As with many rants, the thing at which I'm yelling is not actually the thing that cheesed me off in the first place. For that reason, I'm keeping names out of this.
The Moncton tech. community,
like any community, has what's known as "super-hubs" in its
network. These are the folks who pretty much know everybody (sometimes
even before being introduced), and whose job--officially or not--is to
connect people. It would be difficult to overstate the
time/resources/opportunities that would be wasted if not for these
folks, and I look for ways in which I can repay what they've done for me
over the last few years.
But with any community resource, its value is cheapened when any-old-body assumes that they can short-cut their way to clients, employees, etc. by basically asking a super-hub to spam her/his network.
As these requests go, today's email was comparatively defensible, and I'm honestly quite happy to note how tight-knit the Moncton and Fredericton tech. startup community is. No silo-ing or turf wars in sight, and thank the FSM for that.
Alas, something that's been simmering for awhile boiled over.
For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm a freelancer building a fairly niche business and, frankly, I'm still in over my head on where I fit into the local economy...if indeed I fit at all. And so I've been to a whack of after-hours mixers and lunch-n-learns and business-over-breakfast thingies lately. And I'm afraid that in the context of such events, I've too often heard the lament that business "can't find" the programming talent it needs in Moncton.
Yet, strangely, the only people I see at the user group meetings are other programmers. Ditto the classes sponsored by the Cybersocial. Same deal at the MPL Makerspace/FabLab. It's like all these non-technical managers/executives are afraid of programmers in packs. Like there will be a West Side Story-esque suits-vs.-geeks rumble. Or something.
There are a few notable exceptions. I know of at least one Moncton tech. company that practically works hand-in-glove with a private college. Frankly, such pipelining doesn't skeeve me out. Far better that than the business that expects the government to provide a corporation-coddling tax climate and educated college grads. And--bless his heart--Dan Martell's advice to would-be tech. entrepreneurs was to (gasp!) figure out where geeks hang out and go look for a technical co-founder in those places. (Yes, I know I said I wasn't going to mention names, but credit's due where credit's due, yo.)
Clearly, some suits get it. It's the ones who send out the emails that contain phrases like "We have an immediate need for _n_ developers..." that burn my bacon.
No.
You had that need as soon as you knew that you were opening a branch office. Or as soon as you put together the project proposal you knew your current staff couldn't support. Or as soon as you started lunching with VCs. Basically, as soon as you were fantasising about how you were going to spend your share of the new profits, you, my friend, had that need. If you now have an "immediate" need, it's loonies to Timbits that you chose to do other things until you absolutely couldn't ignore the most fundamental job a business has. You're basically the kid who waits until 8:30 the night before the project is due to tell Mom that you have to go to CraftWorld for the supplies.
And so I frankly don't want to hear about the dearth of programmers that you could be standing knee-deep in if you'd bother to get to know them. Best of all, the programmers who show up to places like Makerspaces and user groups are the motivated ones. Sure, I've known plenty of very bright developers who prefer to pick up a new technology/framework by reading code and tinkering on their own. Nothing wrong with that. But the advantage of mixing with programmers among their own tribe is that you meet the ones who aren't embarrassed to ask questions in front of their peers.
Look. Most suits are inherently salespeople. So I'm going to assume that part of their self-education involved the film Glengarry Glen Ross. As such, they'll immediately recognise that I'm referring to that scene: Alec Baldwin's profanity-laden verbal beat-down that includes the acronym "ABC," for "Always Be Closing." That maps nicely--and without all the F-bombs--to "ABH" for "Always Be Hiring."
Hiring the best of the best means having a the pick of the market. Which means that you have to know the market in the first place. Oh, you had your heart set on that 10X full-stack unicorn, but now s/he can't be poached from the once-in-lifetime start-up opportunity? Womp-womp on you for not seeing if there were any more at home like her/him. Maybe next time you'll create a job around a person you know will take you to the next level...before it's time to scramble up that hockey-stick curve. Or, better yet, you'll actually have met all your potential hires face-to-face long before their phone screen.
Start-ups have the mantra, "Get out of the building," which means validating their ideas before they build. "Get out of the building" also applies to hiring. Because you can't say that your employees are your most valuable resource if you expect them to magically drop into your org. chart with the right skills at the right time.
Always. Be. Hiring.
And, if we happen to meet at any number of these mixers, bee-bop on over and say "Hi." Now that I have this rant off my chest, I probably won't be too bitey. Unless, of course, you ask me if I know anyone who's looking for a developer job. :~/
