Austin tech firms head to California to recruit talent (San Diego: credit, home)

[achtungpv]

Originally Posted by mrsengle

People keep saying that the tech shortage is an Austin problem, but I think it's everywhere: Engineers wanted: The war for tech talent - Mar. 7, 2011

Few American kids want to major in science, technology, engineering, or math and we're starting to reap the consequences.

[mrsengle]

Originally Posted by achtungpv

Few American kids want to major in science, technology, engineering, or math and we're starting to reap the consequences.

I guess I'm a little out of touch with teenagers these days. What makes you say that?

[HappyTexan]

And those already in the industry in the larger firms have to look over their shoulders every quarter as jobs get offshored and the US employee gets layed off.

It's turned into a dicey industry with the hoards of CS graduates in India, China, Brazil, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. all willing to work at a much lower salary.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by mrsengle

I guess I'm a little out of touch with teenagers these days. What makes you say that?

On an international level, US Math scores are getting lower each year.
I believe we are now #36 in Math skills.

[mrsengle]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

On an international level, US Math scores are getting lower each year.
I believe we are now #36 in Math skills.

I'm not debating that statistic, but I wondered how they come up with that. I should look that up.

[mimimomx3]

In Austin, we’ve fallen into a trap of fighting over existing talent, especially in engineering, programming and software development roles,” said Rod Favaron, serial Austin entrepreneur, and presently CEO

I think what he means is that he's tired of paying top dollar for tech talent, and needs a bigger supply to drive down costs.

[XLadylawX]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

I think what he means is that he's tired of paying top dollar for tech talent, and needs a bigger supply to drive down costs.

If he's looking to drive down costs he's not helping himself by going to the one place that has done pretty well during this recession. Silicon Valley is in relatively good shape even compared to Austin.

Talent from there will not come cheap.

[colombiunpride]

I just graduated from Georgia Tech in Atlanta and it's up there with MIT and Stanford in regards to Computer Science.

If it helps, I'll mention what has worked for me.

I suggest custom writing a resume for each job you apply to.
I literally take the job description and put it in my resume. (Provided that I actually have the relevant experience). Recruiters go through hundreds of resumes and literally scan them for matching words. I can't get over how many people come up with a general resume, and send it out to every Tech/Engineering position they encounter.

Also, set up a wordpress site with a template. Buy your own domain and list all your portfolio projects. It works wonders on resume responses.
http://www.fernandoarias.me/

Being out of state wasn't an issue for any of the companies that actually responded to my resume. If they are a big enough firm they will hire anyone in the US that
is qualified and willing to relocate.

They actually look at UT Austin (in the Top 10 for engineering), as well as other top engineering programs across the country. I know, because I always ask
It just happens to be that a lot of engineers out of college tend to get caught up with all the working for Google and Facebook hype. Both are HQ'ed in Cali. So a lot of the fanboys tend to flock there as a first choice without doing research. I actually found Austin as a Tech haven by reading wikipedia. I hope to keep it my little secret.

The current job I'm finalizing interviewing with pays 70K as a entry software developer and it's located in downtown Austin

[colombiunpride]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

And those already in the industry in the larger firms have to look over their shoulders every quarter as jobs get offshored and the US employee gets layed off.

It's turned into a dicey industry with the hoards of CS graduates in India, China, Brazil, Singapore, Vietnam, etc. all willing to work at a much lower salary.

If you're talking about outsourced programing work they tend to be for smaller development projects. (Small Websites, iphone/Android apps, small software applications)

Lot's of web based tech companies do a lot of development in house if they drive over 100K users a month, or if they have software applications that are their core product and consist over a few thousand lines of code.

[colombiunpride]

Originally Posted by Tycho Brahe

As someone that cannot find a tech job in Austin, I find the article almost humorous.

I have a stellar resume, but once companies see my out-of-state address, my resume gets trashed immediately. I keep track of hits on various websites I own, and there is virtually no traffic from Austin. Few companies took the time to even search for my name. I had more unique visitors on my blog from Prague in the past month than I did from Austin.

Ironically, I have several open invitations from California companies that sought me out for a position. They all say "a plane ticket is ready whenever you want it". I do have a few first round interviews with Austin companies and one request to fly me in, but I have been so soured by the experience that I am ready to give up and go to California.

Hi Tycho,

What part of the software industry are you in? Web Development, Firmware/Embedded, Windows Applications, Mobile Development?

I can probably send you a few links for jobs I didn't apply to because I wasn't a good match for.