It seems every week a new company announces a new tech office in Seattle.
Yet with homegrown companies frantically searching for technical talent, the idea that there is enough talent to supply these newcomers is hard to swallow.
But it turns out that it’s easier to find tech candidates in the Puget Sound area than nearly anywhere else. Executives of companies that have opened local engineering offices, such as Best Buy and Sears, say they came for one main reason: The talent pool is rich.
“Someone said recently, you fish where the fish are,” said Mary Lou Kelley, president of e-commerce at Best Buy (NYSE: BBY).
The electronics retailer recently opened a satellite office in downtown Seattle.
There’s no doubt that recruiting for tech talent is hard anywhere. Ever since the dot-com bubble, the evolution of technology has outpaced the education systems that train computer scientists. But many Seattle tech leaders think recruiting now has gotten harder than ever before.
“It has always felt competitive,” said Susan Harker, global vice president of talent acquisition at Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN). “But there are more players getting in and competing for the same types of talent. So I think it has gotten more competitive.”
Washington state has 10 times more jobs available for programmers than it turns out from state schools each year, according to the Washington Technology Industry Association.
That makes Washington state the top importer of tech talent in the nation.
“Seattle is a great place to be headquartered because people love it when they get here, but getting them here can definitely be a tough sell,” Harker said.
That’s changing.
The state has 90,000 software developers among the
239,000 who work at tech companies.The dense concentration makes relocating here more attractive for candidates — it lowers the risk factor.