Three things I wish people would learn about I.T. Hiring
 

"Well, maybe it's because that's what you asked for, when you tried to hire for this position." :rolleyes:

Four things I wish would disappear:

(1) The "three-month contract." Unless the software in question is going-away in two months, don't hire people "temporarily" to work on it. Software is a very durable business asset, because once it is perfected it never "wears out." (Unfortunately, it is rarely "perfected.")

(2) The "lowest price = outsourcer." Hiring the "cheapest" folks to work on your software is exactly like hiring the "cheapest" lawyer. You are not hiring "direct" or even "indirect labor." What you are interested in is the outcome. And not just for the coming quarter. You want computer software that is "utterly reliable" and of the highest quality, and for it to be a successful intimate part of your business operation. It's really the truth that businesses "do what they do" by means of their software. Don't skimp on it.

(3) Nationwide searches for jobs that aren't remote. Especially in combination with #1 or #2. If they're not local already, they're not going to move. And if you "can't find" someone local to do the job, you're not looking hard enough. Also, seriously recognize that most IT functions can, in fact, be carried-out remotely and that some of the most capable folks (if you can get on their schedule!) do work that way. Don't pose an unrealistic request from the point-of-view of the person(s) that you want to attract, then "wonder" why the fish aren't biting.

(4) Insane offers for mundane skills ... or lowball for real ones. A quarter-million(!) dollars a year for ... "node.js?" Really? Didn't think so, or rather, hope not. Describe your position honestly and price it fairly. Don't think that promising to dump money on a problem is going to solve it. Don't think that professionals work for toys, or "cozy workplaces" or "cool computers" or etc. Offer a serious, pragmatic business relationship with the real promise that it will actually last. Clearly show that you understand your stuff.

If your hiring practices and/or project management or budgeting practices aren't realistic, then this is the root cause of your project's problem. Yes, computer software development is expensive. But, if you try in the wrong way to control those costs, or to cover for a project that's either poorly thought-out or poorly managed, it's just going to cost you far, far more. Look for professionals, with a professional offer, and you will find them – even if you have to wait in line for a bit.

Agreed.

Gabe Newell has stated that when he started Valve, he knew that hiring the cheapest people wasn't the way to go:

Gabe Newell: Reflections of a Video Game Maker

Outsourcing is the politically correct modern term for Slavery. That is all.

I was approached with a plan for outsourcing, it wasn't 'cheap' it was slave wages. I passed.

It's called "hiring for outcomes." Which we are not doing anymore.

You've seen the cartoon somewhere: Two guys in prison stripes are commiserating.

• "So, who was your lawyer, anyway?"
• To which the other replies: "The cheapest one I could find."

---

I've always until now been able to rely upon a small group of very-experienced remote (on-shore) subcontractors, and I'm used to having to wait in line sometimes. Well, imagine my shock when I called up one of them ... this guy knows more about high-performance programming with TCP/IP than anyone else I know ... and he calmly told me that he was now a long-haul truck driver. We talked for a long while. You can guess well enough.

The charter that I was prospecting for would have been an easy task for him. But he's removed himself from the IT market and I can't persuade him to rejoin it. "I found myself with the growing expectation of not finding work," he said, "and that's just not 'me.'" :eek:

Which is a serious problem for a project coordinator and talent-scout.

After all, finding "<<insert language-name here>> programmers" these days is as easy as calling a dog: you just stand on any street-corner and whistle. Yes, if you just want someone who's worked with <<I L-N H>> for random(3.0, 5.0) years, to build a couple of "RESTful web-sites using JavaScript and CSS and <<insert acronym here>>" and you can literally whistle for that and get it. (Sorry to bust your bubbles, but it is, which is why I don't try to compete there. The Internet is littered with the wreckage.) But I seriously asked one person about "multi-threaded programming" and he started to lecture me about discussion threads on a forum! :rolleyes:

That was the meaning that he knew. I encouraged him that there was a real bright future in "web-site programming," then hung up. Then I stared out the window for a long time. A long time.

So, you can see why I tend to go back to the same people. Only to find that one of them has given-up and is driving trucks.

Worst part of it is ... driving trucks these days is more stable. Maybe he's on to something. :(

An industry that deploys so many Windows servers and networks has no idea what it's doing. You might as well ask your pet for these requests.

I don't really understand why so many employers insist on hiring only local talent. I'm a mainframe assembler language programmer and z/OS systems programmer. I can do what I do for any company from anywhere in the world, so long as I have a good internet connection and secure VPN access. I don't need to be on site at the friggin' data center. Yet all relevant positions I've come across in the past year have stipulated that relocation is required (and usually at your own expense). Screw that. I've got a home, I'm settled, and I'm comfortable where I am. I'm not moving.

I just took a new job locally, five miles from where I live. It's mainly C programming, some z/OS work including mainframe assembler language development, and some light Linux maintenance duties. I have no professional experience with either C programming or with Linux system administration to fall back on. I just have my home hobbyist skills from fooling around with Linux for the past 15 years and from sort-of learning C more-or-less. Employer was OK with that. It's a different kind of job for me, should be fun, although the pay isn't what I'm used to. If only employers would give up on the annoying and extremely limiting insistence on hiring only locally, things might be different.

Be careful what you wish for.
Put a thought like that in their head, and they'll go find someone at 10% in Asia or Africa. And you've distorted your local marketplace even more.

Well, he still gets to work on a network, and I'm guessing he routes a fair few packets these days. And let's face it, a lot of big web companies would look pretty dang silly if the trucks stopped moving.

During the .Com Bubble I did a few weeks in a local cardboard factory. One of the days I was lead to a stack of unassembled Amazon boxes, and handed a tube of glue.

Uh huh ... and then what happens? Well, I happen to know. My business (http://www.sundialservices.com) is basically centered around legacy software, and with the repurposing, recommissioning, and in some cases the superseding of that software. But the business also includes picking-up the pieces of software projects that are in shambles because someone tried to "save money" by outsourcing to Bangladesh or someplace. (Then, when the ka-ka hits the fan, the manager in question jumps ship, and the company sometimes finds us.)

Here's the nuts-and-bolts of it:

1. Even though computer programming is not (yet ...) a licensed profession, it is "professional services," not "(in)direct labor." You're not paying for the software to be developed. You're not even paying for it to be maintained. You're paying for the outcome: for what the software must do for your business and must do correctly. (You could find yourself literally "out of business" if it doesn't.)
2. "... and those that consider price alone are that man's lawful Prey." John Ruskin was right. You can lose a fortune, or even your entire business, by trying to "save money" hiring incompetent people.

I do not use the word "incompetent" lightly, and I do not use it as any sort of racial slur! :eek: If you're just looking at the price-tag, "then my people are absolutely qualified, they all have Master's Degrees, blah blah." You want to save money, and, as P.T. Barnum said, I'm here to take you.

Yes, there are companies who are working very hard to maneuver IT into an industry that can offer a way-up for people in relatively impoverished countries who do not have, for example, a decent road system ... much less "cars." This could be a breath of fresh air for many places in India, and I know (and support) some folks, in and from India, who are doing that and who are succeeding. But ... there are plenty more folks out there who are just trying to make a fast buck. Yes, those (other) people are thereby working against their own countrymen ... and, they don't care.

#define SOAPBOX
#define FLAME ON
The folks who are shoveling-over people on H1B Visas (and the like), and making them live 17-to-an-apartment (as I have seen with my own eyes in Nashville – they sleep in sleeping-bags every day) ... are, in my opinion, nothing more than slave-traders. :mad: As are the Americans who hire them ... and who have the ba:eek:ls to say that "we can't find qualified Americans" merely to vindicate their own greed and cruelty. If you want to hire a human bing, especially having transported him or her thousands of miles from their home, then you should treat them with respect. (And you are a fuc:eek:in' fool not to.)
#undef SOAPBOX
#undef FLAME

And there's one more thing to think about: "Where your source-code is, there your data will be also." The innermost secrets of your company and of the business processes that run it. Nothing is hid from the data processing team. Vast amounts of personally-identifiable information (much too much of it, as I have said here before). Do you really want to share that with "a different world?"

The huge number of "help, my company just got this project and I have no idea how to start" posts in Programming would certainly support your comments about outsourcing, sundialsvcs. I'm not going to embarrass the posters by linking to them, but I've PM'd you links to two.

Agreed, and I've seen many of the posts you're talking about too.

Thankfully (sort of, I guess), I've been hired to clean up MANY outsourcing jobs. They initially buy based on the dollar-figure, and if they even manage to get working code/systems, it's barely hobbling along. I'd say 80% of outsourced jobs have to be redone from the ground up..NOTHING can be salvaged. The other 20% might have a few bits that work.

I've can't remember talking to any outsourcing company that I would have ever hired. Even though they all had 'certifications' (there are threads on that, too), their skills were lacking. I remember one that swore they had people who could code in whatever language we preferred, so we asked them for standard C code. When they delivered things, it was all in Java...which we didn't accept, and I didn't pay them to re-do it. Surprising no one, we never heard back from them. Hired a guy locally, he did the job and documented it well. And now, HE gets business from me.

If you know of any more, TB0ne, just send 'em to me, or let's join forces. :)