Benjamin Kuo’s Blog

One of the interesting problems I have heard of from employers in the area is the fear of new employees relocating into the area about job security. Time after time, I hear that it’s often tough to recruit people, and particularly executive talent — particularly out of Silicon Valley — because they’re afraid there just aren’t enough technology firms here.

I think the problem is really more perception than reality.

At socalTECH we have a job board which allows people to post jobs offered in the local region - Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Irvine, etc. — and because of that I’m always talking to HR managers and recruiters. It’s interesting, but I consistently hear from companies that there are more technology jobs here than you can find people to fill. I talk with companies every week who just can’t find people locally to fill the many positions they have open. Just over the last couple of weeks, I had this same conversation with half a dozen companies, asking me if I knew anyone looking for a position. I think job seekers just don’t realize the wealth of job opportunities here.

As for executive talent, if you ever take 7:20am Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank to San Jose, you’ll find a planeload of executive talent all heading off to their offices in the Bay Area. Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo, actually lives in Los Angeles and commutes to the Bay Area. It’s also nice to hear stories like Tommy McGloin (now CEO of local firm DoctorsDirect.com) who was GM of AOL’s MapQuest division–where he commuted for 10 years out of Los Angeles — who finally got tired of the commute and decided to start something on his own here in the area. I’m sure there are more examples.

The reality is there are lots of companies with lots of positions open in the area, and who are eager to fill those positions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.