The Skills Gap

Complaints about the skills gap are a big pet peeve for me, especially in our industry. If you’ve recently been a job seeker who maybe wasn’t at the senior level yet, I doubt you’d feel any different. Job descriptions are sometimes outrageous (ever seen one that claimed to be entry level but wanted eight years of experience?) and often weirdly specific. It’s no wonder employers can’t find exactly what they’re looking for.

Now, what employers often discount is that any programmer worth their salt is at least a half decent, life-long learner - you have to be in this business because no two jobs are the same and technology is always changing. Every now and then, I’ll see a job description that says something to the effect of, “It’s okay if you don’t match all of these qualifications. You can learn what’s missing.” Why don’t they all say that?

There’s no reason any decent programmer can’t learn whatever he/she has to for any given job, if only they’re given the chance.

The odds that any employer is going to find the perfect match - especially if they have a requirements list that is fifteen bullet points long - is pretty low. They should have a little grace and let people figure it out. Most likely, they don’t even have to do much in the way of training - just have the programmer do some tutorials and/or shadow somebody. And employers should try this, too.

Remember that somebody has to employ entry- and mid-level engineers or there aren’t going to be any future senior engineers.

It’s no wonder there’s a perceived skills gap if eighty or ninety percent of the jobs are for senior engineers. That’s simply not remotely realistic or sustainable. Not only do you not need senior engineers for every task but there obviously aren’t that many to go around, nor will there ever be. I propose that we focus on meeting people at the level that they’re at while giving them a chance to learn and grow rather than complaining about the gap in their skills.