[Haskell-cafe] Employment

[Creighton Hogg]

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Paul Johnson <paul at cogito.org.uk> wrote:
> Tom Hawkins wrote:
>>
>>  Such a database would help me counter by boss's
>> argument that "it's impossible to find and hire Haskell programmers."
>>
>>
>
> There was a thread last week where someone asked who would be interested in
> a hypothetical Haskell job.  He got about 20 positive responses.  This
> agrees with the experience of Microsoft Research in 2006 when they
> advertised for a third person to help with GHC development.   They also had
> about 20 applicants.
>
> So next time I hear the "you can't get the programmers" line I'm going to
> respond with something like this:
>
>   "If you post an advert for a Haskell developer you will get 20
>   applicants.  All of those people will be the kind of developer who
>   learns new programming languages to improve their own abilities and
>   stretch themselves, because nobody yet learns Haskell just to get a job.
>
>   "If you post an advert for a Java developer you will get 200
>   applicants.  Most of them will be the kind of developer who learned
>   Java because there are lots of Java jobs out there, and as long as
>   they know enough to hold down a job then they see no reason to learn
>   anything."

Also, as an employee, I have to admit that any company that can say it
uses Haskell for even part of its codebase immediately goes up in my
esteem & puts it on the shortlist for where to send my resume.  The
same way that programmers knowing Haskell implies a certain interest
in CS beyond "I want ma money", an employer using Haskell implies
technically interesting software & a stronger commitment to quality
over expediency.