Searching For Polar Bears In Chicago
Tags: career, discuss
Published: 2023-08-04 13:51:42

This is a post I've been meaning to write for some time.  It's a pretty common scenario.  Someone proposes using some outside of the mainstream language for a project at a company.  IT leadership stiffens up.  "How are we going to find developers for _language_ _x_?  We can find scads of developers for _{Java|C#|Javascript Library}_ but how will we find people who can code _x_?"  I wish sometimes I could be in those meetings. And I sincerely wish I could speak to recruiters who seem to think it's impossible to find developers for anything other than Java or C#.  A couple of thoughts to share:

## You're Not Looking In The Right Places
Scour LinkedIn for developers with experience in oh, let's pretend it's 2001 and you want developers for Python.  I know things have changed in the last couple of years since the folks doing LLM and other numerical work have found Python but there was a time when Python was considered "niche".  Heck there was a time when Java was a rare skill as hard as people may find that to believe today.  There's some survivorship bias that makes languages like Java, Javascript and C# seem as if they were inevitably destined to win.  

But, my apologies, I'm digressing.  If you were scouring LinkedIn for Python devs (assuming LinkedIn existed back then), you probably wouldn't find many.  This is not because there weren't Python devs in 2001.  It's because Dice, LinkedIn etc. were not the right places to find these developers at that time.  Today's niche languages will be tomorrow's "every developer in the world wants to learn them so he or she can get a job" language.

There are now (and were back then) forums, IRC channels (2001), slack channels (today), and conferences where people who liked Python would gather to chat.  That's where one could find Python developers.  And back in 2001 when you found a Python developer chances were that he or she was exceptionally good at their job.  This is exactly because it was hard (then) to get a job coding Python so most developers coding in it were coding in it because they truly cared about building good software and they considered that the best way to do it.

My point is if you're looking for people coding non-mainstream langauges you'll have to do a bit more work than just searching LinkedIn.  Find them where they congregate.  If you're not sure where they congregate ask someone in the community.  It's not usually that hard to find people advocating for a particular language and they're usually more than happy to help recruiters find the right spot to find developers.

## They're Teaching Javascript/Java/C# In Bootcamps
This is very true and if you're looking for an endless supply of junior developers to learn their trade on your codebase you're in luck!  Don't get me wrong; I've met lots of folks from bootcamps that were very capable and could certainly hold their own against any developer in the shop.  But, honestly, they stood out to me exactly because they were so capable.

And, again, don't get me wrong; most folks from bootcamps will grow into good developers.  I've seen that happen too.  But be honest--do you want them learning why it's not a great idea to use inheritance as opposed to composition on your codebase?  Do you want them learning that making calls to a database inside a loop is a recipe for very poor performance?  

My point is while there's certainly safety in sticking with the herd, you're never going to build a world-changing IT team by swimming in other team's wakes.  And don't you really want to build an IT team that people will be beating down the door to work for?  I can remember a time when working at Google was incredibly prestigious.  Isn't that how you want people to view working for your IT team?