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"1) The 10 year developer who has 1 year of experience 10 times over. This is just a junior developer who wants the salary of a senior developer." Like everyth

"1) The 10 year developer who has 1 year of experience 10 times over. This is just a junior developer who wants the salary of a senior developer." Like everything else, that depends on the candidate. A person who has had 10 1-year jobs may have tons of applicable experience and be a better developer than the Loyal Schlub who spent two or three 3-4 year stints doing CRUD (or even proprietary trader front-end) app X. Given the rest of your post, I suspect the issue here isn't that you've had trouble finding good candidates with "10/1" resumes; it's that you simply are selecting them out due to bias. "2) Its harder to find senior developers, regardless of what you pay. As Joel once said the good developers always have jobs, hence his internship program." This actually supports the sentiment I expressed in response to your first point. It seems you're looking for an extremely specific and narrow type of resume--one that fits a particular format consisting of long-term, stable employment. You have a bias against other kinds of employees. "3) the hire bar is, umm..., higher for senior developers as they are expected to do more, mentor, design architecture, etc. This means I'm more picky as to who I hire." I have yet to see any interview capable of determining whether a person at the level you're talking about is actually capable of delivering on what you require. This last point is something that can only be adequately gauged in the context of your company's business by actually having the person work there, or work on a project there for some time. Companies are different. A person's ability to "be senior" in the way you describe at one company may not translate well, or at all, to another company. I'm not trying to pick on you or be aggressive. I'm just commenting on a larger narrative--hiring practices in technology just aren't very good. It's not due to any deficiency in intelligence or honesty, either (most of the time, at least, I think). It's just that it's a really hard problem for which there isn't any one good answer.

tyw 13y ago
regarding #1, I don't believe he's talking about someone who has chained together a bunch of jobs spending a year at each. Having "The same year of experience X times over" generally means you didn't grow as a developer from your experience because you were doing the same thing in the same way for a long time. For example, if your job is cranking out CRUD apps or "online brochure" websites for various clients and you do it for 5 years, there's a good chance that while you're very good at those things now, it hasn't really gained you the same experience as if you'd been doing something a bit more demanding.
yeukhon 13y ago
I also want to add extra comment regarding #1. Some developers are super and every year they get a new offer from another company and they jump ship. Nothing wrong with that - but maybe a company wants someone who can work with the company for a long term. If a developer who jumps ship every year, they might as well look at someone else who is slightly less senior but good at what they do. I know some companies have contracts that locks down new hires, but i think most of us prefer flexibility but still provide some psudeo-mental confident to the hiring company that "I am not a china easily stealable within a year. Hire me and I will try to help you make things better."

tyw 13y ago

regarding #1, I don't believe he's talking about someone who has chained together a bunch of jobs spending a year at each. Having "The same year of experience X times over" generally means you didn't grow as a developer from your experience because you were doing the same thing in the same way for a long time. For example, if your job is cranking out CRUD apps or "online brochure" websites for various clients and you do it for 5 years, there's a good chance that while you're very good at those things now, it hasn't really gained you the same experience as if you'd been doing something a bit more demanding.

yeukhon 13y ago

I also want to add extra comment regarding #1. Some developers are super and every year they get a new offer from another company and they jump ship. Nothing wrong with that - but maybe a company wants someone who can work with the company for a long term. If a developer who jumps ship every year, they might as well look at someone else who is slightly less senior but good at what they do. I know some companies have contracts that locks down new hires, but i think most of us prefer flexibility but still provide some psudeo-mental confident to the hiring company that "I am not a china easily stealable within a year. Hire me and I will try to help you make things better."