Would you really expect more? This test isn't a test for college grads- its a test for high school seniors to get them out of 1-2 semesters of bottom level CS courses, by proving they already know the basics. The point isn't to trick them or to expect them to know everything, its to see if they can save some time/money on intro level topics.

Different people do well in different environments. I've been where everyone had offices. It sucked. Complete lack of human interaction, very few work friendships, and a high bar to actual collaboration. I found it a depressing environment. I work in an open environment now. Once in a long while I'll have trouble concentrating due to noise. But that loss in productivity is absolutely crushed by the gains due to just being able to talk to people. And crushed by the increased productivity I have due to higher morale and more fun at work. I'd run away from any environment with offices.

No, design by committee fails because no matter how good the people are at their job, as you increase the number of people involved differences in opinion and politics magnify. Design by committee fails even if you have the best and brightest on the committee.

You're unlikely to simply accept a sub-par solution, because you've got a couple other programmers to readily suggest solutions you haven't thought of yet.

Absolutely wrong. If this was right, "design by comittee" wouldn't be a synonym for utterly fucked up. And the bigger the group, the more likely you are to just pick something to get the fights over with.

They don't. That's why nobody does pair programming in the real world. You might do a "hey can you look at this" and work together for 15-20 minutes once or twice a month, but that's about it.

If you want me to take less money, you need to provide additional value elsewhere. Better environment, equity, bonuses, vacation days, work/life balance, etc. If you don't why should I work for you over taking the money? If you do, you need to sell that.

But having positions open for 2 months, especially if you're looking for experienced developers, isn't uncommon- in fact if you were filling most of your positions in 2 months you'd be amazingly good at recruiting. Good developers are hard to find- that's why they're expensive. Decide what's more important to you- the value that having the role filled will bring the business, or the cost of actually making your offers competitive. If the second brings more value, up your offers.

Before going off on rants like this, I'd study what two factor authentication actually means. Hint: the idiotic idea I was responding to isn't even close.

ANd if they want to use their account on multiple devices? On their actual PC? On a PC at a firend's house or library?

And email recovery- laughable. If they lost their phone, which was almost definitely logged into their email, then they've lost everything.

Please name your apps, so I can be sure never to use them.

Not just interviewing, unionizing. If I was told me and my coworkers were being fired in 90 days and were to train our replacements, I'd gather up my coworkers and tell them we want a year's salary as a bonus now or we all walk that afternoon. Especially if they later try to pull this shit- I'd be demanding huge raises/bonuses to stick around for any time at all.

I graduated in 2001. My starting salary was 70K. I don't know anyone who started at less than 50.

There's dozens of unencumbered languages. C and C++ for a start. That isn't even remotely a problem.

That's a good point. And in reality no place is 100% safe- secondary effects happen, and it will cut down open jobs as the job market has more supply than it can handle for a while. Even safer jobs will see less money as raises slow or stop due to market conditions.

Another good area would be boring old line of business apps for established non-tech companies. Unless of course I'm wrong about where the bubble is forming, in which case this could be totally off.

I've avoided being the Peter one so far, one of the reasons why I'm still a coder and not a manager :)

First off, a television programmer isn't a computer programmer. (Normally television programmer means picking whats on TV, unless you mean you were a computer programmer for a TV station). Different fields, so I have no idea what your realistic expectations are.

But when they asked you to quit if you didn't like it, you should have. On the spot, no notice given, right then. "Then I quit" and walk right out the door. Odds are good you'd have the job back paying a lot more in 3 days. If not, either they'll grow to really regret you leaving or you'll find out you weren't really that good. But either way accepting that treatment is the worst thing you could do- now they know you're a doormat and will show you absolutely 0 respect.

As for a town with 10% unemployment- general unemployment means jack shit for specialized jobs. Unemployment for software engineers has been sub 2% (basically normal frictional unemployment from job switching) for years and in some areas is negative. So that's fear and ignorance talking. Not to mention even if it was that bad you can always move. It doesn't take that much (a cross-country move can be done for 5K) and most companies will pay to relocate you.

90K is a lot of money in even most big cities. I made 90K for a few years in Seattle. I had my car (paid off), a downtown condo (not paid off), my utilities paid and was still saving 20K a year. With a family I'd have been living in the suburbs and paying half the housing cost. Re-evaluate your spending. The only place it would be even remotely tight would be San Francisco or New York- and even then its quite managable. Not to mention those are entry level wages for programmers in either city. Nor is 90K anywhere near the top of the scale in Seattle- good senior programmers there make at least 120.