[o_class_star]

This is all nonsense, but I love how employers try to find professionals with 25 years of experience, who are somehow still under 30... who are willing to work 90 hours per week for barely enough money to make rent... and then whine about how hard it is to find talent.

There is no "talent shortage". There are a lot of whiny, cheapskate employers trying to scam the government, or to convince programmers that they have it "so good right now" so they aren't able to see the exploitative nature of capitalism.

Programmer salaries were amazing in the 1980s and '90s, if you were any good. The numbers were the same as now, but adjusted for inflation, $300-500k (in today's dollars) wasn't unusual... not for middle management or PM bullshitters but actual, honest-to-God, knew-what-they-were-doing programmers. You could actually get rich by working. Today, your only shot at reaching that comp level is playing politics and climbing a management ladder, or a "technical ladder" that is calibrated to be approximately 50 times as hard as the management one to create the impression that all these MBA-toting Directors and VPs are actually good at something.

Also, recruiters have existed forever and most of them are optimizing for churn, but if you think that you can hire "an agent" as a programmer and not be laughed out of the interview... sorry. They'll say "It was great to meet you" and then hire an "unagented" H1-B.

[pjmlp]

I beg to differ with the agent part, given that that is the way most consulting works in Europe.

Either you get employed by a big consulting firm, or get your consulting agent to find gigs for you.

Naturally one can try on their own, but alone getting through the first round of RFPs is going to be a challenge regarding company assurances for delivery.

[o_class_star]

That could be. I know nothing about the consulting market in Europe. That's not a bad system, given that people who are good at doing work are usually terrible at going out looking for it.