Hiring Elixir programmers vs looking for a job as an Elixir programmer?

[synthslave]

@andre1sk

Well SF and SoCal are def. places with higher concentration of Elixir jobs (if you are OK with the idea of moving back). I’d say attending relevant meetups could be a good way to connect with people for both of your goals.

Thanks @andre1sk Good to know! Yes, there are a few meetups here and there although some costs a few hundred dollars. Seems like a lot just to say hello to people although I imagine that might be a filter?

@svilen

@svilen

Professional development — I’m sure there are some proper definitions of the term, but in practice, it depends on the person. Each one of us has his/her own ideas about his/her future career. It could mean contributing to the Engineering community by doing open source; contributing to non-profit organisations; improving your programming and interpersonal skills… or all of the above. Depends how you see yourself in the future.

As an employer, including things like:

• Variety of projects and/or challenges to work on
• Opportunities to mentor others and be mentored as well
• Contributing to open source projects or non-profit orgs
• Opportunities to “touch” various aspects of the business, not just engineering

Can definitely help (list is not exhaustive).

Thanks @svilen! I appreciate the list. At least it gives me points of reference to expand upon. I especially like the part where you say it depends on the person so would hope to set up a system that was open/flexible in nature to accommodate new ideas in addition to existing ideas.

@peerreynders

[quote=“peerreynders, post:10, topic:12069, full:true”]

@synthslave

Are there certain qualities/indicators to specifically find programmers who are WILLING to learn Elixir?

I have no particular expertise in the matter. However in the process of trying to find people who can become productive as quickly as possible “wasting” time trying to find a reasonable close match to the current requirements can delay work starting. Furthermore over time business needs change anyway so people who can adapt are preferable anyway.

Now I’ve come across anecdotes of people not wanting to invest any time in learning Erlang because they were concerned that they marketability might suffer. I don’t think Elixir has the same problem - I would imagine it’s much easier to find people willing to learn and work with Elixir than to find people with “commercial Elixir experience”. The real challenge is identifying “good programmers”.

FYI:

• Recruiting Software Developers: Language Matters
• The Python Paradox [/quote]
  Thanks for the links and for really opening up my eyes to perhaps focusing moreso on finding “good programmers” as a priority vs those with “commercial Elixir experience”

if I learned more Node.js or dived deeper into html/css would provide a backup for me so that there would be a larger pool of potential employers?

At the risk of being trite and unhelpful: Skills are good, yes. But:

• What are the skills that employers value where you are or where you want to be.
• Over the long haul you have to provide value to others in a way that you can find rewarding. (In the near and short term there are always less than perfect compromises to be made as there are always bills to be paid - but keep an eye on the prize).

Agree with everything you say. My previous career was in real estate so I always had the philosophy of striving to find win/win scenarios where everybody benefited as opposed to it being a zero sum game. I guess what it comes down to is what’s a priority right now since I want to focus on what is best for my startup as opposed to what job market’s needs are although you’ve helped clarity what to think about SHOULD I have to apply for jobs in future.

[quote]
Lets say your prize is to be an “Elixir developer” - but you can’t connect with that right now:

For example, is there a

• RoR shop
• Node.js shop
• Python shop (example)

that may need to scale soon? Can you connect with one of them? Now in the end they may decide to adopt Go instead but at least it buys you some time for that Elixir job to show up somewhere else. [/quote]

Thanks for those insights. Yes, that would be an idea target employer market to go after, those who are looking to scale soon and per your previous post, now know that Ruby would be a good additional language to learn to supplement Elixir. And/or also focus on Node since I’m already familiar with basic JS

our mission statement is to help artists so I would like to think, NO, i would WANT to promote a culture where engineers were allowed to pursue their ART.[quote]

Now if this is your prize things are a bit more challenging. In my experience software development jobs don’t often leave you much time to do your “own thing” - in fact often it is expected to make sacrifices at “crunch time” - which can happen far more often than most people like. [/quote]

Thanks for this value bomb! So if I am fortunate to be in a position to be the employer, I would def try to see if we could provide this type of environment since it would be a unique benefit that no other company has.

So obviously right now you are trying to make a go of it - but if that doesn’t work out are there any businesses that operate at the fringe of your vision and connect with one of them and help them “automate” something?

Thanks again!