Digital in a box

Facebook and Google have been competing with each over more than just social networking. Facebook is growing from 300ish employees today to 700 next year. And the best place to get good engineers and others is Google, where many have already vested on their stock options and are looking for the next big hit.
Facebook has already claimed Youtube CFO Gideon Yu, eCommerce Product lead Benjamin Ling and GDrive developer Justin Rosenstein.
But Ex-Googler’s inside Facebook are saying that the problem goes further than a few high profile exits caused by vesting stock. Facebook just seems a hell of a lot “sexier” than Google (see Rosenstein’s exit email). A steady stream of Google employees are making the switch to Facebook, and competition for top college grads is fierce as well.
Senior VPs at Google have dubbed it “the Facebook problem” according to a number of sources. At least ten “top performers” have made the switch over the last two months. Ex-Googler’s expect to continue seeing at least two to four more leave for Facebook each month. That doesn’t sound like much, but Facebook is targeting the cream of the crop. The best Googler’s are being actively recruited, and many are leaving.
Our sources are also saying that Google has been aggressively countering Facebook offers with offers of stock units (GSUs). The options weren’t enough for one Google employee, who says he was getting promoted quickly and hitting huge bonuses with high priced stock. But he says “it’s not just about the money. Entrepreneurs want to work at the hottest place on earth and right now that’s Facebook.”

A couple of months ago, after three years as a Google product manager, I decided to leave for Facebook. I am writing this note to spread Good News to all the friends I haven't already overwhelmed with my enthusiasm: Facebook really is That company.
Which company? That one. That company that shows up once in a very long while -- the Google of yesterday, the Microsoft of long ago. That company where large numbers of stunningly-brilliant people congregate and feed off each other's genius. That company that's doing with 60 engineers what teams of 600 can't pull off. That company that's on the cusp of Changing The World, that's still small enough where each employee has a huge impact on the organization, where you think about working now and again, and where you know you'll kick yourself in three years if you don't jump on the bandwagon now, even after someone had told you that it was rolling toward the promised land. That company where everyone seems to be having the time of their life.
I'm serious. I have drunk from the kool-aid, and it is delicious. Facebook is hiring ambitiously across the organization. If you're an engineer, UI designer, product manager, statistician, bizdev god, general entrepreneurial badass, whatever, and you would even consider considering Facebook as your new place for hat-hanging, please send me a Facebook message. We can have lunch, or I can give you a tour, or we can go kick it with Mark Zuckerberg -- whatever it takes.