Hiring Is Obsolete (2005)
I would say hiring is dead for a different reason: permanent employment is becoming a meaningless deal in many places. Especially in the US, you can be out on the street in 15 minutes with little or no protection against that. It&#x27;s a very one sided deal where you shovel shit in exchange for a lower income. So, people treat their employers as customers and have less reservations about firing their customer. The average tenure at several of the big SFO monopolists (lets just call that out) has allegedly (I lack a good source) dropped below a year. That&#x27;s what happens in a scarce market.<p>When starting a startup, employment is also meaningless because if you are in grow fast&#x2F;fail fast mode, long term employment is not a thing. Your company could end up being acquired, killed, or simply be fizzling out.<p>A lot of companies are now relying on recruiters and agencies to supply them with what is non essential staff where the person disappearing is less of an issue. This kind of recruiting works great for no-tech startups (any kind of saas or marketplace type company). Lots of buzzwords, but mostly hiring full stack. That kind of company. All they need is generic skills. Hiring is still a problem for actual tech startups that need access to the best and brightest in their fields. You&#x27;re not going to find those people through some shitty recruiter or head hunter. They are not likely to be actively looking at all, ever. You need to court them and sell them the notion of working for you. Acquihires are a thing for bigger companies but they often backfire when people simply sit out their 2-3 years while they are considering their next startup.