I've hired a few technical employees in the Chicago area, and I found that it's almost impossible to find someone with basic reasoning skills. Most people I interviewed had very poor eyes for details, had a hard time spotting or understanding their own mistakes, making sense of novel situations, thinking abstractly or generalizing from specifics etc... This was true even among CS graduates from schools with decent reputations. I don't know why the pool is so bad or if it has always been this way.
How much do you pay, what relocation is offered, what interviewing expenses do you cover, what benefits are paid, what severance package is offered, and do you provide engineers with all the tools, books and training they request.
You don't need to answer me, just answer these honestly to yourself and that will tell you why you can't find anyone competent.
If qualified applicant need assurance of all these things before even applying, that confirms in my mind that such applicants have the privilege of scarcity.
Has your hiring experience been substantially different from mine?
From what you describe yes. I am able to hire talent I need, but I do offer competitive pay and benefits in line with what other places that are able to hire are doing. It's standard for serious firms to cover interview expenses for example. We also do recruiting rather than just tossing ads out and hoping for the best, which is ineffective since the vast majority of job seekers in IT are looking for a job because they don't have one. The ones who are not seeking but who are open to change are the ones to look for. I meet them on blogs, at conferences, and by contacting them after reading articles they have published.
Hiring a very good developer is like hiring a very good actor, which doesn't come for peanuts and which will be worth much more than their salary, whereas hiring an average one will be worth less than their salary. 7/8 of the people that get CS degrees in the US are not fit to develop software at all. Of the remaining 1/8, nearly all of them have found a place they like and are not looking to move without incentive. But that doesn't mean there's a shortage. It just means you have to pay market rate and treat them respectfully and make sure all hygienic issues are dealt with. Low pay is poor hygiene. Lack of full relocation is poor hygiene (Why should the new employee subsidize the cost of coming to work for you? They shouldn't.) Absurd contractual terms such as claiming ownership of things they do on their own time is poor hygiene. An office full of dimwits is poor hygiene. Clueless management is poor hygiene. Not providing proper tools is poor hygiene. Hygiene issues are ones that need to be taken care just to not be a lousy place to work. Get all this taken care of and then one can start thinking of actually making it a good place to work. Having a good reputation as a place to work is hard to get, easy to screw up, and is worth a lot to convince someone with skills that it is worth the massive risk to uproot their life, leave a job they like and come work for a new venture.
