The Desperate State of NYC Tech Recruiting

A rather notorious New York venture capitalist asked me to come by his office a few weeks ago but wouldn’t tell me the agenda for the meeting. I’m by no means looking for a job, any job, as I am pretty comfortable sitting on my ass making dumb shit all day. This guy’s reputation proceeded him so I said why the hell not hear what he had to say. Blah blah blah two hours later and I’m being propositioned for a position as a staff programmer in a language I don’t even know. I’m not a programmer. I can put some together with code and make it work, but I’m the last guy you want to hire to be a “programmer.” They were adamant that they would send me to a school to learn said language and when I was done I’d start immediately on their product.

Then the real pitch came…the guy says to me “look around, you could have all this” as he pointed at a flat panel tv and an xbox 360. “We even have a segway in the lobby and take company field trips sometimes.” Do people still go into offices and go “OH MY GOD THIS PLACE HAS A PING PONG TABLE!!! I AM IN HEAVEN!!!!”? I mean seriously is this how people are hiring at startups in New York or was this a particularly sad example?