! It's a good framing. And in that analogy, I'm betting on the idea that a team of mechanics that can identify the good cars is valuable.

nostrademons 2y ago
IIRC TripleByte was supposed to be that org - I thought I remember some of their framing being that they'd be like a Hollywood talent agency for developers. The big problem with the model is again misunderstanding your competition and how the industry actually works. The market for skilled developers already functions largely like this. The "talent agents" are engineering managers, both on the sell-side (through references, and bringing over good engineers they've worked with when they join a new company) and on the buy-side (through identifying and recruiting good talent that may not be trying hard to sell themselves). This is a core EM skill - many teams will live or die by how well their managers can identify actually-talented devs, even ones who may not be slick or polished, and bring them onto the team. It's also the EM's responsibility to understand the recruitment process at their company well enough to shepherd candidates who won't look impressive to recruiters through it.

nostrademons 2y ago

IIRC TripleByte was supposed to be that org - I thought I remember some of their framing being that they'd be like a Hollywood talent agency for developers. The big problem with the model is again misunderstanding your competition and how the industry actually works. The market for skilled developers already functions largely like this. The "talent agents" are engineering managers, both on the sell-side (through references, and bringing over good engineers they've worked with when they join a new company) and on the buy-side (through identifying and recruiting good talent that may not be trying hard to sell themselves). This is a core EM skill - many teams will live or die by how well their managers can identify actually-talented devs, even ones who may not be slick or polished, and bring them onto the team. It's also the EM's responsibility to understand the recruitment process at their company well enough to shepherd candidates who won't look impressive to recruiters through it.