Re:Fortran
by LordShredda on Monday August 28, 2023 @03:55PM
(#37299608)
Hiring Fortran programmers is risky because there's so few and those that claim to know it might either be exaggerating or simply not good at it. It's not just the language, anyone can learn the syntax. It's making sure that whoever you bring in can actually do the job
Re:Fortran
by TheRealKing on Monday August 28, 2023 @04:51PM
(#37300254)
The "Hiring Fortran programmers is risky" argument is incorrect. This is, in fact, the whole point of Fortran, that anyone as dumb as a rock "would" (not "could" or "might") write performant code. There is currently no other language that can achieve this. Any other language claiming this capability is essentially recreating Fortran (perhaps with a slightly different syntax). Fortran Standard has been pursuing this sole goal for 70 years and has become extremely good at it.
Your argument applies very well to C++, though. But it's not too hard to catch a novice there, either.
That's the thing for these "top-rate" posts, you need to sell the candidates on why they want to take your offer, not some other role they could have. Yes, one option is to "just" pay them a tremendous amount of money, but remember you're competing with the banks who have the same strategy and their whole business is making money. So that would be very expensive.
Instead it makes sense to compete on other considerations. Candidate doesn't like to work in the office? No problem. Stay where you are, work for us remotely. Or maybe they'd like to move their grand parents and extended family to your country? You could make that happen. Or could you? Do you think the US Federal Government will accept "We need to naturalize these sixteen random people, immediately to get one Fortran programmer" ?
And the choice of language is one of those other considerations. To a first approximation nobody is more keen to take your offer because they get to write Fortran.