Silicon Valley firms offer perks to attract talent, InformationTechnologyCrossing finds 16,000 jobs in area.

March 30, 2011

Pasadena, CA – Silicon Valley is in a hiring frenzy with firms offering not just goodies such as iPads but also offering to teach their hires how to start their own businesses.

In a move reminiscent of the dotcom boom to older industry insiders, tech companies are again aggressively swooping up engineers from wherever they can with bigger perks than ever before. Firms are now offering well designed cubicles, shuttle services and meals to get the best talent they can. Sophia Koropeckyj, an economist at Moody's Analytics expects that 148,000 tech jobs will be created nationally by end of 2011.

It’s not just startups who are doing most of the hiring. Google has said that 2011 is going to be its biggest hiring year, although the company did not reveal any numbers. Facebook is growing at an annual rate of 50% in employee size and has moved from Palo Alto to a bigger site in Menlo Park where up to 3,600 people can work. Social-gaming firm, Zynga, is also moving into larger headquarters in San Francisco and has plans for doubling its 1,500 person firm next year. Twitter and Skype also plan on expanding this year.

The demand is not just for computer science majors but those having specialized skills in social media, data crunching, and data analysis. Salaries are also shooting up. Google is now offering computer science majors fresh out of college $90,000 to $105,000. The industry average is $80,000. Keith Rabois, CEO of Square, has said that the competition to get top talent in Silicon Valley is now more furious than college football recruiting of high school athletes.

Most of the tech firms in Silicon Valley have a lot of job openings available on their websites. This is particularly true of startups that do not have huge funds available to advertise their openings on the usual public job boards. InformationTechnologyCrossing, a job aggregator site, has been able to find around 16,000 tech jobs in Silicon Valley so far directly from employer websites.

Contact:
Roger Croft
Editorial Coordinator
InformationTechnologyCrossing
626-243-1814
rogerc@InformationTechnologyCrossing.com

About InformationTechnologyCrossing:
InformationTechnologyCrossing is part of the Employment Research Institute, one of the most powerful and comprehensive job search institutions dedicated to helping professionals find jobs that will enhance their careers. Employment Research Institute consists of 90+ industry-specific job boards which consolidate every job opening it can find in one convenient location. The website also offers a three-day free trial to new members.