November 22, 2007 | Thursday
Google bleeding talent
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in News |Search Engines |Google
The problem of Googlers jumping ship for Facebook is one I’ve noted here previously. But things are getting a lot more painful for Google, and look to get worse.
According to Techcrunch reporter Nick Gonzalez:
Senior VPs at Google have dubbed it “the Facebook problem” according to a number of sources. At least ten “top performers” have made the switch over the last two months. Ex-Googler’s expect to continue seeing at least two to four more leave for Facebook each month. That doesn’t sound like much, but Facebook is targeting the cream of the crop. The best Googler’s are being actively recruited, and many are leaving.
Competition for new university graduates is also cutthroat, and Google is attempting to up the ante by offering stock units. Gonzales reports:
The options weren’t enough for one Google employee, who says he was getting promoted quickly and hitting huge bonuses with high priced stock. But he says “it’s not just about the money. Entrepreneurs want to work at the hottest place on earth and right now that’s Facebook.”
That echoes what ex-Googler Justin Rosenstein’s farewell email from June, when he left Google for Facebook.
Facebook really is That company.
Which company? That one. That company that shows up once in a very long while—the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly-brilliant people congregate and feed off each other’s genius. That company that’s doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can’t pull off. That company that’s on the cusp of Changing The World, that’s still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you’ll kick yourself in three years if you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life.
That company that is putting the fear of Facebook into Google…
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