If you cannot fill a technical role, the problem may not be your pay or your posting.
Three problems that get treated as one
People apply and none of them are suitable. That is a screening problem, and it usually means the posting describes something different from the job.
Suitable people apply and decline your offer. That is a compensation or a company problem, uncomfortable and fixable.
Nobody applies at all. That is a supply problem, and no amount of rewriting the posting will change it.
The third is misdiagnosed most often, because it looks like the first two from inside.
Nobody applied
I needed database administrators and I could not find them anywhere in the United States.
That surprised me. I assumed database administrators existed in a country this size, and that finding them was a matter of looking properly.
Nobody was putting in an application. Not unsuitable applications. None.
So I started looking at sponsored hires from outside the country. My boss did most of the work setting the program up and managed it. I found the people.
None of that was about cost. I was not seeking cheaper labor and there was no policy telling me to do it. I had roles I could not fill and a domestic market producing no candidates.
The sponsorship sequence, step by step
The employer petitions, not the worker, and that is the first thing most people get wrong.
The main route for specialty roles requires the company to file on behalf of a specific person for a specific job, typically requiring at least a bachelor’s degree in a related field.
Most positions fall under an annual cap, which means a lottery. Registration happens during a window each spring, and if registrations exceed the cap, selection is by draw.
After selection comes a certified labor condition application, then the petition, then consular processing for many applicants.
Every step has a fee and a waiting period, and the lottery sits in the middle of it. You can do everything correctly and simply not be selected.
Everything about it has changed since
Enough that anyone using my experience as a guide would be badly out of date.
Selection is no longer a straight draw. It is weighted by wage level, which favors higher-paying positions and disadvantages smaller employers competing for the same people.
A separate six-figure payment applies to certain petitions for workers currently abroad, introduced in late 2025. Expedited processing costs more. Automatic work-authorization extensions were eliminated and site visits expanded.
Verify the current rules before acting on any of it, because this area changes faster than almost anything else in hiring.
Ten thousand dollars and up, before anyone works
That is a fair planning figure for a typical employer, counting government fees and legal help. Smaller employers pay somewhat less, since some fees are reduced or waived below a certain headcount.
Somewhat less is still five figures, which is the band a company with forty people is planning against. Then add the possibility that the lottery does not select you, in which case the money bought you a place in next year’s draw.
Half is a good hit rate
Two of the people I sponsored worked out well. One later left and started his own company. Another stayed for many years and moved on to a new company where he is doing well.
The other two did not work out.
Nobody says half out loud, because every article about hiring implies a good process approaches certainty, and mine across thirty-three years is roughly half.
What I will not do is explain why the two did not work out, because I do not know with any confidence. The reasons a hire fails are usually specific and unglamorous, and the manager rarely has the full picture.
The number that matters is the one nobody prints. An expensive, slow, legally involved process produced the same odds as ordinary hiring.
Count the applications first
Count the applications before spending money on anything. Suitable candidates declining means compensation or the role. Unsuitable candidates means the posting. An empty inbox means the people do not exist in your market.
For a supply problem the options are sponsor, contract, or grow it internally over a year or more. None is easy, and the shortage is not going to resolve. Specialists take years to make and nobody is making them.
The full article is on my site: https://thewritingking.com/the-specialist-shortage/. It runs longer, carries the diagrams, and answers the questions readers ask most.
These are AI-made summaries of longer articles on my site, written with AI assistance from my own interviews and my own career. Nothing goes out that I have not read and approved.