4 ms·

Hm. I don't know if it's a new shortage or not. But I'm currently hiring and finding good developers/engineers that are also a culture fit is pretty difficult.

by lowglow 12y ago

Hm. I don't know if it's a new shortage or not. But I'm currently hiring and finding good developers/engineers that are also a culture fit is pretty difficult. I guess it has always been this way since I moved to SF (~5 years ago). [edit] To clarify on 'culture fit' in my statement: Interesting, inspiring, nice, humble, pleasant to work with, eager to share knowledge, discover new things, understands our audience, who we are, and genuinely wants to further the vision of the entire startup. These are people that are going to help elevate the group together. I don't look at engineers as simply a commodity that can be replaced at a whim, but rather part of a symbiotic system that must transcends itself, grow, and evolve together in time.

zyxley 12y ago
> I guess it has always been this way since I moved to SF (~5 years ago). Are you accounting for the skyrocketing cost of living of SF? I'm guessing that (as the article suggests as a general case) there are plenty of good developers but they just plain want more money than you're offering.
- lowglow 12y ago
  This is the difficult part. How do you accurately price for this market. I've tried salary searches across whatever job boards I have access to, but how can one be certain?
  - zyxley 12y ago
    If you're not getting enough people saying "yes", you're not offering enough money.
    - irishcoffee 12y ago
      Or, there is a bubble about to pop.
- thirdtruck 12y ago
  Case in point: I've decided to pass over SF jobs categorically, based primarily on the costs of living.
gonzi25 12y ago
It's the money.
rhizome 12y ago
Maybe your culture is too narrowly defined or inflexible.
jpatokal 12y ago
Would you care to expand on what a "culture fit" is in your book?
sriram_sun 12y ago
About 10 yrs ago we were interviewing candidates for a C# position. 10 mins. into it, Gandalf (the Grey) sitting in front of me was nonchalantly knocking answers out of the park in an as Gentlemanly manner as possible. I was done with about 15 mins. to spare and he filled in the gap as he talked about his experience with Multics! In passing, the candidate had mentioned that he kept 10 min. logs of everything he did as a productivity tool. This got blown up into possible OCD issues by the team lead and hiring manager and Gandalf got denied. The reason given was that he was not a "culture fit". In reality, the team lead was an insecure egomaniac and the hiring manager deferred to the lead (it was his team). So it would be great if you could drill down the "culture fit" rejections to something very specific.
- arjie 12y ago
  On the bright side, Gandalf escaped from having to work with the strange fellow who had issues, so it's not all bad :)

by lowglow 12y ago

zyxley 12y ago

> I guess it has always been this way since I moved to SF (~5 years ago). Are you accounting for the skyrocketing cost of living of SF? I'm guessing that (as the article suggests as a general case) there are plenty of good developers but they just plain want more money than you're offering.

lowglow 12y ago
This is the difficult part. How do you accurately price for this market. I've tried salary searches across whatever job boards I have access to, but how can one be certain?
- zyxley 12y ago
  If you're not getting enough people saying "yes", you're not offering enough money.
  - irishcoffee 12y ago
    Or, there is a bubble about to pop.
thirdtruck 12y ago
Case in point: I've decided to pass over SF jobs categorically, based primarily on the costs of living.

gonzi25 12y ago

It's the money.

rhizome 12y ago

Maybe your culture is too narrowly defined or inflexible.

jpatokal 12y ago

Would you care to expand on what a "culture fit" is in your book?

sriram_sun 12y ago

About 10 yrs ago we were interviewing candidates for a C# position. 10 mins. into it, Gandalf (the Grey) sitting in front of me was nonchalantly knocking answers out of the park in an as Gentlemanly manner as possible. I was done with about 15 mins. to spare and he filled in the gap as he talked about his experience with Multics! In passing, the candidate had mentioned that he kept 10 min. logs of everything he did as a productivity tool. This got blown up into possible OCD issues by the team lead and hiring manager and Gandalf got denied. The reason given was that he was not a "culture fit". In reality, the team lead was an insecure egomaniac and the hiring manager deferred to the lead (it was his team). So it would be great if you could drill down the "culture fit" rejections to something very specific.

arjie 12y ago
On the bright side, Gandalf escaped from having to work with the strange fellow who had issues, so it's not all bad :)