Red Hat to hire less experienced engineers, pay less going forward
Red Hat to hire less experienced engineers, pay less going forward
The Linux giant plans to keep a "flat budget" while adding 200 employees... by hiring fewer senior programmers
According to an exclusive report from The Register (who has been doing some excellent work) Red Hat is going to be focusing on hiring less-senior (read: cheaper) engineers going forward.
According to The Register, they were provided a copy of an internal email sent to Red Hat managers by Senior Vice President of Software, Tim Cramer.
That email read, in part:
"All new plan reqs should be opened at a level below senior (e.g., Associate Software Engineer or Software Engineer).”
"While this change allows us to use our budget more effectively, it also helps us balance the organization as we have many engineers with senior titles. We recognize that this will mean we need to plan for training and mentoring, promotions, and internal mobility as well, and we are here to support you in that."
In short: Red Hat doesn’t want to hire engineers with lots of experience. Because they expect to be compensated for that experience.
This is deeply concerning, for many reasons. How will this impact the pay rates across the industry? How will this impact software quality coming out of Red Hat? How will this harm the ability for experienced, quality engineers to find work? What will this do to the working environment at Red Hat? What impact will this have on the larger investment in Linux-related projects that Red Hat has historically driven?
The answer to those questions: “It won’t be great.”
But it gets even worse.
Red Hat won’t just be applying this new “only hire non-senior developers” policy to new roles… but to all current roles whenever anyone leaves.
"All current reqs and future backfills will be down-leveled by one level by default (e.g., Senior Software Engineer to Software Engineer)."
Want even more bad news from the Linux giant?
Check out this quote from that same memo:
“Even with an almost flat budget, we still aim to hire around 200 additional associates next year”
Flat budget + Hire 200 More Employees = Lowered Pay For Lots of People
That’s math. Super, duper sucky math.
This raises lots of questions — and lots of concerns — about the historically significant, Linux powerhouse. Coming in the wake of their acquisition by IBM, and their loss of the longtime CEO (Jim Whitehurst), this does not bode well for the future of Red Hat.
Unfortunately, after reading Robert Crinkley's "The Decline and Fall of IBM" and IBM buying RedHat - this really shouldn't surprise anyone.
I've been part of organizations that went after younger talent but made it clear the Senior staff was expected to mentor and groom the "youngbloods". I have to say, working with younger developers really keeps me on my toes from a transfer of knowledge aspect and just getting to listen to new, different ways to look at problems. It is one thing to be able to do something, it is something else entirely to be able to understand enough to teach someone else how to do it too.
Unfortunately, I don't think that is the goal at RedHat, since they are not planning to keep a minimum number of senior-level positions as they retire, quit or have to be let go. Its just a numbers game - low wages, fewer expenses from a benefits package standpoint (less PTO accrual rates, less medical, etc.).