On 25 August 2011 16:20, Steel City Phantom <[email protected]> wrote:
> I work out of Pittsburgh. we have two world class universities about a > half hour down the road. Carnegie Mellon University's computer science > department is one of the best in the world, and University of Pittsburgh > isn't shabby either. so i have to ask, where are all the good java > developers? > > we have been trying to staff out a project for 6 weeks now. every resume > we get is from people with 4-5 years experience. I do tech interviews on > them for the technologies we are using and its all the same, they have a > vague understanding of how to use the technologies (spring, hibernate, > struts, nothing major) work, but for my needs, that puts them in the class > of jr developer. i need senior guys that have done this already, lived the > learning curve, knows how to fix issues, knows how to squeeze every last bit > of functionality out of these technologies, and i can't find them. > > we are paying good market rates for these guys, so its not like we are > being cheap. i refuse to believe that Google swallowed all the good java > guys when they opened their development center here in Pittsburgh a few > years ago. > > its so bad that i had one candidate that i interviewed a few weeks ago. he > got irritated with me when i was drilling him on the technology. his > actually had the huevos to say to me "I have a masters degree from CMU in > computer science, i don't care what technology you are using, i can figure > it out and use it" to which i replied "that may be true, but that makes you > a junior developer in my eyes. as a senior developer, im not paying you to > figure it out, im paying you to step in and do it" he had 4 years > experience writing web pages for a marketing firm. why the recruiter even > thought he would pass the test is still beyond me. > > where have all the good guys gone? is a 9-10 year experienced very > seasoned java guy really demanding salaries north of 90K now or what? > > -- > You want it fast, cheap, or right. Pick two!! > A couple of my own experiences here, so completely subjective, but some of this is probably affecting you: 4-5 years is about long enough to get truly frustrated with Java/Struts/Spring/Hibernate/etc. and want to seek something more productive, there are a lot of alternate languages out there fighting for developer mindshare - and Java is *not* seen as a sexy choice. I personally took great pleasure in switching to Scala, being finally available to avoid the great swathes of boilerplate and ugly, non-type-safe XML configuration files was like a breath of fresh air. It's now a well established meme not to look for <insert-skillset-here> developers, but to just look for *good* developers, regardless of their experience in a particular skillset. When I see a prospective client/employer who has a very specific pick-list, my thoughts (in no particular order) are: - This job description was put together by HR (or the agency) from a bunch of buzzwords - They're only after a junior developer, not someone with enough experience to stand up and question "Is struts really the best choice here?" - I only see old technologies listed, the job is unlikely to be either challenging or interesting - The specification doesn't actually describe what the job is, just that you want a vacuum-formed and easily replaceable "<insert-skillset-here> developer" - That you think your challenges can be solved by someone who's done it all before, that there's no innovation required and nothing new to be seen in the job - That it will be boring At the very least, consider starting a small trial project in Scala (or clojure, python, groovy, haskell, etc.) and mention this as a "nice to have" skill in the specification. It suddenly makes you look a whole lot more fresh and interesting. Also, are you making any mention of agile practices in the job spec (BDD, pair programming, continuous deployment and such-like), as this seems to attract people as well. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
