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Dear Tech Employers: Let me help you resolve the STEM shortage

19 points by tenpoundhammer 13y ago

The primary mistake you are making is to have your only available working location in one of the most expensive cities in the world, and it's prices are only going up. The solution, pick another city(or) cities and open an office there. You could even have remote employees. You would find that your positions get filled quickly and with minimal costs. You don't need total control to get great results, loosen up a bit. Bonus: For the employer that likes a great value, trying setting up shop in an area hit hard by the recession. You will find a fleet of dedicated and valuable employees willing to take lower wages,in order to remain in that location.

throwaway1979 13y ago
Sadly, I have but a single upvote to give.
bthornbury 13y ago
I don't know if you are referring to small or large tech employers, but it has been my experience that most people are willing to relocate given a job offer.
logn 13y ago
Further, try finding, training, and developing talent straight from high school or earlier. It worked for Major League Baseball. Also, ditch tech recruiters and in-house HR recruiters and let your engineering managers actually do the recruiting and hiring for their own teams. That's IMO the basic duty of a manager (aside from seeing that work gets done), but most orgs seem happy to have their managers do everything else but recruit and hire. Also, I rent a 15x15-foot office for $175/month (on a month-to-month lease). That's typical in my area (Midwest). Give each employee a $250/month budget (to also account for Internet and other costs) and hire them remotely on the condition they find their own office. Let remote employees in the same city go in together to get a shared, remote office. For an industry which rejects maybe 99% of candidates and has high turnover (my guess, every 2-3 years someone leaves your average programmer job), it's really your own fault for not having an easier time finding/keeping talent. Hint: give people raises based on current market rates instead of based on each person's current salary. Also, maybe you can take some of that commission you'd otherwise give a tech recruiter and start making riskier hires while also increasing your training budget. Put the riskier hires on their own team, isolated from the top talent, and let them work on their own projects while under the guidance of mentors and educators. Finally, stock options, foosball, and ping-pong are not acceptable substitutes for wages and 40-hour weeks, and you're fooling nobody except the least experienced, which is maybe why you have to reject so many candidates.
codeonfire 13y ago
Tech employers don't care about cheap. They would gladly spend all the shareholder's money, and it is prestigious to o so. Without agency to dole out some else's money and human behavior to motivate it, no one would make a dime. The CEO at my company freely admits that the location is a status and image thing. They do need total control, so much that they would rather import a visa slave than hire someone who can leave at any time.
fakenam 13y ago
There isn't a STEM shortage. What makes you think that there is? If there was one, employers would already be doing the kind of thing you're talking about. It's just bullshit in order to get the government to grant more H1-B visas and the like.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

throwaway1979 13y ago

Sadly, I have but a single upvote to give.

bthornbury 13y ago

I don't know if you are referring to small or large tech employers, but it has been my experience that most people are willing to relocate given a job offer.

logn 13y ago

Further, try finding, training, and developing talent straight from high school or earlier. It worked for Major League Baseball. Also, ditch tech recruiters and in-house HR recruiters and let your engineering managers actually do the recruiting and hiring for their own teams. That's IMO the basic duty of a manager (aside from seeing that work gets done), but most orgs seem happy to have their managers do everything else but recruit and hire. Also, I rent a 15x15-foot office for $175/month (on a month-to-month lease). That's typical in my area (Midwest). Give each employee a $250/month budget (to also account for Internet and other costs) and hire them remotely on the condition they find their own office. Let remote employees in the same city go in together to get a shared, remote office. For an industry which rejects maybe 99% of candidates and has high turnover (my guess, every 2-3 years someone leaves your average programmer job), it's really your own fault for not having an easier time finding/keeping talent. Hint: give people raises based on current market rates instead of based on each person's current salary. Also, maybe you can take some of that commission you'd otherwise give a tech recruiter and start making riskier hires while also increasing your training budget. Put the riskier hires on their own team, isolated from the top talent, and let them work on their own projects while under the guidance of mentors and educators. Finally, stock options, foosball, and ping-pong are not acceptable substitutes for wages and 40-hour weeks, and you're fooling nobody except the least experienced, which is maybe why you have to reject so many candidates.

codeonfire 13y ago

Tech employers don't care about cheap. They would gladly spend all the shareholder's money, and it is prestigious to o so. Without agency to dole out some else's money and human behavior to motivate it, no one would make a dime. The CEO at my company freely admits that the location is a status and image thing. They do need total control, so much that they would rather import a visa slave than hire someone who can leave at any time.

fakenam 13y ago

There isn't a STEM shortage. What makes you think that there is? If there was one, employers would already be doing the kind of thing you're talking about. It's just bullshit in order to get the government to grant more H1-B visas and the like.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]