"There is a worldwide shortage of real, viable talent. Companies are falling over themselves to attract and retain dev talent."
I have to say I find that hard to believe.
Now, to be fair I don't actually know if I am talented or not. It is impossible to accurately judge oneself, though I like to think I am. I've had the opportunity to play lead on some pretty big and successful projects for some major businesses using many of the technologies that are said to be hot right now. A present co-worker said something to me along the lines of "I have worked with a lot of programmers, and you are by far the best of them" and it seemed genuine. Take from that what you will.
Anyway, I've entertained the idea of working with some other organizations. Some have not been interested in me at all, and the rest were no longer interested after a short chat. Nobody has been interested in seeing the actual quality of my work. I'll accept that I just don't have that talent, but given the above, it seems to me that it is really just my marketing skills that are lacking – Which makes sense; I spent my spare time becoming a better programmer, not becoming a better marketer.
Given that, I remain skeptical of the talent shortages. How much comes down to companies just having no clue about how to hire people?
I'm sure you're great, but I've been hiring people nonstop for almost a year now, and networking with people who are also hiring, and the fact is: it's a tight market for dev talent.
But if you are passing over good talent because of external reasons (such as poor marketing skills), is it fair to say there is a technical talent shortage? The talent is there, you're just not interested in using it.
And it is completely fair for a business to seek a well rounded person. If you want someone who is good at marketing and development, you are more than welcome to look for that. You are under no obligation to hire anyone less. But it is not the technical talent that is tight.
Anyway, hopefully I don't come off as sounding bitter or something. I have an amazing job already and respect anyone who feels I am not a good fit for their organization. I just have to wonder if the shortage of talent is real, or if companies are passing over real talent for other reasons unrelated to the lack of skill in technology.
It's not a tight market for dev talent at all. There are so many programmers out there and not nearly enough positions. Those that do exist now will be rapidly drying up due to industry slowdown and consolidation.
No, in the Bay Area. There are tons of programmers here who can't find jobs. There simply aren't enough positions available for even talented programmers to find work.
If they are talented, tell them to email me (my first name at identified dot com). We're trying to grow our dev team rapidly at Identified, but we're limited by the number of good developers we can find. If they're good, we'll hire them.
Edited to add: We're located in the SOMA district of San Francisco.
Do you currently need a good remote Node.js/MongoDB developer? (That's my current preference. I do everything except Ruby/Perl/.NET. Sizable experience with AWS, App Engine, Linux admin, SQL, you name it.)
Which makes sense; I spent my spare time becoming a better programmer, not becoming a better marketer.
Good. You need to be a problem solver, not a programmer. You need to listen to your customers and find solutions. That's how you show up the value you make.
I agree with you entirely. However, that is not a deficiency in a technical skill. You cannot really say there is a shortage in technical skills while at the same time passing over technical people because you find them lacking in non-technical areas.
If you can't make use of your technical skill (solve the problem) you definitively don't have it. That's why you need to be a problem solver in the first place.
I farm as a hobby, so I see lots of unique problems. In typical programming jobs you're just stringing together the work of others. There's lots of book learning to do, but not much actual problem solving.
There are people solving real problems, but those kinds of jobs are fairly rare, and often not very well paying when done in academia. Implementing working implementations based on those already found solutions are where the jobs are.
I have to say I find that hard to believe.
Now, to be fair I don't actually know if I am talented or not. It is impossible to accurately judge oneself, though I like to think I am. I've had the opportunity to play lead on some pretty big and successful projects for some major businesses using many of the technologies that are said to be hot right now. A present co-worker said something to me along the lines of "I have worked with a lot of programmers, and you are by far the best of them" and it seemed genuine. Take from that what you will.
Anyway, I've entertained the idea of working with some other organizations. Some have not been interested in me at all, and the rest were no longer interested after a short chat. Nobody has been interested in seeing the actual quality of my work. I'll accept that I just don't have that talent, but given the above, it seems to me that it is really just my marketing skills that are lacking – Which makes sense; I spent my spare time becoming a better programmer, not becoming a better marketer.
Given that, I remain skeptical of the talent shortages. How much comes down to companies just having no clue about how to hire people?