The author is right that the firms are not selling enough and often they are too picky, have unreasonable slow and effortful hiring process with many stages of which some don't test the engineer but rather humiliate the person.
I am running a tech recruitment agency and this month I had TWO engineers who refused to take offers because the companies (two different ones) basically grilled them too much in the processes and showed off an insufficient company culture. I know both firms rather well and their environment is actually good. Seems like firms who aren't yet having a brand name like Google but who are sufficiently good tend to be arrogant enough to scare of engineers but not good enough to make them accept an offer.
The arrogance of some firms might seem irrational but it can be explained by "catastrophe avoidance". Most of the time, hiring a bad engineer is really much much worse than rejecting a good candidate - that is especially true in Europe, where it is hard to fire people. Also, every job description is a set of tasks that is supposed to be done by a person who'd better be REPLACEABLE. If you wait sufficiently long, YOU WILL FIND SOMEONE ELSE WHO FITS ALSO OR BETTER. Due to the nature of the employer-employee relationship, firms will still be "the ones on top".
I am running a tech recruitment agency and this month I had TWO engineers who refused to take offers because the companies (two different ones) basically grilled them too much in the processes and showed off an insufficient company culture. I know both firms rather well and their environment is actually good. Seems like firms who aren't yet having a brand name like Google but who are sufficiently good tend to be arrogant enough to scare of engineers but not good enough to make them accept an offer.
The arrogance of some firms might seem irrational but it can be explained by "catastrophe avoidance". Most of the time, hiring a bad engineer is really much much worse than rejecting a good candidate - that is especially true in Europe, where it is hard to fire people. Also, every job description is a set of tasks that is supposed to be done by a person who'd better be REPLACEABLE. If you wait sufficiently long, YOU WILL FIND SOMEONE ELSE WHO FITS ALSO OR BETTER. Due to the nature of the employer-employee relationship, firms will still be "the ones on top".