As the CEO of a company that focuses on developing our developers, I find this article very click-baity. We&#x27;re currently trying to hire engineers in house and we have found a few interesting things:<p>1. Mid-level engineers (I consider 2-5 years of experience) are very hard to find.
2. Entry&#x2F;Junior engineers are much easier to find, but finding good ones[1] is still difficult.
3. I suspect it is the shortage that has caused the following discrepancy in applications: 100% of Program Manager respondents include a well-thought out cover letter, less than half of our software developer candidates do the same. With a frantic hiring of software developers (i.e. shortage), you don&#x27;t need to put in so much effort and still find something.<p>[1] We consider good software developer candidates someone in the area or willing to relocate, who is sharp at coding and who has done some independent work.<p>Someone else commented about not having time to do independent work. In life, you have time or money. Is there someone out there like the protagonist in &quot;The Pursuit of Happyness&quot;? Yeah, probably. But you can&#x27;t tell me that&#x27;s the case for 90% of engineering candidates. If you love what you do, you find a way -- in fact, wild horses couldn&#x27;t keep you away from building <i>something</i>. &lt;&#x2F;finding-a-job-in-software-advice&gt;<p>It&#x27;s not that there isn&#x27;t a deep talent pool, it&#x27;s just that the demand is deeper than the supply.