Venture Capitalists Discover Recruiting 2.0
from the back-to-work dept
While some people are still saying that it's difficult to find programming jobs these days, almost every company we speak to in Silicon Valley is saying just how difficult it is to find qualified programmers. In part, this is because the big companies like Google and Yahoo have been sweeping up as many good programmers as possible. It seems like a few venture capitalists are noticing the same thing, with at least one setting up its very own job recruitment web tool for portfolio companies. It certainly helps show startups one tangible difference between that VC firm and others. Recruitment has always been a big part of what a good VC firm helps with -- and there have been stories of executive recruiters moving into venture capital jobs in the past. Also, it's been common in the past for VC firms to list a static page of open jobs or link to help wanted pages on portfolio company websites. This case goes quite a bit further -- setting up a whole tool for portfolio companies that not only promotes the jobs within that tool, but also feeds the jobs out to various job boards, job search engines and even Google ads on certain keywords. In less than a year, the firm claims it's saved portfolio companies nearly a quarter of a million dollars in recruitment fees. Seeing a VC firm actually set up useful tools to help in this process, though, is still a bit surprising. For all the talk of how VCs understand tech innovation, it's still rare to see one actually embrace it as well.
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Recruiting 2.0
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Re: Recruiting 2.0
Thanks
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Interesting take on
The non-existant "shortage" is entirely due to employers taking advantage of the programmer glut to put unrealistically detailed and broad requirements on all job openings (probably just to cut down on the number of applicants to a manageable number). In the few job postings I see in the local paper, there are requirements like a Master's Degree for entry-level positions paying less than $50k. That doesn't look like a "shortage" to me.
If there was really a programmer shortage, you would be seeing more than a quarter-page of help-wanted ads in the Dallas Morning News classifieds under IT every day, like there was in 1999. Now, there are no ads AT ALL for IT or engineering except on Wednesdays (special employment edition) and Sundays, and then only a half-dozen or so. Just after the six pages of ads for healthcare workers.
Programmer shortage? Bullshit.
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Re: Interesting take on
I specialize in RIA technologies, and have countless employers/recruiters contacting me in the past year for positions that are available.
Perhaps it's time to take a few upgrading classes?
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Re: Interesting take on
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Good Programmer Shortage
The kind of guy who you can have lunch with and chat over a product feature, and it's up and running by dinner, and you can roll it out in beta the next day. There is a shortage of those guys.
There is always a shortage of 10X programmers, there's no shortage of 1X programmers.
Start ups (and therefore VC's) are looking for 10X programmers.
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I think...
98% of all programmers i meet are able to code in maybe 2 languages and can't see past the modules they write. they never have a clue about the systems that their code will run on, and security context is rarely understood much less concidered. These same programmers b!tch about not begin able to find a job, or being unpaid, blah blah blah...
I can't understand how any software they write ends up working. But then, all i have is a High School education.
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1x versus 10x
There is another factor at work here...
By last summer, I was willing to relocate, so I was interviewing everywhere I could think of. One such interview was with Amazon. They were impressed with my initial phone interview, and with my responses to their technical questions, and with my performance on their trivial little test. (When you have taught C++ courses for more than 10 years, it's hard not to do well on such a test)
But, I knew that I didn't have a chance at Amazon when I saw that their interview team consisted entirely of children. I did not talk to a single person that had more than 4 or 5 years of experience, and the only real surprise was that I got to talk to four interviewers before the last one finally came out and said that he didn't think I would be a good "fit" for their organization.
The problem is not that I'm not good enough. The problem is that I'm TOO experienced. Although I managed to land a job by reducing my salary requirement to less than half was I was making in 2001, even that tactic didn't work most places -- they seemed to be afraid that someone with my qualifications would leave as soon as the job market improved. So it was damned if I do, damned if I don't.
My current situation doesn't pay enough for me to save anything for retirement, so I'm busy building a business on the side that is not related to programming, which I hope will allow me to at least have a productive retirement.
--
Howard Lee Harkness
www.celtic-fiddler.com Violins and Musical Accessories
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...and it isn't over just yet
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Howard Lee Harkness
www.celtic-fiddler.com
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1-dimensional employees are dinosaurs. Evolve or die.
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Re:
Anaon Coward, you say you are a HR manager for a fortune 500 company yet you are willing to assess Mr. Harkness's hireability in such unsusually harsh terms without ever seeing his resume or talking to him in person, that's a bit odd to me and I would be lothe to see your companies hiring policies.
I have a significant amount of coding experience, even at the team lead level, and would almost be offended to be forced to interview in front of a bunch of "fresh outs" as we used to call them. Most places I've worked have a policy that at least one senior/management level engineer must interview a person just to be sure that what Mr. Harkness describes doesn't happen. Sounds almost like a case of age discrimination to me.
While I'm on the subject does anyone else think its absolutely weird that engineering is one of the few fields in which you seem to have to take "tests" whenever you go for a job? I could understand testing new grads and early career personnel, but why should people with 10, 20, 30 years experience in a given area have to take some silly test in that area? Can someone name another field where this is normal practice? I have over 10 years real experience doing OOD with C++ and Java yet I went on a job interview last year and was asked " what is object oriented programming"?
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Re: Anonymous Coward
I'm sure that with your attitude, and your presumed ability to make snap judgements about qualifications with no reference to any material facts, it is unlikely that you will ever have to make a hiring decision that involves me. I expect that I would be able to identify your type, if not you specifically, just by your attitude. I've been in this business long enough to spot all sorts of dysfunctionalities. But you could do me (and all the other readers of this blog) a favor by revealing the name of you "fortune 500" company so that I can avoid wasting my time with it.
Dear Tyshaun:
Thank you.
Followup:
Since I anticipate that I will be looking for a job again soon (I survived the last layoff, but I expect the next one to get the entire department), I will probably be posting my resume again in a few weeks. And it's not because I hate the job. I was hoping to keep it, even though it doesn't pay much. It's not really a bad place to work (I've had some of those), and it beats being homeless.
Meanwhile, I'm looking for a good recruiter who has some experience with placing older employees.
I did have an opportunity to work on a brief contract doing some real-time programming early last year, which I enjoyed a lot. I may try to get back to them, even though it means relocating. I got that contract because I have some fairly rare skills (I have programmed in more than a dozen high-level languages, and about two dozen different assembly languages -- sometimes using four or more languages on a single job). I hesitate to go back into contracting, but, again, it's better than being homeless.
If that doesn't work out, I will try to find more violin students, and get back into the Plano School District private tutoring program. I've always had a passion for teaching -- which is what got me into teaching C++, Java, and C# for four national training companies back when that business was going good. I'm also pretty good with my hands, and good bow-rehairers can get a fairly dependable $30/hr. Since I tolerate tedious work fairly well, that is a possible viable alternative to writing software for a living.
--
Howard Lee Harkness
www.celtic-fiddler.com
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Artificial shortages
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Re: Artificial shortages
I'd better stop... once i get started about recruiters....
Brendan
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get over yourselves
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Re: get over yourselves
Learn to read for understanding. And get over *yourself* while you're at it.
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Howard Lee Harkness
www.celtic-fiddler.com
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Always looking for new programmers
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Tests during interviews
1) A surprising number of "qualified" people fail them. Especially people who have spent the last few years in engineering managment, rather than actually inplementing solutions.
2) It's not about passing with flying colors, it's about observing how you approach a problem. It's about seeing if you not only answer the specific question, but see beyond the question and see where the problem fits within a larger whole.
3) It's about seeing if you ask questions back. I've been known to give incomplete data to properly solve the problem to see if they can identify and ask or the missing pieces.
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Annoyances 2.0
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