I'm a Nashville-based software developer, so maybe I can lend some color to parent's comment.
Parent may be speaking about the Nashville Software School[1]. Very recently it has been turning out some great talent in the 0-2 yrs of experience range.
The rest of this post is pure anecdote from the perspective of someone that has hired tech workers in Nashville, both full time and contract.
We seem to have a decent (but not enough, never enough) supply of junior devs (0-2 yrs experience). Really experienced talent seems more elusive. I believe that it's here, I just think most of it is employed already.
Additionally, the tech scene here is a little strange. There's an ever expanding pool of web folks (e.g., Rails, Node, etc) and a surprising amount of more Enterprise experienced developers (e.g, C#, Java) that arose as result of all the HealthTech hiring that's been going on the last several years. So veteran (e.g., 7+ years) software developers I've encountered seem to skew toward Enterprise.
There's some startup activity here[2], and we're seeing some larger non-healthcare outfits set up shop in Nashville (e.g., Warby Parker, Lonely Planet). The technology scene here is really starting to come together, but it's by no means a Silicon Valley, NYC, Boston, or even Austin yet, really. It's getting there, but we're still a ways from seeing Music Row's inevitable transformation into Silicon Row ;)
Interesting, thanks. I was working for a healthcare startup (almost but not entirely a contradiction in terms) that was painfully, painfully enterprisey, so that certainly could have been part of our experience.
We weren't looking for juniors, either, which complicated things.
They still are, honestly. 'Good ole boy' healthcare companies abound. So, lots of cruft to view if you are looking for a gig. However, there are some excellent software shops in town doing things 'the better way'.
I hated the cruft enough to build my own private company.
A local (Springfield, MA area) entrepreneur started this non-profit http://thetechfoundry.org when he couldn't find enough people to hire (more sysadmin/IT Pro then dev, but still interesting)
