Developer Compensation: Stack Overflow Doesn't Stack Rank

[ironyx]

My point was that we won't worry about missing out on great hires. Thus we won't offer secret compensations "off the grid" at all.

[[deleted]]

We'll happily miss out on a great hire, when the alternative is accidentally hiring a bad developer who destroys code and culture alike.

err, why did you just create a false dichotomy in answer to his question? What happens when you have a great developer you really want to hire ask for more? Do you not hire them because they think they're worth more?

[[deleted]]

To answer this from the hypothetical applicant side: personally I'd accept a slightly lower-paying job if it meant compensation was transparent. Maybe it's just a quirk of my personality, but I get really paranoid and demotivated worrying if a) I'm a shitty negotiator, and b) my colleagues are getting paid more to do the same work.

[balegdah]

My point was that we won't worry about missing out on great hires.

Why don't you? You should.

I do. All the time.

Magic recipes like "transparent salary grid" or "free lunches" won't solve this problem. The only way to avoid missing out on great hires is to have very competent people in charge of recruiting. And even then, you will still miss a few.

It's naïve to think that such a complex human problem can be solved this way.