YOU SAID..."They have a hard time getting the young guys to put in an honest 40 hours per week, even at $100,000+."
We are switching horses in mid topic here..he was talking about qualified candidates...you are talking work ethic.
I have an associate who is a software genius...he can create in 40 hours what most would take 80 to do....he doesnt need to put in long hours..although he does when required.
What I cant understand is why people such as your friend dont contract with the best people they can find as consultants...who not only are efficient...but routinely work over 40 hours per week.
The fact remains that many business types dont want to pay per hour for good engineers what they pay for a good mechanic to do their BMW tuneup.
"...he was talking about qualified candidates ... you are talking about work ethic."
Don't you think "work ethic" is a qualification for a job? In my field it certainly is.
As I said in the earlier post, I don't know with certainty the stated qualifications for their openings, but from many conversations with my father-in-law (a senior partner in a relatively small architectural firm, for those late-comers to the thread) I infer that they want to hire recent graduates from programs with good reputations who finished in the top 10-20% of their class and show promise of excellent skills, creativity, and a willingness to work hard. In other words, they want to hire the same kind of people most of us would want to hire for our organization. And to attract (what they hope is) this kind of person to their firm, they have to pay $100,000+. And, having done so, they have been unpleasantly surprised on more than one occasion.