Doesn’t matter. We turn mediocre generalists into skilled specialists with niche knowledge of different domains within a year. And because the things we teach them don’t have much application outside the company they are very loyal.
Talented people with social activism fantasies are overrated. They can’t always be trusted to simply do what you tell them. They think their talents give them leverage, and that if they see anything they deem improper, they have a responsibility to resist it.
Frankly this sounds like a total disaster of a company.
I don’t want to work with mediocre people who end up stuck in jobs they hate.
Real talent does give people leverage.
What you’re describing is not talent - it’s dubious/ exploitative/desperate management practices combined with a funnel of people who don’t know better.
Literally no genuinely talented engineer would stay in a job like the one you describe - it just wouldn’t make sense. Skills especially are very fungible. I can apply to work at Google tomorrow without knowing their tech stack at all, get an offer, and pull down $500k+ a year.
So from what you've said, your company teaches their employees to be worthless in the job marketplace, thus having lower earning potential.
But also your firm engages in practices that could be viewed as morally dubious that HR activily screens out people that might have any kind of social media presence. Which sounds like a fear of whistleblowers more than anything.
"They can’t always be trusted to simply do what you tell them."
Talented people with social activism fantasies are overrated. They can’t always be trusted to simply do what you tell them. They think their talents give them leverage, and that if they see anything they deem improper, they have a responsibility to resist it.