[geis]

As the CEO of a company that focuses on developing our developers, I find this article very click-baity. We're currently trying to hire engineers in house and we have found a few interesting things:

1. Mid-level engineers (I consider 2-5 years of experience) are very hard to find. 2. Entry/Junior engineers are much easier to find, but finding good ones[1] is still difficult. 3. I suspect it is the shortage that has caused the following discrepancy in applications: 100% of Program Manager respondents include a well-thought out cover letter, less than half of our software developer candidates do the same. With a frantic hiring of software developers (i.e. shortage), you don't need to put in so much effort and still find something.

[1] We consider good software developer candidates someone in the area or willing to relocate, who is sharp at coding and who has done some independent work.

Someone else commented about not having time to do independent work. In life, you have time or money. Is there someone out there like the protagonist in "The Pursuit of Happyness"? Yeah, probably. But you can't tell me that's the case for 90% of engineering candidates. If you love what you do, you find a way -- in fact, wild horses couldn't keep you away from building something. </finding-a-job-in-software-advice>

It's not that there isn't a deep talent pool, it's just that the demand is deeper than the supply.