Late this January, some 75,000 people around
the planet sat in front of their computers and pondered how to make anagrams
from a bowl of alphabet soup. They were participants in the Hacker Cup, an
international programming battle that Facebook organized to help it find the
brightest young software engineers before competitors like Google do. After
three more rounds of brain teasers, Facebook will fly the top 25 coders to its
head office in Menlo Park, for an adrenaline-soaked finale this March that will
award the champion $5,000. In return, Facebook gets a shot at hiring the stars
discovered along the way.
"I'm in an all-out land grab for talent," says
Jocelyn Goldfein, Facebook's director of engineering and most senior woman on
its technical staff. The Social Network builds almost all of its own software,
and young, smart coders are the company's most critical asset as it manages the
comments, photos, and "likes" of more than 800 million users. Google and many
other companies are chasing the same code slingers as Facebook, causing salaries
to shoot up. Average salaries for technology professionals in Silicon Valley
rose 5.2 percent in 2011 to break the $100,000 barrier, while pay rose just 2
percent nationally, according to a recent salary survey. One graduating college
senior, posting anonymously on the Web, claimed that Facebook offered a $100,000
salary, a $50,000 signing bonus, and $120,000 in stock options. Facebook
declined to comment.