CEO Reflections

Has hiring engineers been any harder than this?

There is a lot of news about how hard it is to hire engineers in the Valley or even outside. Starting salaries are reaching amazing new heights and large amounts of retained bonuses are being paid to existing engineers from companies like our neighbor, Google.

All of that is true and more telling for a startup like Egnyte, where cash is king. Despite these challenges, we are adding some smart engineers, those who really want to work in a crazy, fast-paced company where they will don multiple hats and where everything they do has a huge impact - good or bad.

We are innovating the concept of a distributed team to a level I would not have anticipated a few years back. Even though we are a small company right now, we have engineering team members in 7 distinct geographies and this model seems to be working. Indeed, it comes with more management overhead, but with tools like Skype and Instant Messenger, the distances are getting smaller. I have found that the operating principle for an engineering team is like an advertisement I saw recently - think locally, work globally.