Comments on: Why big high tech companies are losing the talent war

By: When blogging is not journalism « Vendorprisey

When blogging is not journalism « Vendorprisey — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:33:13 +0000

[...] Jason Wood pointed the irregular mailing list to the article here on Venture beat. Auren Hoffman wrote it. He is the CEO of a start up. Big companies are losing their â€œAâ€ players and theyâ€™re struggling to attract â€œBâ€ players. In an industry where everything is about people, large tech companies are in trouble because they are losing the talent war [...]

By: The Ponderings of Woodrow

The Ponderings of Woodrow — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 04:58:27 +0000

Bubble Alert…”A” employees flocking to startups, big companies “settling” for “B”

Matt Marshall has been better than most journalists at keeping tabs on the excess capital flowing into the private equity industry of late. So it’s somewhat ironic that his site, Venture Beat, played host to one of the most bubbly

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 20:39:01 +0000

“if you make $130K at a big company, youâ€™ll likely make $110K at a funded start-up”

Where does he get these figures from?

He also forgets to mention that during the critical period before the startup gets funded, you need to attract A-players who can work for next-to-nothing. And in such situation, it is not clear at all how the big-companies are losing the war for talent:

If he’s ever searched for A-players, especially those who didn’t make big money in the bubble, he should know that that fight isn’t easy.

By: » Blog Archive » Tuna Fish Manifesto

» Blog Archive » Tuna Fish Manifesto — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 01:08:53 +0000

[...] Well itâ€™s weekend time, and that means manifestos are flying everywhere. I call this the Tuna Fish Manifesto because it doesnâ€™t just stink at Yahoo. It stinks everywhere. Execs are completely out of touch with the people doing the work. [...]

By: John Doe

John Doe — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 12:04:53 +0000

I agree that the comments are not “well thought through” and it could have been approached at differently. With that said, I work at one of the multi-billion $ companies mentioned in the article and Auren is right. We have LOST A TON of folks. Annualized in Q3 we lost 25% of our workforce in certain areas. Were they all ‘A’ players? No, but many of them were. Really sad to see them go… I have my own reasons for not jumping into the startup world, but I’ll save that for later.

By: Lynne Jolitz

Lynne Jolitz — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 21:37:27 +0000

Regarding Ben Metcalfe and “snarky”:
Vint Cerf’s full name is “Vinton G. Cerf”, not “Vincent”.
After all the work he and the other Internet pioneers have done to provide “instant access” information, it seems it takes very little effort to google “vint cerf” and read his official bio:
http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html.
Of course, “snarky is as snarky does”, right Ben?

By: Jeff Tokarz

Jeff Tokarz — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:38:01 +0000

Big, small, ‘A’ players, ‘B’ players – so what! The job market is dynamic. An organization’s ability to attract and retain the best talent is a function of challenging and rewarding work, competitive compensation, etc.

By: PJ Brunet

PJ Brunet — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 20:04:43 +0000

I think what you’re getting at is, the Internet (now especially) is wide-open with opportunity, where a lone gun can give up girls and hygiene for a few months, do the thing right and make it big. Same deal in the early 90’s with the 3D animation gold rush.

But don’t forget the multitudes of desperate, poor hackers out there working for peanuts places like oDesk, in crappy conditions I can’t even imagine comfy here in Austin, Texas, USA.

By: Roy

Roy — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:39:21 +0000

Most of the growth in the world’s economy happens via second tier companies and entrepreneurship of small businesses. The upper tier grows very slowly. Opportunities there are very limited. This is exactly how Silicon Valley became filled with giant companies; through the entrepreneurship of the small. Excellent article, and years ahead of people’s ability to understand such things.

By: Gary McPherson

Gary McPherson — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 12:12:04 +0000

I’m thinking plagiarism. This article reads like something out of the mid-90’s. Let me give you a clue about big companies. They aren’t going with ‘C’ players, they are going offshore. Yea, that dirty little word. BTW, so are startups. They are using these guys to replace their ‘C’ players and even some ‘B’ players.

While the retro memories were nice, this article simply does not hold water in this decade. Also, I don’t know anyone who is hopping around like we did back in the 90’s. There’s a job change here and there, but those of us who survived the bubble don’t see the point in making the same mistakes twice.

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:34:29 +0000

Just read this excerpt from the article:

“In todayâ€™s hot startup market, it is essentially irrational to join a big company. That means that big companies _are_ _only_ attracting â€œBâ€ and â€œCâ€ players or they are attracting irrational A players.”

That’s got to be the worst claim I’ve ever heard in an online business article. To say something bold like that with no warrants sounds pretty ‘irrational’ to me. This article is such a marketing ploy for some day’s work no business model easily spammable rating system. What’s worse (besides the obvious attempt to lure the audience in with a misleading title that includes eye popping keywords like ‘high tech’, ‘talent’, ‘war’) is this guy is in no position to write an article like this. I don’t see any of the ‘big’ high tech companies he mentions in the article on his resume. This is just a bad case of blog spam. Screw Rapleaf.

By: Tom Mojsa

Tom Mojsa — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:57:20 +0000

Excellent article. Startups are hard driving, onto the subject. No place for slackers or corporate BS. Auren, would you email me or call – I have a few questions to asks you by the way on another subject.

By: John

John — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:21:25 +0000

who is this butternut?

By: Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Are big companies losing top talent?

Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Are big companies losing top talent? — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 06:12:05 +0000

[...] Auren who worksÂ at reputation startup Rapleaf thinks that big companies are losing all the top players.Â It’s possible, most of the independent thinkers and early technology adopters have no interest working at large tech companies.Â There’s many advantages working at big companies, esp if you’veÂ family and a mortgage to deal with. [...]

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:39:06 +0000

This is one of the dumber articles I’ve read in a long time. Remind me to having nothing to do with “rapleaf” whatever that is.