The tech skills gap is such astounding bullshit. “it’s hard to find trained people” means “we don’t want to train anyone.” Everyone thinks that training should come from all employers except them, because of their extremely unique org structure and margins and tech stack bla bla
If you do happen to stumble into a company and bluff your way into learning new tech skills, the company will take pride in your progress, while rejecting candidates because of their similar background
Everyone has their own excuse for why they take from the workforce but don’t grow it. “We’re growing too fast, our org structure doesn’t allow for it” etc. Certain collegiate pipelines seem to be the only exception, where the role’s apprenticeship nature is clear
My heart goes out to all the Black Girls Who Code, whose careers will be cultivated by a dozen non-profits only to get squashed in interviews by autistic gamers.
Or the unlucky girls who don’t realize that all the “women in tech” affinity groups are just sororities for upper-middle class white women with 1.3 kids
That public officials across the country are wringing their hands about how to reduce corporate labor costs is a masterclass in ideology
It’s a seller’s market, as long as you acquire the right experience in the right subfield. Also the right subfield changes every 5 years and no one is interested in helping you acquire it.
Forbes articles and liberal arts admissions brochures tout how employers value soft skills, but no resume tops the stack because it lists “critical thinking.” Execs quoted in such pieces mistake skills they value in their current employees for the ones hiring managers evaluate.
Tech is homogenous because the only workers depraved enough to willingly combine their hobbies, social circle, and career into this singular hurricane of constant self-training are white nerds. Everyone else is too busy having a life.
This reveals a perverse kind of unity, exceptional in our era of divided selves: friends, hobbies and, work harmonize, but around Rick and Morty fandom, Tesla stock, and building PCs. Don’t @ me Charles Taylor.
Ironically, it seems this paradigm CAN hurt the bottom line, and the firms circumventing it, rather than unquestionably pursuing it, are low-tech, customer-service oriented ones like Costco. What if long-term profit, like a gf, only materializes when you stop trying?
