The Cost Of Recruiting
Companies in Montreal and across all of North America are having a hard time finding the talent they want. It’s no wonder companies like StandoutJobs.com are aiming to fix this using video. They’re setting out to prove that a video can transparentely presents the type of working environment and culture of a company and that this better than a monster ad can attract top talent.
The place I worked at before joining Ziplocal.com paid over 9000$ to a headhunter to get me to join their company. I had aced the headhunter’s timed skill testing online questionnaire so he had no trouble selling me to the rather paranoid employer who wanted only the “créme de la créme” (those were the exact employer’s words). The headhunter had no problem convincing me to start the whole process he said something about two 24 inch monitors.
While I can understand the guy at shipping not needing a large widescreen I don’t understand why it is considered acceptable by some employers to provide programmers with 14.5″ monitors. Isn’t it like giving surgeons steak knifes instead of scalpels?
I’ve heard of very good developers leave a work place because they didn’t have a say in the replacement model for their 8$ keyboard that broke for the second time.
Employer: “But it’s the same keyboard everyone uses! I don’t see why yours breaks all the time!”
Programmer: “It’s not the same keyboard *everyone* uses. You use a laptop keyboard with an attached monitor that is twice the size of my 15″ CRT.”
I know a very good programmer faced with two job offers. He turned down the one which paid 5000$ more and accepted the one where he could use Linux instead of Windows to write web applications. This kind of information isn’t what employers are necessarily aware of. He was an avid FOSS advocate and he loves his work environment to exactly match that of the servers.
I met a technical writer who argued that an office window was worth about 5000$ a year to her. She had a dried up monkey hand on her desk she had illegally imported from Africa. She was the coolest technical writer I ever met.
While in these two last examples the price for having to use Windows(TM) happens to be the same as having an office window most programmers are misunderstood. They’re not acting snob by asking for a good chair. Their ass actually hurt from that plastic ikea chair. The large monitor allows them to speed up their work flow. Multiple windows are open, log files always in view so they don’t have to alt-tab and switch apps all the time.
If you are willing to dish out 9000$ to get a single programmer sign on consider this instead:
Per Programmer
* 24 inch iMac - 2250$
* large desk (one big enough that 2 colleagues can comfortably see a demo on your monitor) - 480$
* good chair with a few inches of cushion - 349$
* amazon books allowance - ~250$
* library for holding the books - 120$
* best of breed headphones - 300$
* accomodating work hours - 0$
Total cost per programmer: ~3749$
Shared by all employees
* automatic espresso machine with plenty of buttons and choices - 1500$
* tea kettle for tea drinkers with a blue light to say when it’s on - 55$
* 2 fancy sofas for the lounge area - 4500$
* a few posters for the walls - 200$
Total cost for all employees: 6255$
One of the standout jobs video explains humorously how caffeine is the most important food group to developers. The video then goes on to show all the different sources of caffeine they offer for free to their employees. Think they got attention? They sure did. Think they attract great local talent? They sure do. They understand the true cost of recruiting.
on July 5th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
> I know a very good programmer who refused 5000$ more in salary to accept another job where he could use Linux instead of Windows to write web applications.
You probably mean “where he could NOT use”?
(Feel free to delete this comment when you’ve read it.)
on July 5th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Yup, you hit the nail right on, bro.
on July 5th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Thanks for the input Fred. I corrected that sentence. It sucks to be French sometimes. ;-)
on July 6th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Software development, compared to surgery (to go back to your steak knives example :) ), is an activity that takes place in your head. The company you work for can have a lot of trouble understanding what makes you productive or not.
“What gets measured, gets managed” (Drucker),
so it is easy to understand why companies will want to manage the price of keyboards and chairs. However, try to plot chair comfort over productivity and you will have a much harder time.
For a new perspective on the “tools of trade”, I’ll refer you to Kevin Barnes’s Coding from the Barka Lounger.