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Dead Serious It Career Advice


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One thing I have noticed is that there is a severe lack of good programmers in Thailand.

 

 

 

 

I need 2 - trying to find them is next to impossible!

Well, let me ask you two simple questions.

 

1. What qualifications do you need?

 

2. Are you able, willing, and ready to pay them what they're likely to cost on the market?

 

I haven't been able to find the exact quote, but the late Milton Friedman supposedly said something along the lines of "If someone is having trouble finding someone to do a job, it is because they are not offering to pay enough."

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Hi,

 

It is not so much a problem of salary rather than one of there just not being enough people skilled enough. Sure there are loads of people who call themselves programmers - and have all the diplomas to back them up - but the vast majority of these are utterly hopeless and need constant supervision and handholding. You cannot give them the requirements for the application you need and let them write it; instead you will need to be extremely detailed up to the point of nearly writing the damn code yourself and even then you often end up getting something totally different.

 

Sanuk!

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the late Milton Friedman supposedly said something along the lines of "If someone is having trouble finding someone to do a job, it is because they are not offering to pay enough."

 

 

 

It is not so much a problem of salary rather than one of there just not being enough people skilled enough.

 

No, you apparently did not understand the quote. It is a exactly a problem with salary. You simply have to pay more then what the skilled person is now being paid to get them to work for you.

 

I believe that is known as supply and demand setting the price. :hubbahubba:

TH

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Hi,

 

Yes, you are of course correct, but in real life it is unfortunately not that clear-cut. If in this case the supply is too low certain companies will always lose out (not being able to afford the rates demanded, not a 'big name' company, not enough benefits, etc).

 

Sanuk!

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I’m sorry and I realize we are suppose to be nice around here, but to me, it those just look like excuses that are laying blame on others, in this case, Thai people in general not being able to produce enough “good†programmers.

 

You have already acknowledged that there are “good†Thai programmers but say they are in such short supply that they get to choose who they work for and they have not chosen your company. Instead of blaming Thais in general for that, isn’t there actually a reason those “good†Thai programmers don’t choose your company and not fixing those reasons will eventually cause your company to disappear.

 

Again, that is the free market at work which you don’t seem to want to understand.

 

What I hear you saying is your company is too cheap and/or narrow/small minded to make it attractive for “good†programmers to come work for them. Has little to do with Thai people in general only specifically your management/owners.

 

TH

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Hi,

 

"What I hear you saying is your company is too cheap and/or narrow/small minded to make it attractive for “good” programmers to come work for them."

 

Hardly. We are a small company and most of the good programmers prefer working for large companies with plenty of room for career advancement (which of course is fair enough), which is hard in a company with few staff. This makes our company unattractive. Add to that that we could not afford to pay 3-4 times the going rate to attact the people we'd want and it is hardly easy to find people.

 

The amount of good progammers is also very small. I've dealt with 100+ progammers here in Thailand (employed, working with on projects, interviews, etc) and out of those there were perhap 1-2 who I'd consider good programmers. The vast majority are very, very bad making mistakes that would have gotten me a severe bollocking when studying computer science (yet they have bachelor degrees nevertheless).

 

At what point does it become a problem of supply rather than willingness to pay? When you need to pay double the average rate? Five times? Ten times?

 

Understand that I do not disagree with your statement on free market, but there comes a point where paying more just isn't an option.

 

Sanuk!

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