Misidentifying talent
I wonder if some small part of the problem lies in the word &quot;talent&quot; . The implication is that developers are born with some sort of innate ability to write software well rather than coding being something you can learn with practise.<p>Calling people &quot;talent&quot; suggests recruitment is a hunt for some person with a rare underlying ability rather than just looking for someone with a skill they&#x27;ve learned. This could also go some way to explain why many small software companies refuse to recruit juniors and have top heavy structures. If you can&#x27;t recognise the magical rare ability in people then you have to trust other companies experiences with &quot;talent&quot;. Taking on people and nurturing them to be seniors wouldn&#x27;t even be an option.