Snatching up talents in Silicon Valley is fierce

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Snatching up talents in Silicon Valley is fierce

By Han Shasha (People's Daily Online) 16:23, August 29, 2013

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With robust innovation and active entrepreneurial spirit, Silicon Valley is considered as a shrine for many dream seekers, and therefore becomes a hot job market in the world. Battling for talents among companies in the valley and abroad is fierce.

"Personnel flow is the driving force of innovation, which makes it the Silicon Valley," Tom Zhang, a headhunter with extensive connections in Silicon Valley told the reporter.

He worked at Google and Tencent before joining the Tesla Motors, a nobility that has jumpstarted the auto industry’s movement into electric vehicles. He describes the sharp competitions for valued professionals among companies as a dog-eat-dog war.

Experienced engineers are being offered sky-high salaries. Zhang said that the average salary for a common engineer is at least $100,000 per year. Even in entry-level roles, young engineers are commanding jaw-dropping salaries. Seven of the top 10 highest-paid college degrees are in engineering, according to a recent report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. According to Techcrunch, this is especially true in 2013, which will be the first year in which most companies pay top engineering graduates in Silicon Valley $100,000 or more per year in salary. It is not a big issue for those engineers who would like to settle down and have a house in Silicon Valley. In addition to salary, some companies even provide options and stock.

Those companies spend large amount of money in recruiting. Some pay a $3,000 to $5,000 monthly subscription fee for access to recruiter companies’ coder database while others pay recruiter $10,000 per hire.

Jeremy Li now works at a high-tech company in Bay Area. He said that employees’ recommendation is an important way for a company to get fresh blood. If the person you recommend to your company is employed, you may get $5,000-10,000 from your company as recruiting bonus. It’s said that every employee is naturally a headhunter. But there is an invisible rule - if your recommendation fails three times, you may lose your credibility. So they would have a good knowledge about the person rather than make recommendation blindly.

Welfare is another attraction. Google was ranked the number one in Fortune’s 2013 list of "100 Best Companies to Work For." Actually, it’s the fourth time for the company being awarded at the top. Although Todd Carlisle, Director of Staffing at Google said in June that perks such as buses to work, free food and beer, don't play a role in attracting top talent. Twitter and Cisco disagreed saying these things are expected. It has been culture here.

Besides competing with local companies in the Silicon Valley, companies in Silicon Valley have to be wary of foreign companies and organizations. China’s Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, and others are “stealing” engineers from here every year. With growing demand for technology professionals, China’s local industrial parks and other organizations always come to Silicon Valley with favorable policies and lucrative conditions to lure talents back.

China currently is experiencing great changes. More and more Chinese students who study in the United States are more willing to come back. Silicon Valley may be the cradle for tech start-ups, but some foreign-born executives, engineers and scientists are leaving for better opportunities back home, which further aggravates the talent war.

（Editor：YaoChun、Liang Jun）