4 ms·

So if I work for company A, and one day, company B comes to my boss and says : B: 'Hi, sell us 10 developers for $n million'. A: 'Sure, any prefference?' B: '

So if I work for company A, and one day, company B comes to my boss and says : B: 'Hi, sell us 10 developers for $n million'. A: 'Sure, any prefference?' B: 'No, not really what do you got?' A: 'Well I have a good 2 men team, 1 really good debugger and blablabla...' Maybe I'm biased, but when did we become comodity? Can you trade developers at say a country fair or what?

ssebro 14y ago
This is a really interesting idea. If developers can be sold as a group, why aren't we seeing group recruiting websites, where you can buy a team?
- thesash 14y ago
  https://grouptalent.com/main/employers/ https://grouptalent.com/main/employers/
- Snail_Commando 14y ago
  My guess is that a good group of people not already at a company would more likely want to work together, for themselves. Also, it would probably send a bad signal if the head of a startup started posting groups of his employees up for sale. I would also imagine the transaction cost involved with selling individual groups of developers is more prohibitive than selling a company wholesale.
  - ssebro 14y ago
    I didn't mean that the founder would start posting employee groups up for sale, I meant that A-level developers would find other A-level developers and band together to get a few million as a signing bonus.
    - Snail_Commando 14y ago
      I was guessing you didn't mean that, that part of the response was in the context of the parent comment. I wasn't entirely clear, I'm sorry. ------- As far as "A-Levels" banding together to get hired, I'm not totally sure where I stand after I think about it. Some questions: -What exactly, is the advantage of hiring unproven pre-conceived teams for a project over assembling teams through individual hires? Don't acquihires already meet this need (proven team)? -Why would a company pay a few million signing bonus to an unproven team? -If the developers were already grouped together, why wouldn't they work for themselves? -Wouldn't an "A-level" developer be concerned about companies that need and/or want to buy flocks of talent? (perhaps there is a certain size/type of company that this service would be ideal for, I'm not sure which company that is.) -Wouldn't a multi-MM signing bonus to an unproven team skew incentives for both parties? -If an "A Level" was looking for a stable job over a risky payout, would he want to be grouped into a unit? ------ I think a lot of these multi-MM signing bonuses reflect more than the skill (+ deva devb devc). I also wonder about what types of developers/companies this type of service would select for. If you'd like to share any thoughts, I'd look forward to hearing them.
- majani 14y ago
  Might actually be on to something here. But what situations would you have a cohesive team together outside of a company?
  - ssebro 14y ago
    Developers know who other superstar developers are. If you allowed superstars at different companies to band together and market themselves as a team, that might be interesting.
  - robryan 14y ago
    Consulting teams looking to move away from client work and get a nice signing bonus.
- petercooper 14y ago
  It's not common but a group of Rails developers and designers did this once in a blog post. Didn't even say who they were, just that it was X developers and a designer or whatever. They were hired as a group pretty quickly. So you might be on to something.
GavinB 14y ago
The developers basically get their choice of a job at Apple or quitting and going off on their own. Better yet, they can stay with Apple for a few months and see how they like it, or stay with Apple while they figure out what their next move is. "My company was acquired but I'm looking for the next opportunity" looks a lot better on your resume than "we went out of business and now I'm unemployed". When the other option is your company being "wound down" and you having no income, this seems like a pretty good deal. And if you don't like it, you're under no obligation to actually show up in Cupertino. You're a free agent who can go find a better deal at will.
notbitter 14y ago
This one is really stretching the definition of an acquihire. It may be that the $2-$5M is unvested stock for the team itself. See points 3-6 here: http://daslee.me/quick-thoughts-on-acquihiressoft-landings http://daslee.me/quick-thoughts-on-acquihiressoft-landings
MartinCron 14y ago
I've worked for multiple companies that were acquired and was never able to feel at home in the new parent company. My feeling was always something like "I never actually chose to work for you, and you never actually chose to hire me, yet here we are"
- jusben1369 14y ago
  Hey a lot of good romantic comedies have made millions at the box office on this same type of premise.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    I don't care how successful they are at the box office, I'm not going to model my career strategy after the contrived plots of romantic comedies.
petercooper 14y ago
It's unusual for developers, IME, but given how popular it is in sports, it doesn't surprise me, at least. Some developers have the cachet of sports stars within their niche. (Hmm, maybe we'll see wanted ads for "Rails world champions" and "JavaScript sports stars" soon instead of ninjas and rock stars ;-))

ssebro 14y ago

This is a really interesting idea. If developers can be sold as a group, why aren't we seeing group recruiting websites, where you can buy a team?

thesash 14y ago
https://grouptalent.com/main/employers/ https://grouptalent.com/main/employers/
Snail_Commando 14y ago
My guess is that a good group of people not already at a company would more likely want to work together, for themselves. Also, it would probably send a bad signal if the head of a startup started posting groups of his employees up for sale. I would also imagine the transaction cost involved with selling individual groups of developers is more prohibitive than selling a company wholesale.
- ssebro 14y ago
  I didn't mean that the founder would start posting employee groups up for sale, I meant that A-level developers would find other A-level developers and band together to get a few million as a signing bonus.
  - Snail_Commando 14y ago
    I was guessing you didn't mean that, that part of the response was in the context of the parent comment. I wasn't entirely clear, I'm sorry. ------- As far as "A-Levels" banding together to get hired, I'm not totally sure where I stand after I think about it. Some questions: -What exactly, is the advantage of hiring unproven pre-conceived teams for a project over assembling teams through individual hires? Don't acquihires already meet this need (proven team)? -Why would a company pay a few million signing bonus to an unproven team? -If the developers were already grouped together, why wouldn't they work for themselves? -Wouldn't an "A-level" developer be concerned about companies that need and/or want to buy flocks of talent? (perhaps there is a certain size/type of company that this service would be ideal for, I'm not sure which company that is.) -Wouldn't a multi-MM signing bonus to an unproven team skew incentives for both parties? -If an "A Level" was looking for a stable job over a risky payout, would he want to be grouped into a unit? ------ I think a lot of these multi-MM signing bonuses reflect more than the skill (+ deva devb devc). I also wonder about what types of developers/companies this type of service would select for. If you'd like to share any thoughts, I'd look forward to hearing them.
majani 14y ago
Might actually be on to something here. But what situations would you have a cohesive team together outside of a company?
- ssebro 14y ago
  Developers know who other superstar developers are. If you allowed superstars at different companies to band together and market themselves as a team, that might be interesting.
- robryan 14y ago
  Consulting teams looking to move away from client work and get a nice signing bonus.
petercooper 14y ago
It's not common but a group of Rails developers and designers did this once in a blog post. Didn't even say who they were, just that it was X developers and a designer or whatever. They were hired as a group pretty quickly. So you might be on to something.

GavinB 14y ago

The developers basically get their choice of a job at Apple or quitting and going off on their own. Better yet, they can stay with Apple for a few months and see how they like it, or stay with Apple while they figure out what their next move is. "My company was acquired but I'm looking for the next opportunity" looks a lot better on your resume than "we went out of business and now I'm unemployed". When the other option is your company being "wound down" and you having no income, this seems like a pretty good deal. And if you don't like it, you're under no obligation to actually show up in Cupertino. You're a free agent who can go find a better deal at will.

notbitter 14y ago

This one is really stretching the definition of an acquihire. It may be that the $2-$5M is unvested stock for the team itself. See points 3-6 here: http://daslee.me/quick-thoughts-on-acquihiressoft-landings http://daslee.me/quick-thoughts-on-acquihiressoft-landings

MartinCron 14y ago

I've worked for multiple companies that were acquired and was never able to feel at home in the new parent company. My feeling was always something like "I never actually chose to work for you, and you never actually chose to hire me, yet here we are"

jusben1369 14y ago
Hey a lot of good romantic comedies have made millions at the box office on this same type of premise.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  I don't care how successful they are at the box office, I'm not going to model my career strategy after the contrived plots of romantic comedies.

petercooper 14y ago

It's unusual for developers, IME, but given how popular it is in sports, it doesn't surprise me, at least. Some developers have the cachet of sports stars within their niche. (Hmm, maybe we'll see wanted ads for "Rails world champions" and "JavaScript sports stars" soon instead of ninjas and rock stars ;-))