I'm very interested on the impression and scuttlebutt vs reality here. A few months ago, I swung a dead cat and hired the first three React developers I hit. The whole process took a few weeks. They've been awesome so far.
Few reasons I have come to realist are:
- React devs make more money on freelance gig than full-time jobs.
- Readily available more jobs than candidates on the market. If I offer $X00K/y, there are others who are always ready to pay more as counter offer.
- React landscape is moving faster than any other technologies out there, putting devs who are up to date on the edge.
I have also started training the new hires who were interested. But as the fate will have it, after learning ReactJS and other few things - most developers left for better salary.
The fact is, I am situated in Nepal and can only pay using Nepalese Rupees salary doesn't help much.
Hiring those same people has gone really well, similarly becoming comfortable after a few weeks of working with react
Sadly is a sector problem. Is not about developers is about quality developers.
From C to JS, hard to hire, hard to keep.
My advice is to jump to the university and pick a few persons that usually attend coding dojos/katas. They prove that way their interest and they will be happy to work.
Anyway yeah it’s not surprising it’s not too hard. And if it is just hire good JS developers and train them.