Here's the other bottom line: A company wants to use your industry and creativity to make more money than it will give to you. You don't owe the company jack. shit.
I agree with your bottom line as well. Both are true! It's a negotiation, and it isn't zero-sum. Working is good for both the employee and the company. Neither is in a universally stronger negotiating position.
I'm not annoyed by bad interview processes and strong preference for false-negatives, I'm annoyed by that in conjunction with the claim that there is a shortage of competent workers. There is some lower-hanging fruit to take care of before that claim makes sense, and improving recruiting processes is among the lowest hanging (along with raising wages, obviously).
> Here's the other bottom line: A company wants to use your industry and creativity to make more money than it will give to you. You don't owe the company jack. shit.
Unfortunately, unless the sides are favored to the labor market (in our cases it is not, and even if it was, there is always outsourcing), this equation is not equal.
Both are true, but it is an extremely unbalanced equation. At the end of the day, the company has the money and you have the skills. Unfortunately only one of those helps you pay the bills -- unless you can figure out a way to pay your rent in exchange for your skills.
This is not true for the industry we're talking about (or at least not as true as you seem to think). It really is in companies' best interest to be attractive to skilled workers in this industry and there really is a chance they will find themselves struggling if they get the wrong reputation. It seems (to me) like this is a major undercurrent in IBM's struggles, for instance (and outsourcing has not been a silver bullet). Thinking the balance is more skewed than it actually is is one of the things that skews the balance.
I agree with your bottom line as well. Both are true! It's a negotiation, and it isn't zero-sum. Working is good for both the employee and the company. Neither is in a universally stronger negotiating position.
I'm not annoyed by bad interview processes and strong preference for false-negatives, I'm annoyed by that in conjunction with the claim that there is a shortage of competent workers. There is some lower-hanging fruit to take care of before that claim makes sense, and improving recruiting processes is among the lowest hanging (along with raising wages, obviously).