Why some tech workers leaving Silicon Valley are changing jobs

Small-town tech companies are starting to see an increase in applications from applicants living in San Francisco and New York – regions that have long mastered tech talent.

Deepinder Singh, founder of a startup based in Bloomington, Minnesota, never bothered to try to recruit tech workers from Silicon Valley. They were overpriced and didn’t want to move. In seven years, he had never gotten a candidate from a major tech company.

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But since May, more than a dozen people on both coasts have applied for jobs at his company, 75F Inc., which makes energy-efficient HVAC control systems connected to the Internet. A resume was from Facebook Inc .; another came from Twitter Inc. The 130-employee company just hired an engineer from Sonos Inc.

He saw the other way around – employees leaving for Google and Tesla – but, he said, “we’ve never seen that.”

Teleprinter	security	Latest	Change	Change%
FB	FACEBOOK INC.	269.70	-3.24	-1.19%
TWTR	TWITTER INC.	44.68	+1.06	+ 2.43%
GOOGL	ALPHABET INC.	1,736.38	-22.19	-1.26%
TSLA	TESLA INC.	489.61	-9.66	-1.93%

For years, top tech workers have been drawn to Silicon Valley, willing to endure sky-high house prices and long commutes to benefit from the skills and experience of their colleagues, as well as largesse from employers and investors. The result, a culture of entrepreneurship and inspiration, was hard to match elsewhere.

But the era of remote working ushered in by the coronavirus pandemic is disrupting not only where tech workers want to live and how much money they can make, but also the kinds of opportunities they’re willing to take. consider.

Leaders of tech startups, including Jane LLC in Lehi, Utah; World View Enterprises Inc. in Tucson, Arizona; Starkey Hearing Technologies in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and Zebra in Austin, Texas, say they are seeing an increase in the number of applicants from San Francisco and, in some cases, New York.

Since May, the nonprofit One America Works has launched four virtual fairs for employers based in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio. Of the more than 3,800 job seekers, about 25% were from California and 9% from New York.

It goes both ways: Tech giants are hiring workers from small tech companies in places like Boise, Idaho. Yet even if only a small percentage of big tech employees quit their current jobs and move across the United States, economists say the dispersion of talent could significantly affect companies, their home towns and cities. even the flow of venture capital funding.

“These companies are recruiting,” said Guy Berger, senior economist at LinkedIn. Covid-19 “has really given entrepreneurship and these small businesses a boost to really ramp up,” he said, citing the sudden change in the types of goods and services that customers are demanding now.

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Mr. Singh, the founder of 75F, believes that employees of Silicon Valley startups tend to have a wide range of skills. He said they usually didn’t need as much management and could be willing to work crazy hours to launch a product. He said some people in the Midwest weren’t as exposed to this kind of work culture, and a mix might be a good thing.

But a concern hangs over him as he plans to interview candidates from Facebook and Twitter: “I don’t even know what kind of salary they’re going to be paid or what they’re thinking about.”

Podium Corp., an 800-person startup in Utah, also in Lehi, hired six high-profile people from San Francisco-based companies, including Lyft Inc. and Microsoft Corp.-owned GitHub Inc. over the course of over the past six months, and considered at least 600 applicants from the Bay Area during that time. This is two to three times the volume of typical years. Not all Podium new hires plan to move to Utah.

Teleprinter	security	Latest	Change	% Change
ELEVATOR	LYFT INC.	38.10	-2.01	-5.01%
MSFT	MICROSOFT CORP.	210.39	-2.03	-0.96%

Philip Luedtke was working as a vice president of GitHub when he and his wife decided they wanted to move from the Bay Area to Utah or Washington – likely to keep his job. Then he got a call from Podium.

“This opportunity presented itself,” he said, “to really build and do something new and be in a different culture and environment.” He added: “It pushed us beyond the point of view of where we wanted to move.”

Mr. Luedtke’s offer included what he describes as a substantial set of actions. While it’s not uncommon for startups to drive employees away from large companies thanks to the potential for growth and wealth, these startups are usually not located hundreds of miles away.

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If a startup can go to a venture capitalist and say they’ve recruited several engineers from top Silicon Valley companies, they’re more likely to get funding, economist Ross said. DeVol, who runs Heartland Forward, a nonprofit focused on economic renewal. Not only do these employees bring improved technical skills, but they also understand networking and could potentially start their own businesses, which would lead to more jobs in their new city.

“While the numbers may not be substantial – and I think they will be – a small percentage of that entrepreneurial talent can make a huge difference,” he said.

As to why they are willing to try their luck with less established employers, DeVol highlights the growing interest of employees in mission-driven companies and the belief that they can have a greater impact in less densely populated regions.

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AppHarvest, a Lexington, Ky. Based startup that builds energy efficient indoor farms, recently hired two high-profile employees from the Bay Area and one from New York. Marcella Butler, its new HR Director, was previously Director at Google and was Director of Human Resources at Impossible Foods until September of last year.

Prior to accepting the role at AppHarvest, Ms. Butler was in late-stage recruiting talks with two Bay Area tech companies. While weighing her options, she recalled a friend’s description of Silicon Valley’s “culture of scarcity”. Even though it is one of the richest regions in the world, “there is never enough time, never enough equity, never enough,” she recalls him.

In July, she got rid of her electric car, listed her home in Menlo Park, Calif., And moved east. While Ms. Butler’s pay includes more equity than any other job she envisioned, her base salary represents a cut of over $ 100,000.

“It may seem like my take-home pay is less, but my purchasing power and quality of life is unprecedented. It’s not even a question,” she said. “There is a wealth in life that I did not find there.”