>>the NYC area is starving for talent

What area isn't?

>>most techies in this area aren't that entrepreneurial

There are enough - several of Facebook's most prominent product launches in the last year (new Groups, Timeline) have been led by PMs acq-hired from the NY-based startups they founded (drop.io, Hot Potato, Daytum).

More importantly, Facebook's not a startup anymore: joining hardly requires an "entrepreneurial" appetite for risk on the hire's part.

>>chances are this will end up driving salaries up by 10-15%

Facebook can afford to pay a premium for talent, and they've demonstrated a willingness to do so (see above). This is a problem for other companies, not Facebook - which makes it a good, strategic move on Facebook's part.

>a smarter move would be to open an office in Boston

Despite starting at Harvard, Facebook has much stronger ties to NYC - including an existing 100-person marketing office.

> most techies in this area aren't that entrepreneurial.

I'm not sure where you get that idea? I've had the exact opposite experience in NYC. I think the tech scene is very entrepreneurial... IMO, it's why you see lots of people gravitating towards places like GA.

General Assembly, or Georgia?

Ha, General Assembly :)

>most techies in this area aren't that entrepreneurial.

Is an entrepreneur really going to want to work at facebook? They're a huge established player. Is facebook even looking for that sort of employee?

my thoughts exactly. most entrepreneurs are less likely to be comfortable in a larger organization like facebook.

i do agree that an office in Boston would make more sense for them.

There might be a tipping point when the big tech companies decide jack up the offers high enough to be competitive with finance. Once that threshold is crossed, I'd imagine you will see a flood of smart people fleeing the financial sector to do something more rewarding with their lives.

The tech companies already do have offers high enough to be competitive with finance. On another note, I do not know why working at Facebook would be intrinsically more rewarding than working at Jane Street. Finally, the finance skill set is not quite the same as what is needed at Facebook. They would be more likely competing with startup companies and Google NYC.

Isn't Jane Street a little... unique? Most banks don't write blogs about OCaml, right?

> On another note, I do not know why working at Facebook would be intrinsically more rewarding than working at Jane Street.

Because the former actually makes a useful product?

> Finally, the finance skill set is not quite the same as what is needed at Facebook.

At least at the entry level, the hiring is for credentials not so much skill set. There is a decent number of math/cs majors who end up in finance (not even necessarily something like computational finance, just state up IB or trading) instead of engineering.

I'm speaking from the anecdotal evidence that most engineers I know in finance are pretty miserable sans the fact they make barrels of money.

Probably you never talked to real finance technology guys.

Or true Scotsmen.

Facebook is an advertising company. Many of their customers will be in NYC. It makes sense for them to open an office there.

Facebook actually already has an advertising office in NYC right near Grand Central. The news is that they're expanding to include an engineering office in NYC.

Having engineers in the same timezone as customers makes sense.