What developers think when you say "Rock Star"
When you say "rock star" in your job post, you're discouraging the best software developers from contacting you.
When you write, "We're looking for a rock star developer."
A developer sees, "We want to treat a developer like the RIAA treats rock stars."
Using "rock star" in your job post may have communicated a trendy vibe at one point, but those times have passed. Now it communicates a desperate attempt to seem cooler than you really are, a sign that you're too full of yourself, or that you're just naive.
Naivety worries developers the most. To developers, "rock star" communicates that you're not sure what you want. Or rather, you do know what you want, and what you want is a miracle worker. "Rock star" signals that you haven't thought enough about the role this developer will fill, leaving developers with a feeling that they'll be receiving ill-defined requirements, not enough time, or not enough resources to do their job (in addition to being overworked and underpaid).Speaking of overworked and underpaid... there's really only one time "rock star" is appropriate: "We want a rock star developer. We know you're rare, and we'll pay you like a rock star." Sadly, this isn't usually the case. Here's how software engineers are paid in relation to rock star software engineers [1, 2].
Now here's how musicians are paid in relation to real rock stars [3, 4].
So next time you're thinking about saying rock star, ninja, guru, etc in your job post, consider it a sign that you have more thinking to do about your hiring requirements. Here are a few questions and trade-offs you should consider answering with your job post:
- Do you want a specialist or a generalist?
- If you want extraordinary people, can you compensate them extraordinarily or provide an extraordinary environment?
- Do you want a technical person who cares more about the business/market challenges or do you want someone who cares more about the technical challenges?
- Do you want someone who prefers quick, practical, "good enough" solutions or do you want someone who prefers to take their time and do things more maintainably or scalably?
- Do you want a feature developer or a maintainer?
- Do you want a risk taker?
Let us know in the comments If you have any more high-level questions you like to have answered before you post a job description.
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Notes
[1] Simply Hired salary estimates for software engineer[2] Simply Hired salary estimates for rock star software engineer
[3] Simply Hired salary estimates for musician
[4] Average salary for the top 10 best paid music stars. But wait, those are only the top 10 musicians! Yes, exactly. Rockstars are stars because they're scarce, and because they're the best.
Also, an associated queston on Hacker News a few months back was very helpful. Thanks for all the comments there today also.
60 comments
I'm definitely going to add your list of questions/trade-offs to my interview questions to ask perspective employers.
The difference is more then 1622%
@Chris Thompson - Great advice. Awesome example too.
@sschuermann - Exactly. It's even worse if your company uses headhunters.
@Colby - Hah rock stars would make awful developers. Unless you like your developers to come in drunk or high.
@McQuade - they make even more if they're a super violent movie!
You're completely ignorant of real developer jobs if you think anyone in civilization (rock star or not) takes that kind of lowball pay since the dot-com bust.
And live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars
The girls come easy and the drugs come cheap
We'll all stay skinny 'cause we just won't eat
And we'll hang out in the coolest bars
In the VIP with the movie stars
Every good gold digger's
Gonna wind up there
Every Playboy bunny
With her bleach blond hair
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar
Hey hey I wanna be a rockstar
@Allan - Thanks for the kind words. I hope it helps.
@simoncpu - Oh Nickelback, I know you were really talking about software engineers in that song :-)
@Grumpy Brit - Thanks for the perspective. Know of any "rock star" equivalents in non-US job descriptions?
As a developer looking at job posts, this was a quick keyword I could filter for jobs I /did not want/. The more times it gets brought up as a red flag that
"rockstar jobs" aren't "good jobs", the less often people will call them that. Hence, the likelier it is that bad jobs will go unlabeled. A useful negative buzzword is helpful, sometimes. Think of tells in poker.
I'm hoping that by getting companies to think a bit more about their hiring requirements, it will make the job search better for developers.
As a developer, I want to thank you for posting this. I believe your comments are spot on.
As someone who used to be heavily involved (and is still involved, to an extent) with the music industry, I'm backing you up - most of a band's money does come from merchandise and ticket sales.
Recently, an indie artist I know mentioned that he only sees $1 from every $10 spent on recorded music. Unless you're financing the recordings yourself (which is still relatively tough to do, especially so if you're used to having a big budget - instead of cutting tracks in your home studio) - there's still a minimal return on your efforts.
Most people that use the term 'rockstar' or 'ninja' loosely tend to be super non-technical people who do not realize how much time and effort are spent on these mind-racking problems and assume that through the developer's magical powers, everything comes into place.
Although I enjoy my fair share of fantasy novels, the only way to hire amazing developers is to pay them what they're actually worth and to provide them the best, most flexible, super creative and if possible, most fun environment ever so they will want to join and not ever want to ever leave.
Great examples include Google or Twitter: surround your coworkers with other genius coworkers and also add a dash of awesome to get the brain juices flowing. It's as simple as that.
However, I currently make more in the bay area.
@ladyfox14 "Although I enjoy my fair share of fantasy novels" - Too funny. Great examples of how to motivate people.
@John - You're right. I think these figures are so low because they're averages.
@interviewstreet - Thanks! Your product looks great.
@keith r. - as long as you can get work done :-/
Saying "rock star" not only means you are probably an ass, but that you are also too lazy to put real thought into what you need and who you want to hire. If you care so much about finding and working with great talent, then act like it - put time into a real job description, an easy explanation of your culture/values/vision, and make the package attractive. Oh, and realize that anyone who might even loosely be considered a rock star is already employed and kicking ass. So, you don't find them with cheesy posts on your crappy company blog or by tweeting about it all the time. You want to get the best possible, you better identify those people and actively pursue them.
@sandman_a - great points. What are some distinguishing cultural things a company should list in their post? Everyone lists "we have a great team", but that often says so little.
Right, everyone says they have a great team of super awesome people. They reference the silly stuff like foosball tables or free cokes, but they often don't do a good job of making it clear what the company, and co-founder's, values really are. Is it a place that wants to make everything sound cool or that actually IS cool? Is it a place that says it has lots of fun or does it really value its employees and their work (and life) satisfaction? I could go on forever...
I know it is tough to do, but you can tell when it is fake. Just be yourself...as a founder, as a hiring manager, as a company. Make it clear that you compensate fairly, fairly enough that compensation is never a reason for concern, that you want people to do great work and you will give them the environment to do so (tools, right office space, actual autonomy, easy processes to follow), and that you believe the work has meaning (that the company has a real purpose, that employees are part of that purpose, and that everyone works towards it whether building product or volunteering or whatever it might be). If you do this right, you just need to add a bit in about specifics for a particular job, like whether it is a Ruby or PHP shop, and you will be in great shape. Heck, if you do a really good job of capturing the work culture, good candidates will find you.
