The programming talent myth

Posted Apr 29, 2015 17:47 UTC (Wed) by tpo (subscriber, #25713)
Parent article: The programming talent myth

> Questions ranged from [...] myths around the depth vs. breadth of knowledge (it is part of the myth that people have to "impossibly know everything about everything", there are roles for both specialists and generalists), and how to get mediocre programmers to get the courage to apply for these jobs ("I wish I knew the answer to that").

One part of the answer to these two questions is - I feel - the strong tendency of recruiters to coerce applicants into lying.

I often see job offerings the likes of:

candidate must have 10 years of ReactJS experience

or:

candidate is excited to be on the standby 24*7*52, and work incessantly until the work is finished for NextBigStartupHypeCompany

or:

candidate is an expert assembler coder on all major CPU architectures, a 3D specialist, has a certificate in space flight and has been head of at least two western states

I don't doubt there *might* be someone being able to fulfill such requirements, but I think such profiles favor dishonesty in every sense (among others also the "awesome elite programmers"). And it also is promoting burnout, because it sets expectations way too high.

But maybe I'm blowing this all up because I feel that I'm none special and am defensive because it's very hard to get one of these contracts.