硅谷提高工程师门槛

    硅谷对于天才软件工程师的需求丝毫没有减弱的迹象，无论是谷歌（Google）这样的业界巨头还是Snapchat这种风头正劲的小公司，越来越多以消费者为中心的企业都愿意在员工薪酬和福利上一掷千金。但同时，公司老板们自然也希望看到物有所值，这就意味着，他们对员工的期望值变得更高。

    远的不说，只要研究下斯坦福大学（Stanford University）计算机科学课程CS194，你就会看出软件工程学科在过去十年内的变化有多大。每季度末，这门课的学生们就要提交自己的期末设计。“十年前，能够做出微型网页伺服器的小演示就已经算是相当不错的成就了，”拉姆齐•斯里尼瓦桑说。“如今，你必须能够完成功能齐全的网页或手机应用程序”。斯里尼瓦桑于2003年毕业于斯坦福大学并拥有计算机科学学位，如今，他经营着一家叫做Counsyl的基因疾病测试初创公司，公司拥有40名工程师。

    当然，要做到这一点，你也必须拥有更加广泛和更为先进的工具。（今天，笔记本电脑微处理器的性能都已远超circa Y2K），因此，像Django（一种开源网页框架）这样先进的软件工具就可以用来很快地构建出数据庞大复杂的服务器，比如Pinterest和Instagram。

    “我们解决了一系列棘手的问题，可以让人们去做一些曾经很少有人有精力和耐心去做的事情，”Facebook公司工程总监佩德拉姆•克亚尼说。2007年，克亚尼从谷歌跳槽到Facebook，普遍认为是他构建了Facebook账户防护与拦截垃圾邮件基础架构的核心部分。如今，他的职责包括帮助挑选工程师候选人以及运作Facebook编程马拉松（hackathons）。

    Facebook没有透露公司具体收到过多少应用程序，但克亚尼说他们在挑选人才的眼光要比7年前更加敏锐。“以前，如果我们有三个空缺职位，一般只会有10个人前来面试，”克亚尼说。“如今，同样数量的职位却能吸引到更多的候选人。”虽然克亚尼说他会更重视聪明和热情而非经验。但有报道称，要申请Facebook公司高级工程师职位，必须具有丰富的经验。据最近一期《纽约时报杂志》（New York Times Magazine）报道，Facebook公司几十位工程技术经理在跳槽来这家社交媒体公司之前，就已经在甲骨文公司（Oracle）做到了高管职位。筛选候选人如今也成为一种综合性考量，既要考察解决问题、设计系统的能力，也要考察候选人的性格是否与公司文化相符，比如是否善于沟通、善于团队合作，是否能够为了项目的顺利进行而收敛锋芒等。

    PureStorage公司联合创始人兼首席技术官约翰•考格雷夫认为，他创办的这家企业存储初创公司最看重快速思考、行动高效以及在工程方面有天赋等因素，而不是简历上罗列出的过往经验。相较于上世纪90年代甚至本世纪早期，这都是彻头彻尾的改变，当时考格雷夫还在维尔软件公司（VERITAS Software）工作。维尔软件是一家技术备份软件公司，2005年与赛门铁克公司（Symantec）合并。“现在所有变化都很快，”考格雷夫说。他所指的是产业创新。他说：“如果一个人刚毕业就进了IBM，工作15年，把好几年的心血都花在某件事情上，这样做其实是在毁了自己。”

    Hearsay Social是一家社会化媒体营销管理平台，公司首席技术官兼创始人史蒂夫•加里蒂说，软件工程师也被要求在公司中直接与消费者互动，为他们解决问题。他说：“人们对那些支配着他们日常生活的软件设计者们的要求越来越高。”

    正如加里蒂一样，本地服务平台Thumbtack公司首席执行官兼联合创始人马尔科•赞帕科斯塔要求公司13位软件工程师必须做到全能。在招聘之初，公司团队就在寻找那些能够直接提升Thumbtack公司整体用户体验而不仅仅只满足于完成分配任务的人。这样的筛选流程意味着，这家初创企业从每150个候选人中只能雇用一位软件工程师。他举例说，2011年4月，一位软件工程师提出改善Thumbtack登录体验的方案，即用户无需手动输入登录信息，认证系统会根据用户邮箱地址和网页浏览历史记录为用户自动登录。赞帕科斯塔说：“他之所以能带来这样伟大的革新是因为，他不仅是以用户为中心，而且还清楚地知道整个系统的架构。”（财富中文网）

    Demand for talented software engineers is as high as ever, with companies throwing huge salaries and perks at new employees gravitating toward consumer-focused businesses ranging from leviathans such as Google (GOOG) to buzzier, smaller outfits like Snapchat. But rising expectations from some employers also mean expectations are reaching stratospheric levels.

    Look no further than CS194, Stanford University's computer science course, to see how far engineering has evolved in the last decade. At the end of each quarter, students in the class present their final project. "Ten years ago, a mini-demo of a mini web server was quite the accomplishment," explains Ramji Srinivasan, who graduated from Stanford with a Computer Science degree in 2003 and now runs Counsyl, a genetic disease testing startup with 40 engineers. "Now, the expectation is to have a fully functioning website or mobile app."

    Of course, much of that has to do with broader, much more advanced set of tools available now. (Today's desktop microprocessor is vastly superior to one circa Y2K.) So, too, advanced software tools like Django, an open-source web framework, are used to rapidly create complex data-heavy services like Pinterest and Instagram.

    "We've solved a crazy set of problems that allows people to do what once very few people had the energy and patience to do," explains Pedram Keyani, Director of Engineering for Facebook's (FB) site integrity team. Keyani, who joined Facebook in 2007 from Google, is widely credited with building core parts of Facebook's infrastructure responsible for protecting accounts and fighting spam. Now, his duties include helping vet engineering candidates and running Facebook's hackathons.

    Facebook won't disclose how many applications it receives, but Keyani says they're more discerning now about new hires vs. say, seven years ago. "If we have three positions to fill, we used to have 10 people interview for those," offers Keyani. "Now we'll have an order of magnitude more people that interview for those same positions." While Keyani says he prioritizes smarts and passion over experience, competition for a senior engineering role at Facebook reportedly calls for more outside experience. To wit, dozens of Facebook engineering managers climbed the ranks at Oracle (ORCL) before working at the social network, according to a recent New York Times Magazine report. And screening candidates is now a comprehensive experience, with interviews for raw problem-solving ability, designing systems, and cultural fit: whether they communicate well, work well in teams, or can put their ego aside for the sake of a project.

    PureStorage co-founder and CTO John Colgrave says the enterprise storage startup prizes fast-thinking, raw speed, and nimbleness in an engineer over reams of resume experience. That's an about-face from the 1990s and even early-to-mid-2000s, when Colgrave worked at Veritas Software, a backup software company that merged with Symantec in 2005. "Things are moving faster now," argues Colgrave, referring to industry innovation. "The guy who came out of school, went to IBM (IBM) for 15 years, and worked intensely on something for a few years is doing himself a disservice."

    At Hearsay Social, a social media marketing management platform, software engineers are expected to also directly interact with customers and problem-solve on the business side, says Steve Garrity, CTO and founder of Hearsay. "We're asking more and more of the people who build the software that runs our lives everyday," he admits.

    Like Garrity, Marco Zappacosta, CEO and co-founder of the local services platform Thumbtack, wants the company's 13 engineers to be versatile. When hiring, the team seeks out individuals who aren't just content with being assigned work but able to directly contribute to improving Thumbtack's overall user experience, a vetting process that means the startup only hires one engineer for every 150 applicants. He points to an instance in April 2011, when one of his engineers proposed improving the Thumbtack log-in experience with an authentication system that eliminated the need for users to manually type out their log-in information and automatically gave them entry based on their email address and previously visited sites. Explains Zappacosta: "He was able to bring great change about because he was very user-centric but also aware of how the system was built."