It’s Still Tough to Get a Job at Google and Facebook

It’s hard out there for an engineer.
internship

Why Facebook Is Sending Its People to Mobile Coding Camp (And Not Just Engineers)

Mobile mobile mobile! Facebook continues to beef up its resources for the phone.

News Byte

Ex-Twitter Employee Joins Social Start-Up Branch

Recent Twitter defector Ian Ownbey will soon join Branch, the New York-based start-up aimed at curating “high-quality public discourse.” Engineer Ownbey will move to the East Coast to join Branch’s eight-man outfit, which is backed and mentored by the Obvious Corporation, a group composed of ex-Twitterers Biz Stone, Evan Williams and Jason Goldman. Branch’s other investors include SV Angel, Betaworks and Lerer Ventures (and more), with advisers such as Jonah Peretti of BuzzFeed.

Chamath Palihapitiya Personally Buys Majority Stake in Mobile Development Shop Xtreme Labs

Xtreme Labs has built apps for Microsoft, Groupon, IAC, GroupMe, Rypple and more.

Mapping Silicon Valley’s Own Private “iWay”

A San Francisco design firm maps the hidden transit system of the tech elite.

One Kings Lane Stocks Up on Talent as Revenue Is Projected to Hit $200 Million

One Kings Lane CEO Doug Mack said in an interview that the luxury home decor site is on target to hit $200 million in net revenue this year, and is aggressively hiring more engineers.

News Byte

Facebook Adds Mobile Expertise by Hiring Everyone From Pieceable

Facebook has hired three engineers from Pieceable, which was building a way to make iPhone and iPad apps viewable from a browser. As part of the deal, Pieceable will shut down at the end of the year, and will release an open-source version of the software. In a short notice on its Web site, Pieceable said Facebook did not acquire the San Francisco company or its technology. It is expected that the engineers will be joining Facebook’s mobile team.

News Byte

For Valley Engineers, Big Data and Networking Start-Ups Are Still Sexy

Consumer companies may be hot among investors, but big data and networking start-ups are hotter still to Valley engineering talent, according to a recent LinkedIn report. The study claims that analytics firms and networking start-ups like Cloudera and Arista Networks are garnering the most engineering mindshare. The study took into account the LinkedIn activity of more than 240,000 Bay Area engineers from January through March.

News Byte

Twitter Introduces Employee-Friendly Patent Policy

Twitter said today it plans to implement an Innovator’s Patent Agreement that, in contrast to industry norms, will let its engineers and designers retain some say-so over their creations. Under the agreement, to be implemented later this year, Twitter pledges that the patents will be used strictly for defensive purposes and not wielded offensively without the employee’s permission, an arrangement that would stand even if the patent were sold. In a blog post, VP of Engineering Adam Messinger said Twitter is putting out feelers to see if other companies are interested in following suit.

Hackers and Engineers

The hackers and engineers of Y Combinator are doing what hackers and engineers do to any industry, they’re efficiently and ruthlessly disrupting the traditional model of venture capital and are going to destroy far more more wealth for their contemporaries than they create for themselves, as broadband did to entertainment, Craigslist did to newspapers, and Amazon did to traditional retailers.

— WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg