It’s been a whole year since I went to my last Brighton Alt.net meetup, so it was nice to be back again and hope I can come again.

I have updated the Brighton alt wiki with the event summary, so check there for details.

As per tradition, at the end we were asked if anyone was either needing a job or needing to hire. As a result of this conversation, one final question came up:

“By the way, is anyone else finding it really hard to find good .NET developers? All of the developers I’ve seen were beyond terrible.”

There was a lot of agreement on this.

So this got me thinking how or why this could be, and a few theories emerged:

1. There are just as many good candidates – it’s just perception bias

Perhaps not all of the candidates are as bad as they appear. Developers who go to meetups and conferences are the most passionate ones, and maybe find flaws in other developers more easily than other developers. It’s certainly likely that the average candidate won’t know as much as a developer who is actively engaged with the local development community

2. There are just as many good candidates – it’s just harder to attract them

Maybe it’s the fault of the companies seeking to hire. Maybe they need to do more to sell their companies to potential candidates? Maybe they aren’t offering enough money or expressing why it is an interesting job to do? Maybe they have a lot of legacy technology?

3. There aren’t as many good candidates because developers are staying with their current employer longer

I have absolutely no evidence to support this, but it’s a possibility

4. Fewer good candidates are interested in .NET these days

For the reasons given in this composite code post

I’m interested to hear your opinions.

Further Reading

October Brighton Alt.NET

Nobody wants to be a .NET developer

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