#in my defense they offered me a SIGNIFICANTLY higher salary than what I was expecting

[jatersade]

can any Adults out there tell me if I blundered by accepting a job offer immediately (like so fast that the person offering was clearly surprised) or is it fine that I did that. To be clear I want the job but should I have played it cool and asked for some time to consider it or am I embarrassed for no reason

[ngop3]

If you don't hire juniors, you don't deserve seniors

https://dev.to/isaacandsuch/if-you-dont-hire-juniors-you-dont-deserve-seniors-48kb isaacandsuch profile image Isaac Lyman   Sep 22 #career #management #recruiting Let me tell you the story of a very successful company that made a very big, dumb decision.

We don't hire junior developers or interns...if you don't get a puppy, you don't have to clean up its messes.

~ Netflix

I'm flabbergasted that some corporate schmuck figured out a way to cast puppies in a negative light and people kept listening. I mean, puppies are the purest beings on planet Earth. Literally made out of playtime and fur. Bright spots in a lonely world. But I digress.

A lot of companies have followed suit with a "we only hire seniors" strategy. When asked why, they'll offer responses like:

We don't have the time or resources to hire junior developers; we're moving too quickly. The company can afford senior developers, so there's no need to hire juniors. We can't afford to make mistakes at this point. The stakes are too high. Our organization gives a lot of autonomy to its employees. We aren't set up for the kind of hand-holding that juniors need. We want to get our base software product in place before we hire anyone inexperienced. The implication here is that junior developers are a liability, something that a company takes on out of a sense of duty or because of an ailing budget. And the implication of that is, well, maybe other companies can afford to do corporate charity projects and substandard work, but we sure can't.

By the way, there are over 100,000 tech companies in the US, and I've never heard one single CEO say "our mistakes don't matter a lot" or "we need a way to spend some of this loose cash we've got sitting around." So, all you "senior developer only" outfits, whatever shortcut you think you're taking, whatever system you think you're cheating, the reality is that you've hallucinated the entire thing. There's no competitive advantage to shutting out juniors. And you've outed yourself as a poorly-managed company.

April Wensel@aprilwensel Hostility to junior developers is an easy way to spot a toxic company culture. 14:57 PM - 01 Aug 2017 Twitter reply actionTwitter retweet action36Twitter like action95 The way you hire and treat junior developers is a valuable proxy measure for the health of your organization, your product line, and your internal culture. Senior developers know this. And if that isn't compelling enough, hiring a fair balance of junior developers is a smart financial decision as well.

Preventing messes

If you refuse to hire junior developers because they make "messes," you're sending a strong and unintended message about your company culture: no mistakes allowed. You're painting yourself as the company that fires somebody every time a server goes down. Regardless of how much you pay, nobody wants to work in an environment where job security is touch-and-go. And trying to initimidate developers into making less mistakes spreads a culture of fear and initimidation, which is disastrous for mental health and productivity.

You might argue that this attitude encourages developers to be cautious and implement processes that guard against error: automated testing, QA, failovers, access protection, and reversible code changes, to name a few. But this theory is entirely backwards. If company guidelines encourage the use of failsafes like these and the company provides the time and resources for developers to implement them, the "no mistakes allowed" culture isn't necessary or valuable; most issues will be caught long before they reach production. And every developer, junior and senior, thrives in an environment where strong development processes protect them from worst-case scenarios.

What about the errors that make it past every layer of prevention you've put in place? Think of them as valuable opportunities to shore up your defenses. Junior developers, admittedly, usually uncover these opportunities sooner than senior developers. So the only question is, do you want to debug your process sooner or do you want to debug it later? "Never" is not a choice, as any experienced developer will tell you. If something can go wrong, eventually it will. No amount of experience can prevent human error.

Naturally, you'll need a few senior development and ops leaders to lay the groundwork and set precedents for an error-resistant development cycle. Nobody's saying you should only hire junior developers. But if you truly have a workplace that cares about mistakes--that is, a workplace where mistakes are caught early and often--junior developers will fit right in. And developers of all levels will enjoy higher job satisfaction, since error resistance liberates them to build great software (instead of constant firefighting) and protects their nights and weekends.

Saving money

According to Indeed, a Junior Software Engineer makes an average salary of $55,394, while a Senior Software Engineer makes an average salary of $117,374. A Senior costs more than two times as much as a Junior.

The cost is often justified. Senior developers are expected to be more productive than junior developers. That's not the whole story, though, and thoughtlessly writing it off as the cost of doing business is both lazy and expensive.

Not all application code requires years of experience to write, or even to write well. Every program includes "glue code" that connects various inputs and outputs in a mundane way. It doesn't matter a lot who writes it. You can pay someone $28 an hour to do it, or you can pay someone $59 an hour to do it. Either way it will come out about the same. If you only hire seniors, you're paying a premium for a great deal of entry-level work.

Code also varies significantly from application to application, and familiarity is a key factor in productivity. In most cases, a junior developer with six months of experience on a team will be more effective than a senior developer who just signed on, for no other reason than familiarity with the domain.

The aforementioned glue code and domain-specific code account for at least half of all development work. What remains is code that truly demands and benefits from the expertise of a senior developer. And even for this code, a junior developer can do outstanding work if they have access to sufficient educational resources and the guidance of an experienced mentor.

For these reasons, a pairing of one junior and one senior developer is generally equivalent to two senior developers, and comes at less than 75% of the total cost. If your goal is maximum productivity for minimal expense, this junior/senior pair should be the fundamental molecule of your organization.

As an aside, one factor that's impossible to account for in these numbers is the widespread tendency of senior developers to debate about topics that end up being trivial--such as algorithms, microsecond optimizations, and code style. If an organization hires only seniors and doesn't have a rock-solid decision-making process in place, hundreds of payroll hours can be lost to these arguments. Junior developers rarely have this kind of problem.

Building careers

If you don't hire junior developers, another message you're sending is that you don't know how career progression works.

Kate Heddleston@heddle317 Sometimes when companies say they're not hiring junior developers I want to shake them by their hoodies and yell, where do you think senior developers come from?! 02:17 AM - 13 Sep 2018 Twitter reply actionTwitter retweet action254Twitter like action1013 Again, this isn't about corporate citizenship or "doing your part" in the tech community. This is about making your company a decent place to work so that developers will join your company and stay long enough to make an impact.

I've heard a few developers say "I'm done changing job titles. I just want to be a senior developer forever." However, I've never heard one say "I hope I never get a pay raise or learn something new or get recognized for my achievements ever again." And, inconveniently, the resources necessary to sustain ambitious ladder-climbers and complacent but passionate senior developers are about the same. You need ways to measure and recognize a job well done, plentiful educational resources, and a variety of projects young and old in your development pipeline. You need to create a sense of progress, even for those few who don't want a promotion.

But don't get stuck on those folks. They're a minority. Most people in tech aren't planning on being senior developers for 40 years straight. We dream of being software architects, team leads, CTOs, and founders. And a company that advertises its blatant disinterest in career progression is going to rank dead last on our list of prospective employers.

Reginald Braithwaite@raganwald I only recruit senior devs.

The trick is, I recruit some of them earlier in their career. 15:46 PM - 17 Sep 2018 Twitter reply actionTwitter retweet action488Twitter like action2612 One of the most impressive things a developer can hear as they walk into a job interview is, "Hi, I'm a team lead, I've worked here for eight years and I joined the company as an intern." Impressive and very rare. That person is intensely valuable to the company--they know the product line in and out, they've seen code from every project within a 100-yard radius, and they've worked alongside everyone in the organization. They can innovate within that company in a way that very few can. And the company is earning inestimable dividends on that person's work because they figured out how to keep them interested for eight years--about one tenth of their life expectancy. That's a sign of success for the company's culture. It marks a workplace where morale is high, good work is recognized, and interesting projects are waiting around every corner.

Saying "we don't hire juniors," on the other hand, is an open admission that your company isn't prepared to be part of someone's career. It essentially advertises stagnancy: the company expects experienced and talented developers to join the company and contribute indefinitely while getting nothing but a paycheck for their efforts. Some might be willing to do that, but you'll never see their best work.

If your company is truly committed to career growth, on the other hand, an arbitrary restriction against junior developers only serves to shrink your hiring pipeline and shorten the possible tenure of your employees.

Making great software

Junior developers have several unique traits that their more experienced colleagues have usually lost. One of these is blind optimism. Another is a willingness to follow. But perhaps the most valuable trait juniors bring to the table is their lack of baggage. Senior developers have seen technologies come and go, projects fail, teams dissolve into infighting, and all the other trappings of the technology sector. They build up strong opinions and often overgeneralize, assuming that what worked (or didn't) for one team or one project must be equally effective for another. And this can manifest as a reluctance to learn the nuances of a new problem space.

DHH@dhh Companies so eager to only hire senior people often forget that unlearning what doesn't apply can take longer than learning what does. 14:12 PM - 31 Jul 2017 Twitter reply actionTwitter retweet action821Twitter like action1984 Sometimes a project manager's job is to say "I know that didn't work there, but maybe it will work here." And a junior developer is usually the best person to test that theory--they can build a proof-of-concept or a prototype without bringing along any of the biases that senior developers have built up over the years. As a junior developer I frequently took on this kind of work, trying out new tools and technologies, rebuilding things in a different way, proving out ideas that everyone else had judged too quickly. I often discovered better ways to build and the company's software was materially better as a result. There were cases where page load time improved by an order of magnitude; multiple pages were condensed into one, saving weeks of future maintenance; or the company was able to rule out insufficient technologies that could have led to a lot of wasted time. The benefits provided by a clean slate and a fresh perspective are impossible to ignore.

Many companies can get away with putting a bunch of senior developers in a room and letting them fight through to a consensus over how to solve problems and build things. But adding a few juniors to the mix, developers whose time you can afford to spend on one-off experiments and wild ideas, will turn up surprising improvements to your products.

When it comes to software quality, junior developers also do an important form of work that generally goes unappreciated: they place limits on the heady, overengineered code that their senior colleagues may be tempted to write.

Jamon Holmgren@jamonholmgren One underrated programmer attribute is the ability to write code that average or mediocre engineers can easily read, modify, and extend. 00:25 AM - 17 Sep 2018 Twitter reply actionTwitter retweet action34Twitter like action90 If you replace "average or mediocre" in the above tweet with "junior," you can see how this works. A codebase is an abstract record of the way its contributors think critically. A healthy mix of junior and senior contributors creates opportunities for simplification, which makes features easier to build as time goes on.

In summary, the widespread "seniors only" attitude in tech undervalues junior developers. It's a detriment to everyone, especially the organizations that mistakenly think they can make things easier by shutting out inexperienced candidates. Although some of these companies have been financially successful, the waste of money and opportunities they've absorbed is likely massive.

If your company is ahead of the curve on this issue--if you know how to hire, train, and retain junior developers--you're reaping benefits I've only begun to describe here. Your company has lower turnover, higher diversity, and less overhead than the competition. Your software is less likely to break and more likely to delight. There are, of course, other factors at play. But a positive approach to junior developers is an important mark of a quality workplace for developers at every level.

173   50   87    DISCUSSION (16)   dev.to is where software developers stay in the loop and avoid career stagnation. Signing up (for free!) is the first step. isaacandsuch profile Isaac Lyman+ FOLLOW Maker of Edward the App (https://edwardtheapp.com). Find more of my writing at isaaclyman.com/blog. twitter isaacandsuch   github isaaclyman   link isaaclyman.com #ITPro #SoftwareDeveloper

[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Colin Miller Signing, Who Is Jan Kovar? (July 8)

Colin Miller Signing, Who Is Jan Kovar?

Hey there, I’m back after spending a few days at the lake. So although I was able to follow what was generally happening on Twitter, I still feel like I need to get my game legs back after getting out the car just a few hours ago. So for lack of other topics, I’ll focus on some general news topics from the last day or two.

Saturday’s most significant news was of Colin Miller signing a four-year, $15.5 million contract to stay in Vegas. A cap hit of $3.875 million per season seems very reasonable given his production in one season in Vegas, even if that means a $2.875 million raise for salary cap leaguers.

Back on April 8, Miller was the feature in our weekly Geek of the Week feature. In the article, Scott pointed out that Miller was the 46th-most valuable skater in a league that counts goals, assists, shots on goal, power-play points, and hits. Miller’s goals and assists total wasn’t nearly as high as the players he was ranked near (Vladimir Tarasenko, Johnny Gaudreau, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Artemi Panarin). But his hits total (160) boosted his value in that particular league format.

Perhaps why Miller seems like such a bargain for a 40-point defenseman is that prior to 2017-18, he had never scored more than 16 points in a season over his previous two seasons (only 61 and 42 games played in those two seasons). If he can maintain this production, then this contract could be a steal for Vegas as they attempt to build on their unusually successful first season. Upon being selected by the expansion Golden Knights, Miller’s icetime increased about three and a half minutes per game, with a power-play icetime increase of over a minute per game.

Of course, one ongoing concern for Miller owners is the growing presence of Shea Theodore on the first-unit power play. During the playoffs, Theodore averaged more power-play time (3:01 PP TOI/GP) than any other Vegas skater, including Miller. Theodore possesses higher offensive upside, so I’d lean toward him as the blueline option should Vegas go with a 4F-1D format on the first-unit power play. Still, Miller should be a solid option again next season now that he is a fixture on the Vegas defense, particularly in multicategory leagues that count hits.

Having said that, the potential acquisition of Erik Karlsson would significantly cut into the value of both players (assuming neither is part of the return package – wait, maybe they would lose value if they went to the mess that is Ottawa, although players can still post big numbers on bad teams – I won’t go any further on that hypothetical, though).

*

Speaking of which, unless you’ve been living under a rock or way out in the wilderness, you’ll already know about the Karlsson trade rumors. In yesterday’s Ramblings, Cam does fantastic work in breaking down what the fantasy impact would be should Karlsson be traded to what are considered his three most likely destinations (Tampa Bay, Dallas, Vegas). If you don’t have time to look, both Victor Hedman and John Klingberg could lose value, particularly Klingberg, should either team use a 4F-1D format on its first-unit power play.

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In other news:

Filip Zadina has signed his three-year, entry-level contract with the Red Wings. You can check out his Dobber Prospects profile here.

Dmitrij Jaskin has avoided arbitration and signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract with the Blues. In four NHL seasons of at least 50 games, Jaskin has yet to reach the 20-point mark. Much of that has to do with a lack of icetime (career average 12 minutes per game) and power-play time (career average 23 seconds per game). With the Blues bringing in just as many veteran forwards as they lost, don’t expect much to change unless there are a rash of injuries.

The Flyers have signed RFA goalie Alex Lyon to a two-year extension. Because of the Flyers’ issues with injured goalies, Lyon managed to get into 11 games for the Flyers. He figures to start the season in the AHL, although don’t be surprised if you hear from him again in 2018-19. Michal Neuvirth is a Certified Band-Aid Boy and Brian Elliott hasn’t played 50 games since the 2010-11 season. But before you get too excited about Lyon, remember that the Flyers have Carter Hart (Dobber Prospects profile), who should get a long look in the AHL this season.

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If unearthing viable options in your deep keeper league is a difficult undertaking, you might be interested in the following:  

Czech born center Jan Kovar (one of the top scorers in the KHL over the last several years) has received multiple offers from NHL teams. He will be making a decision soon. Some video of this dynamic player here- https://t.co/L7j0qgyj83

— Allan Walsh (@walsha) July 5, 2018

Agent Walsh then goes on to post the following:  

We have a Jan Kovar update. Jan is evaluating and considering various NHL offers and will be making a decision tomorrow. #EHSHockey ##OctagonHockey https://t.co/dBqjcR1g2q

— Allan Walsh (@walsha) July 7, 2018

So who is Jan Kovar? With player transactions clearly slowing down, I thought I’d take the time to investigate. He is a 28-year-old center, coming off a bit of a down year with just seven goals and 35 points in 54 games in 2017-18 (Hockey DB). But as Walsh said, Kovar has been a point-per-game player over his five KHL seasons. The KHL stats page doesn’t provide the ability to display points-per-game aggregate stats over the last five seasons, but I managed to pull out that Kovar has been a top-10 scoring option in four of his five KHL seasons.

For a comparison to Kovar, Ilya Kovalchuk has also played his last five seasons in the KHL with similar point-per-game numbers (370 points in 367 games) if you take into account both regular season and playoffs. Do the math above and Kovar’s total for the exact same sample is 377 points in 368 games.

Kovar’s declining production is a bit of a concern, and at 28 he’s too old to be considered a prospect. But while fantasy owners target the now-35-year-old brand name Kovalchuk, Kovar is a player that could fly completely under the radar. So he could be worth taking a flier on, depending on where he lands. At the very least, pay attention to where he signs.

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If you’re into hockey podcasts, you’ll want to check out the latest 31 Thoughts Podcast. Although I haven’t had time to listen to the entire podcast, there are some interesting takes on the various player transactions over the past week. Many times are listed, so you can also pick and choose the ones you are the most interested in. For example, if you’re a Canucks’ fan, you can find out why in the world they would sign both Jay Beagle and Antoine Roussel to four-year contracts. There’s also a tidbit on how the James van Riemsdyk signing (fantasy take here) could affect both Wayne Simmonds and Ivan Provorov. And oh yeah, lots of Leafs talk, including an interview with Kyle Dubas.

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

  from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-colin-miller-signing-who-is-jan-kovar-july-8/

[aqutalion]

Day Job Implosion, part 4: In which everything old is new again and both RockeTech and Missiles-R-Us continue to be awful

This really isn't an implosion... yet. Or maybe it's a series of several small implosions. But the latest job search incarnation just seemed to bring together all the weirdness this industry has to offer. I probably mentioned earlier about how "cross-pollinated" (or "incestuous", as I prefer to call it) the defense industry in Aquville is. I don't know if it's endemic to the industry, or just a result of being in a smallish city dominated by a single monolithic industry.

At first glance, it looked like there were piles and piles of open jobs. But after digging a little deeper and talking with more people, most of them turned out to be for maybe 3 or 4 projects. One of the things large companies here like to do, in addition to using multiple recruiters for a single position (ARGH!), is subcontract out to smaller ones. This results in several companies looking for the same thing. Sometimes this can be a good thing, like on Labyrinth, where one sub turned me down and another hired me the next week. Other times, you end up wasting your time unknowingly applying for things you've already been submitted for.

And what were these big projects? One was none other than Labyrinth. Apparently, they've somehow managed to resurrect it. I have no idea how. This was probably the most frustrating one. I guess they'd run off all their subs from before (Mom-n-Pop certainly wasn't touching it), as they'd brought on a slew of new ones. At least half a dozen contacted me. The first one went ahead and submitted my resume, only to have it turned down because I'd "been on the project before". As for the others, it was frustrating getting my hopes up, only to find out it was just another Labyrinth sub.

I just realized I haven’t written about Labyrinth or Mom-n-Pop, yet. I’ll be writing about them, soon, once I finish up the stories from Wasteland and Stonehenge.

I bumped into a former coworker from Labyrinth at a job fair. He wouldn't touch it, either. Speaking of that job fair, it had the exact same companies as the one six months before. The exact same. Two were Missiles-R-Us and NotRockets. NotRockets always seems to be hiring, and it makes no sense to me. I went to a larger job fair a few months after they laid me off, and there they were, looking for more people. Another project came to light at that job fair. It was a "software engineer" job at a NASA contractor. That one, I have to admit, gave me a bit of a pang. I'd moved to AquVille because of the NASA facility, and this just reminded me that I'd be giving up that possibility if I left as planned. Yes, I know working for a NASA contractor would have all the same bullshit I've dealt with on the missile projects- Implosion Part 3 proved that- but… still… ya know? Looking at the job description, it was apparent that I had little chance of getting the position, anyway, as there was only a little overlap between my skillset and the set they wanted, and the duties described didn't really match what I'd been doing. I applied, anyway, as did three or four recruiters from the project's various subcontractors. One of them actually got me an interview, and there I found that the overlap was even smaller than I thought, and it was more of a dev-ops position than a developer one, hence the quotes. So no chance at all. The third project was with Missiles-R-Us. And yes, it's the same project that laid me off the first time (Defense contractors have no qualms about letting you go when the budget tanks, but will gladly hire you back if the budget returns). SpiffTek sent me on an interview there, soon after leaving Sideline, but that wasn't the only position I applied to. In one case, the recruiter handling the position was none other than my former "dedicated placement rep" from before. Perhaps they've had another mass exodus. The "research lab" position mentioned in Fun With Recruiters part 2 is still looking for people willing to relocate to their city. They've gone through several recruiters and staffing firms, and I think every one of them has called me. Seriously, guys- REMOTE! Consider it! With the salary you're offering and the job market where you are, you'll have to! A recruiter submitted my resume to what I later found out was Wasteland. According to him, they said I didn't have the right skillset for it, but apparently made a point of saying they'd be open to having me apply again in the future. That's a but surprising, as Wasteland and I didn't part on good terms. Wasteland HR must have forgotten me. But eventually, AwesomeTech (see Fun with Recruiters, part 1) came back out of the woodwork, with a project with a company I'll call Vector-Sigma. It was still defense, but it wasn't missiles, and that's at least a little improvement. I interviewed. They offered me the job. It was a short-term thing and not a great fit for my skillset, but I took it. I hadn't recognized the name, and thought I'd maybe found the one defense contractor in Aquville that I'd never interviewed with, before. However I later found out that I had, in fact, worked for them. Before a series of buyouts and mergers, Vector-Sigma was Qubefarm, where I'd had a short-lived stopgap position (through SpiffTek), just before joining Labyrinth. This, too, was a short stopgap, but it was better than nothing. And who turns out to be the prime contractor for this project? RockeTech! I can't get away from these guys! My first day on the job, someone recognizes me from Wasteland. Qubefarm had occupied a pair of identical office buildings next to each other. Vector-Sigma still has one (the second floor of it, anyway, leaving the first floor empty and very creepy). The other former Qubefarm building, the one I used to work in, is now occupied by Wasteland. A week into this job, a recruiter from MinComp (also from Fun With Recruiters, part 1) contacted me. Still looking for people, still expecting them to relocate. Two and a half weeks in, Missile-R-Us calls for an interview, for something I thought they'd already rejected me for a couple of months ago. Yes, months. As we've already found out, large defense contractors move only slightly faster than glaciers. I have no idea how they manage to hire anyone, moving that slowly. By way of comparison, I interviewed with a non-defense company, at least as large as Missile-R-Us, between Implosion Chapter 3 and now. They had an answer for me two weeks after my interview- and the recruiter apologized for taking that long. 

Three months later, the VectorSigma gig ended. Labyrinth, Missiles-R-Us and RockeTech were still hiring. RockeTech (again) brings me in for an interview for… wait for it… Monolith! Fucking MONOLITH! I was sort of hoping to get this, even though I knew the chances were slim (My skillset had evolved, since then, while their requirements have stayed exactly the same). It would be like bookends. Monolith was what brought me to AquVille, and it would finance my escape. 

A newcomer (sort of) brought a ray of hope. About a month after the events in Fun With Recruiters #1, MinComp had been acquired by a larger company, Snorlax. Snorlax had a facility in AquVille, built probably around the same time. The position wasn't at that facility, but on the base. Yes, at the same super-secret-classified facility I'd had to go to for Stonehenge. The recruiter assures me that they can move quickly, unless other defense contractors. 

But they're only the subcontractor on this project. Who is the prime? Take a guess. Go ahead. Guess. 

Surprise! It's RockeTech! Seriously, RockeTech, either stop following me or just goddamn hire me, already. (Actually, don't. Your health insurance sucks and I have literally never had a positive interaction with you.) 

Or not. Snorlax pulled a bit of a bait-and-switch. Between the first and second interviews, they changed their minds about the position. What had been a development position was now a IV&V position, "temporarily". Their definition of "temporary" was a year. Since I was still planning to leave as soon as I finished my dissertation (at the time, about six more months), that was basically permanent. But the money was significantly higher than I expected, so I figured I could put up with it. They made an "unofficial" offer, but they wanted me to talk to the prime, first. RocketTech? No, he's from Missiles-R-Us! The hell? I have no idea. 

It goes well, and their local person says they'll contact me "soon". And then... nothing. I contact my recruiter for an update, and he says he'll call me back. He doesn't. Nor does he answer his phone. 

I take the hint and start looking elsewhere. It's been nearly a month since I started the process with Snorlax (hence the name), and I'm tired of waiting. As coincidence would have it, Missiles-R-Us was having a hiring event, so I went. Other recruiters call, and I set up another interview. RockeTech calls again, in another case of the right hand not seeing what the left is doing. The recruiter sounds enthusiastic, but I never hear from her again. 

The next week, the Snorlax recruiter emails me back, saying he'll call me that morning. He doesn't. I fantasize about getting an offer from Missiles-R-Us and taking it just to spite them. The "unofficial" offer is two weeks old, at this point, well past stale. I guess they have a different definition of "quickly" than the rest of us. 

A couple of days later, he finally gets back to me. They're still waiting on word from RockeTech, apparently still the prime. Ugh. Fuck you, RockeTech. Fuck you.   

Three weeks in, he calls and says RockeTech wants another interview. Sigh. I get my hopes up, even though I shouldn't have.   

Another three weeks pass. The recruiter is apparently getting as annoyed with this as me. He says he's checking for updates daily, but RockeTech is ghosting him- not just about me, but several others. Is this true? Don't know and at this point, don't care. I give up on them. 

So, is RockeTech just stupidly inefficient, or is there something else going on? My money's on both. 

Interestingly, my mother dealt with a company with he same name as RockeTech when she worked for a research lab. This was 20 years ago and in a completely different industry, but the name is uncommon enough that I suspect it's the same company, or at least a subsidiary. They were stupidly inefficient when she dealt with them, too. "Laziness and managerial incompetence", she called it. 

And there's another possible explanation. The contract structure for this project was especially weird- When I first interviewed, RockeTech was the prime and Snorlax a sub, but that was supposedly to flip. In a few months, Snorlax would become the prime and RockeTech a sub. No, I don't know why. Contracting is just weird, that's all. But anyway, it was suggested to me that they were stalling because they were miffed about this situation and decided to be assholes. If that's true, they can go fuck themselves with a THAAD missile sideways. 

But now it's Missiles-R-Us's turn to be awful. A week or two after I gave up on Snorlax, multiple recruiters start calling. Another huge project has just dropped, apparently rivaling Monolith and Stonehenge in size, and like its predecessors, every decent-size contractor has a piece. I'll call it Menhir, since I'm pretty sure it's an offshoot of Monolith. And in true defense contractor fashion, they've all hired a dozen or so staffing firms and have another dozen or so subcontractors (some of which hired their own staffing firms). 

This brings up something I need to address. When trying to gauge the quality of a city's job market, do not rely on the quantity of job listings! Lots of job listings does not necessarily equal lots of actual jobs! Companies hire multiple recruiters to work on the same position (STOP DOING THIS!). In the world of contracting, things are further complicated by non-compete agreements and such. In the case of Menhir, the various companies involved have agreements that they can't poach each other's staff. That means if one gets an offer from one company, no other company is allowed to even consider them unless they completely back out of the first. So, no real chance for potential employees to shop around. 

The first company that finally bit was some El-Cheapo contractor I've never heard of, working for Missiles-R-Us. They make an offer, not a great one but not terrible, and I accept. But there's a problem- they can't give me a start date, yet. 

The hell? They give me some excuse that it's the defense industry and there's paperwork. There's something to that, but every other company I've worked for- even Missiles-R-Us- gave me a start date with the initial offer. Granted, in Missiles-R-Us's case, the date was a month later, but it was still a firm date. This is NOT normal, despite the BS they keep trying to feed me. 

But whatever. I get the paperwork done and turned in and wait and wait and wait. Every time I ask what's going on, it's 'Oh, we're still waiting for word from Missiles-R-Us'. Two and a half weeks go by, and I finally hear from M-R-U, wanting some more paperwork. No word on the start date, though. They're trying to get in contact with El-Cheapo, supposedly. 

It's now been three weeks, and I'm finally done waiting. No, I don't have a start date, yet, and both El-Cheapo and Missiles-R-Us are still claiming paperwork delays on the part of the other. But I'm done, and I let them know this. I'm taking the first firm start date I get, be it from them, Snorlax, or someone else. And yes, I am looking again. This gets their attention and all of a sudden management is burning up my phone to "discuss". The only thing I'm interested in "discussing" is when I start work, though, and neither El-Cheapo nor M-R-U has an answer. 

Only three months left, until I defend my dissertation and can finally get the fuck out of this city and away from this shithole industry. Only three months.