Go west young engineer Silicon Valley needs you!

There is an emerging crisis in Silicon Valley - there aren't enough engineers. Companies such as VMware, and the many thousands of Silicon Valley startups, are competing with the well established giants such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Oracle, Symantec, and many others, for engineering talent. I wrote about this issue recently:

Tuesday evening I was at law firm Fenwick & West on a panel with Ann Winblad, one of Silicon Valley's top VCs, and Barry Kramer, a veteran Silicon Valley lawyer, on the topic of venture capital investment trends. It was organized by Bill Lazar.

As always, Ann Winblad was very impressive. During the evening she mentioned VMware, "As much as we all love Dianne Green (CEO of VMware) we have to figure out a way of stopping VMware from hiring all the engineers in the valley."

Top VC Ann Winblad On VMWare Hiring All The Engineers In The Valley Engineers might be in the shortest supply but they are not the only profession in high demand. Ms Winblad said that there is a lot of competition for all types of professions by Silicon Valley companies. This competition for top talent is increasing costs for all Silicon Valley companies. And the fall in the value of the US dollar is helping to fuel demand for US engineers rather than outsourcing engineering to India. Another factor weighing against Indian outsourcing companies is the high turnover in staff, which can sometimes run at more than 100 per cent in some cases. - - - [If you do go west please live in Silicon Valley rather than San Francisco. Right now in SF, we can get a cab and a restaurant table fairly easily, no sense in spoiling things for others. Plus you'll be much closer to work (and greener, which is very attractive if you are single) if you live in the valley.]