The Budget Hire

Ever see the situation where software engineers are amazed that they get hired despite being under-qualified? Well, here's the logic that I have gathered.

Company posts job ad for "Mid-level Software Engineer" or "Software Engineer." The logic behind job titles like this are that it usually implies two things:

• it requires at least 3 years of experience and
• the salary rate is capped at what would only afford a mid-level

The problem with finding someone with 3 years of experience is that, in the entire population of software engineers, most developers have 5+ years of experience and are senior-level. And the rest are entry-level. Finally, you have that small window where developers have 3-4 years of experience. Those software engineers are likely already at a company are working towards their senior-level status. The cost for them to leave that situation would be big and probably require a senior-level status and salary, so basically they'll price themselves above mid-level because the mental cost to transition into a new role is high.

Finally, the only other people that would take those positions are mediocre software engineers that have a hard time holding their senior-status.

So when a company wants a "Software Engineer" or "Mid-level software engineer" they will have a very hard time and eventually they'll have to settle for someone at the junior or entry-level with a glimpse of hope that they'll keep up and meet their requirements because only a junior would accept that budget salary rate.

I'm not saying that being a "budget hire" is bad. It's just something juniors can internalize if they receive an offer that seems to be bigger than what they can handle. They have to realize that lots of software engineers will turn down jobs because it just will not pay enough and companies will be constrained by the budget they are provided.