We were discussing in our meeting yesterday why it’s so hard to find developers. I had a long-winded and complicated explanation.
Developers come in many varieties, with a wide range of experience. There are lots of people that call themselves “developers”, but a .net developer is not a PHP developer which is not a java developer. Each has different skills, and while picking up a new language may be easier for someone who already codes, they will lack all of the special knowledge of that language.
Within that language specialty, there are different skills and skill levels. For example, there are aton of Drupal and Wordpress theme developers out there that “know” PHP enough to do that work. But anything beyond a theme is likely beyond them. They could probably learn it, but it would take a while - you couldn’t just hire one of these guys and expect them to build you a new web app from scratch. At least, not one that’s any good.
Within the subset of developers that know your language and the type of work you need done, you have a good strata of skill levels. Some people can churn out a new CMS every day. Others might take a little longer.
When hiring a coder, you have to take into account what skill level you’re looking for and whether you need someone with the skill to get your needs accomplished with little instruction, or someone who needs some hand-holding or training.
When looking for people with specific skills and qualifications, the coder pool becomes more scarce, and the competition between companies (some companies are offering their employees $5000 bonuses for referring new hires) is so fierce these days that it’s actually difficult to find skilled workers.
