On Friday 27 July 2007 05:14pm, Ken Snyder wrote: > Ash wrote: > > ... > > > >> That's our experience as well. We've been trying to hire a developer > >> since the beginning of the year with no luck. We used a headhunter > >> service for a while who told us "Unemployment in the tech sector in > >> Utah County is 0.2%". I don't know if that stat is accurate, but > >> every one of the candidates they supplied for interview already had > >> jobs--most weren't even looking for jobs--and we certainly haven't > >> had a lot of answers to our posts. > >> > >> - Ken > > > > What are you looking for developer wise, and what are you paying? > > > > Ashley > > Yah, that could be a problem. We are hiring for "PHP Coder" (or some > more flowery version of that title) with target experience of 1-2 years > and offering $40k - 55k DOE. That seems pretty reasonable for Utah > County, no? It seems definitely not high enough for the current > shortage, but not unreasonable. > > I think one thing that is difficult about setting PHP salary is that > certifications and specific schoolwork is the standard for .NET and Java > but not so much in PHP. In my mind about 2-3 years business experience > in PHP would merit "programmer starting pay" of around $50k. Likewise, > a developer certified in a language having no business experience would > maybe start at $50k. Am I way off base?
Given the way that the cost of living (and even in Utah County, look at housing costs) has gone up in the past year alone, $50k isn't a salary most could own a home on. Inflation sucks, but we've seen a significant amount of it in the past 2 years in Utah. What you could get someone for 2 years ago isn't enough for today, and certainly not for next year (I would guess). Also, as you point out yourself, the labor market is tight. That means you have to bring the salaries up a bit in order to compete in a labor shortage. I find it interresting to read how you phrased it: "It seems definitely not high enough for the current shortage, but not unreasonable." It sure sounds like you're trying to justify the short-changing on the hiring budget. My advice is this ... you get what you pay for. If you want a programmer/developer/software engineer (or whatever other fuzzy title du jour) with skills that actually get things done and get them done right, you need to put out a salary range that is high enough to attract those kinds of coders to even submit a resume to begin with. if your published salary range is too low to begin with, you won't get any decent candidates. You get what you pay for. At the salary range you're talking about, I could not support my small family and I would not even attempt to apply. I hope this is helpful feedback. And, please, don't take any of it personally. This is a tough topic to discuss, but I wouldn't be doing you or anyone else any favors by sugar-coating anything. -- Lamont Peterson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Founder [ http://blog.OpenBrainstem.net/peregrine/ ] GPG Key fingerprint: 0E35 93C5 4249 49F0 EC7B 4DDD BE46 4732 6460 CCB5 ___ ____ _ _ / _ \ _ __ ___ _ __ | __ ) _ __ __ _(_)_ __ ___| |_ ___ _ __ ___ | | | | '_ \ / _ \ '_ \| _ \| '__/ _` | | '_ \/ __| __/ _ \ '_ ` _ \ | |_| | |_) | __/ | | | |_) | | | (_| | | | | \__ \ || __/ | | | | | \___/| .__/ \___|_| |_|____/|_| \__,_|_|_| |_|___/\__\___|_| |_| |_| |_| Intelligent Open Source Software Engineering [ http://www.OpenBrainstem.net/ ]
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