[kaiwenwang]

I feel like very good isn't enough as employers want the best candidates but not the average candidates, and if you're sort of in the middle then the so-so companies don't want you either because they think you'll leave.

Something about the increased social stratification of our times, which also has to do with increased transportation and communication.

Might also depend on your locale. Plumber in Germany might be better than SWE in Texas.

[chr15m]

Hiring is not a zero sum game (growth of the company/economy through good hiring means more positions are created). I've hired software developers before and what I was looking for was somebody who commits code that works and is good quality. I don't care about their ranking on some imaginary programmer hierarchy. You probably don't want to work at a company where they do.

[raddan]

Not to mention that motivated humans are amazing learning machines. The supposed trend of replacing entry-level programmers with AI is pure insanity. Sure, code of indeterminate quality (let’s assume for a moment that it is good) will get written. But a company is its people, and you are shutting the door to new ideas. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the neophyte, who was maybe considered a bit of a dope after they were hired, in their second or third year stumble on a great idea that energizes everybody. People can change. A good organization recognizes this and nurtures them so that both change for the better.

[kaiwenwang]

No, not a fan of Leetcode either, nor imaginary measures of social prestige.

We may not necessarily disagree with any of each other's points, but lack of mutual context and having different lived experience makes our words have different meaning.

[hiAndrewQuinn]

>employers want the best candidates but not the average candidates,

This is just flatly false. Employers want candidates at all ability levels given a competitive price.

You can be pretty bad at your job and still have a steady stream of work if you're cheap, for example. The Hacker News crowd loves to poop on these guys because we are almost by definition a quasi-professional platform, but we are far from the median take on this.

>Might also depend on your locale. Plumber in Germany might be better than SWE in Texas.

If you truly believe this, and think the difference is substantial, make a 5 year plan and move to Germany. Talk is cheap.

[kaiwenwang]

Added you on LinkedIn if you'd like to chat about your experiences moving to Finland. Yes, I might've been too non-specific with my wording. My communication style tends to link disparate topics together, which seems too hyperbole when people read into the words themselves.