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Revenge of the Nerds: Tech Firms Scour College Campuses for Talent
Companies Woo Best Students With Equity, Fat Salaries and Free Food
By Spencer E. Ante
Wall Street Journal
May 30, 2012
On college campuses these days, the top nerds are getting a taste of what it's like to be star jocks.
Brian Yee, a master's student in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, hands out Android pajamas from Google on campus.
For Maxwell Hawkins, a computer science
and art major at Carnegie Mellon University, the moment came in March. A
technology recruiting firm sent him a letter by FedEx urging him to
drop out of his junior year and take his talents to work for a start-up.
"I work for the founder and seed investor in PayPal, Palantir and
Facebook," wrote Peterson Conway, a recruiter with Carmel, Calif., firm
Goodwyn/Powell. "I have been asked to help identify the founding team of
a new venture."
The technology boom has created an acute shortage of engineers and
software developers. The industry has responded by taking a page from
the playbook of professional sports: identify up and comers early, then
roll out the red carpet to lock them up.
With the social media frenzy in full swing, promising students are
now wrestling with decisions about whether to stay in school or turn
pro. Meanwhile, those who stay on campus are enjoying a bonanza of free
food and other goodies as companies rush to win their hearts and minds.
"It is pretty good for my ego, frankly," said Mr. Hawkins, who
decided to stay in school and take an internship offer from YouTube this
summer.
Starting salaries at leading companies
for average computer science grads from top schools range from $75,000
to $100,000, plus signing and relocation bonuses worth $5,000 to
$15,000, according to venture capitalists and recruiters. New hires may
also get small equity grants, with stars getting additional cash bonuses
or larger grants worth as much as 1% of the company.
Facebook's
FB -3.55%
disappointing public offering demonstrated that the start-up tech
market may not be quite as lucrative as everyone believed. But many
students say they think the risks are still worth taking, given the huge
potential upside.
Stephen Poletto, a senior computer science
major at Brown University, said that in the middle of his junior year,
he started fielding calls from headhunters, company recruiters and Brown
alumni who work in the industry.
Companies, he said, routinely wine and dine
students at posh restaurants to discuss internships and jobs, plying
them with free limo rides to bars, $500 cash giveaways and raffles for
iPads. So many companies give away free food when they hold technology
talks at Brown that sponsors had to move the food inside the computer
science auditorium to keep non-engineering students from grazing...
Google Inc.
GOOG -1.09%
is particularly active on campus. Brian Yee, a master's student at
Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science, is one of the search
giant's 400 "student ambassadors" at top universities around the world
who get paid to assist with recruiting and spreading the word about
Google products. In February, Mr. Yee rounded up 100 students to eat
free pizza and hear a Google developer give a "Tech Talk" about YouTube.
"For the Tech Talk they sent 100 pairs of Android pajamas," he
said. "Those went really quickly." Starting this fall, Google will more
than double the ambassador program to over 1,000 students world-wide.
Mark Stehlik, assistant dean of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer
Science said it could make sense for a student to take a leave of
absence to join a start-up, in some cases. But most students are better
served getting their degrees, he said. "Many companies are trying to
seduce students because they really need them," he said. "Students get a
little starry eyed. For many of them they are better off finishing."
Big companies aren't the only ones wooing students.
Peter Thiel,
a billionaire Facebook investor, recently started a fellowship program
offering 20 students $100,000 over two years to skip college and work on
world-changing projects.
Tiny start-ups are ramping up their
recruiting efforts, too, though it is far from a fair fight. In
February, Highland Capital Partners, the venture investor behind Lycos
and MapQuest.com Inc. sent executives from some of its portfolio
companies on a four-day road trip to interview candidates at the
University of Michigan, Carnegie Mellon and Cornell. They made the trip
by Chrysler minivan and stayed at inexpensive hotels, like Holiday Inn.
After interviewing 100 candidates, five have accepted offers. Total cost
for 13 people: $5,000.
The big companies don't always win.
Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN +1.10%
offered Brown University computer science major Kelsey Tripp a
lucrative summer internship paying $5,300 a month plus a one-time $3,000
housing stipend. But the college junior turned it down for an even
better internship offer at a start-up called Nebula Inc. It paid more
and she liked that the program was organized by venture capital firm
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a major player in Silicon Valley. A
personal call from Nebula's CEO sealed the deal. "I have never spoken
to a CEO before," she said.
The National Basketball Association
has a rule called "one and done" that requires players entering the
draft to be 19 or have completed their freshman year of college. But
some prospective programmers aren't even making it that far.
Sahil Lavingia was a freshman at the University of Southern
California in 2010 when he got an email from Ben Silbermann, chief
executive and co-founder of the fast-growing online scrapbook Pinterest.
Mr. Silbermann was looking for help building a version of Pinterest for
the iPhone and happened upon a data tracking app developed by the
self-taught Mr. Lavingia.
Figuring the young student "seemed like a go-getter," Mr. Silbermann
drove up to Berkeley from Silicon Valley to meet Mr. Lavingia, who was
coming to the Bay Area for the USC-Berkeley football game. A few days
later, Mr. Lavingia had an offer in hand and took a leave from school to
take the job.
Some companies are grabbing talented programmers even before they
reach college. Luke Weber taught himself how to design computer games in
high school and became one of the most popular contributors to Roblox
Corp., a company that lets its subscribers play games developed by its
users.
After graduating, he attended a Roblox conference last June and met
the head of the company's marketing department, who asked him if he
wanted to shoot some videos to teach people how to make games. The
videos turned into a design job, and now Mr. Weber, who has postponed
plans to go to college, works three days a week for the company
producing games and virtual goods for $25 an hour.
At 18, he is the youngest employee of the company. "Apparently," he said, "I am really pro at it."
Write to Spencer E. Ante at
spencer.ante@wsj.com
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