The Skill-Experience-Economy Framework for Strategic Hiring

Software engineers are likely familiar with the CAP theorem, a concept introduced by Eric Brewer. In essence, the CAP theorem posits that distributed databases can have at most 2 of 3 attributes: consistency, availability, or partition tolerance (fault tolerance).

This means you can design a database that is consistent and highly available, but not fault tolerant. Alternatively, you can create a system that’s fault tolerant and highly available, but isn’t always consistent (especially during failure scenarios).

It’s an elegant and intuitive concept that has withstood the test of time in distributed systems theory. No one has yet created a distributed database that fully embodies all three properties simultaneously, though various systems make different trade-offs among these attributes.

The Skill-Experience-Economy Framework #

A similar conceptual framework can be applied when building engineering teams. When seeking to hire engineers, organizations typically need to prioritize candidates who excel in two of these three attributes:

• Being highly Skilled
• Being highly Experienced
• Being economically advantageous ("X" for economy)

I’ll refer to this as the “Skill-Experience-Economy framework for engineering talent.”

Three Archetypal Engineering Profiles #

This framework naturally gives rise to three distinct talent profiles:

• The SE: A highly skilled and experienced engineer who commands premium compensation. These professionals bring both technical excellence and the wisdom of experience, creating exceptional value for organizations.

• The SX: Often early in their career but demonstrating remarkable aptitude, these individuals bring fresh perspective and extraordinary enthusiasm to their work. For them, the right opportunity represents both a meaningful challenge and a significant career advancement.

• The EX: This profile presents challenges in the engineering context. While they may have an impressive resume featuring recognizable institutions and current industry terminology, their technical contributions may not match their presentation skills. Their career advancement often relies more on organizational navigation than technical output. Some may excel in management roles where communication is paramount, but they may struggle to deliver as individual contributors.

Strategic Hiring Considerations #

To frame this practically: organizations can certainly attract professionals who are both highly skilled and deeply experienced, but these individuals rightfully expect competitive compensation. These talented individuals recognize their market value and make career decisions accordingly.

Exceptional engineers (the SE profile) understand probability and market dynamics too well to accept below-market compensation in exchange for equity promises. However, they often do expect meaningful equity positions because they want alignment between their contributions and potential rewards.

Some venture-backed organizations might inadvertently optimize for a blend of SX and EX profiles – hiring either highly talented but less experienced people, or those with impressive credentials but less demonstrated technical capability. This sometimes occurs due to compensation constraints imposed by investors who, while not explicitly setting salary caps, may signal concerns about personnel costs affecting future funding rounds.

Strategic Talent Acquisition #

For job seekers, identifying organizational priorities provides valuable insight. Companies making consistently below-market offers likely extend similar proposals to all candidates, potentially indicating broader talent acquisition challenges. While perks like flexible work arrangements offer genuine value, they complement rather than replace competitive compensation.

Organizations that successfully attract primarily SE-profile engineers create exceptional technical environments, though this represents a challenging achievement given the scarcity of such talent. The dynamics become more complex when organizations mix profiles significantly, particularly when EX-profile individuals occupy leadership positions where they interact with SE talent. These combinations can create cultural friction.

Building a Sustainable Talent Strategy #

For founders committed to building sustainable technical cultures, prioritizing SE talent whenever possible creates long-term advantages that outweigh short-term cost considerations. Importantly, attracting SE talent typically requires already having SE professionals on the team, as these individuals seek environments populated by peers who share their standards and capabilities.

SE professionals also create excellent mentoring relationships with SX talent, helping develop their experience while maintaining high skill standards. However, this mentorship naturally transforms SX talent into SE profiles over time, requiring compensation adjustments to retain them as they evolve.

Finally, it’s important to recognize that the mythical professional embodying all three attributes simultaneously doesn’t exist in practice. Even when organizations temporarily secure SE talent at below-market rates, these arrangements prove unsustainable as market forces eventually correct the imbalance.