RM1212

At which colleges do Silicon Valley ventures recruit for engineering? Stanford comes to mind, but how about USC and the UCs? What about outside of California? Are East Coast schools like Cornell, MIT, and Carnegie Mellon also popular? Do Southern schools like Rice, Duke, and Vanderbilt fare well in recruiting?

terenc

Not all startups are created equally, so it definitely varies, from the people who have worked at startups that I know.

Typically a startup only hires from its region - airfare is an unnecessary expense, really. So for a "true" startup, we're talking Stanford and UC Berkeley, basically, for the Silicon Valley.

More "established" startups that are already successful or already widely recognized might travel to East Coast schools and SoCal schools.

I know several people who go to school on the East Coast (Ivies and LACs and Duke), but since they live in Silicon Valley, they often work over the summer at one of those "established" startups (engineering and business).

I also know a rising freshman who is attending an Ivy next year for CS, and he's the first employee of a startup, but again, he lives in the Silicon Valley.

However, Boston is probably second to the Silicon Valley in terms of startup/VC density, with NYC third, so if you got to school on the East Coast, there are tons of startups in those two cities.

CollectivSynergy

Assuming you're a real asset (ie, you have experience above and beyond doing well in class), it doesn't matter much what school you go to. Startups are desperate for talent and recruiters can and will go anywhere. Yes, there is an inherent advantage to some schools, but if you can demonstrate ability you can go anywhere. I have a couple of friends at startups who do interviews - 90% of the candidates are dinged simply because they don't show any proficiency beyond what's "adequate".

gthopeful

It depends on the stage they're in, but startups generaly only recruit locally or through their alumni networks (usually both at the same time).

CollectivSynergy

Depends what kind of founders you have. If you have experienced ones that have been through the dog and pony show before, they'll bring on someone who knows what they're doing for HR (who will look everywhere). According to one of the co-founders of Meebo, most if not all recruiting services predominantly scour Linkedin (voiding school as a relevant filter). If you're talking about completely new startups, the couple that I know recruited solely through connections.