Kick the .NET programmer
Quick – suppose you need to recruit a particular type of programmer, and you are having trouble finding him or her? Well, how about a bit of guerrilla marketing? How about creating a post on your blog that generates a lot of controversy, and a lot of traffic to your site?
That, in my opinion, is what David Barrett (The CEO of Expensify) did with his classic, taunting troll post Why we don’t hire .NET programmers on his “CEO Friday” blog.
Now, by posting a link to this post, I know I may be generating even more traffic for Expensify. That’s okay. I hope Mr. Barrett finds his programmers, and I hope some programmers find jobs.
I conclude that this post was written in an inflammatory way on purpose for two reasons:
- This post could have easily been written in a way that would have been totally inoffensive. The central points – that Expensify is looking for a particular type of programmer, and that not everyone is cut out to work for a Startup – are not terribly controversial.
- The previous week’s post was titled “The Hunt for Engineers: Expensify and the surprisingly difficult challenge of finding the right people”
(However, I will take Mr. Barrett at his word that he believes .NET experience is a disqualifier, along with the idea that being from the Bay Area is also a likely disqualifier. WTF?)
With this post, Mr. Barrett has generated a lot of traffic to his site. Personally, I’d never even heard of Expensify before, so I guess it worked.
It is true that I was offended by the post, having recently concluded that my best option job-wise at this point is to pursue .NET development work. You see, that’s one reason people choose one technology over another – job opportunities.
I was offended, but not driven to a blind rage. After all, I know I’m not cut out to work at a startup. (I’m also not cut out to work at Microsoft or Google, for what it’s worth).
Also, for years I developed using Delphi, the Rodney Dangerfield of programming languages. If Mr. Barrett doesn’t like .NET, he’d hate Delphi. The classic Win32 versions of Delphi made it incredibly easy to develop applications – easier than .NET really. If programming in .NET is (as Mr. Barrett says) like working at McDonalds, then Delphi programming is like working at Burger King.
Now, on the other hand, in my so-called career, I’ve used a wide variety of technologies. In spite of Microsoft’s dominance in the small-business area where I’ve made my living, I also found time and advantage to using open source technologies. It’s true I can’t program in assembler, and I know just enough C to shoot myself in the foot (and enough C++ to…. Well, you know…) but on the job I’ve had to work with Perl, PHP, & Java, and shell scripting. I’ve used MYSQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLlite in addition to Microsoft’s SQL Server.
I’ve setup and administered *nix boxes and know a fair bit about configuring all these services as well as Apache & Tomcat (and Postfix). In Mr. Barrett’s world, I’d be the idiot little brother to his genius programmers, but – to the people who need me - I’m a useful guy to have around.
I just think it suited Mr. Barrett’s purposes to “kick the dog” to draw attention to his recruiting drive and his product. All I can do is pledge never to use or recommend “Expensify”.
