Silicon Valley is a no-brainer. But where else in America is hiring at the smallest, scrappiest, biggest-growth-potential companies?
Want to hone your entrepreneurial skills and get a feel for the start-up scene before diving in to found your own company?
Heading out to Silicon Valley to search for a start-up gig is a no brainer, but what if you’re not that excited about West Coast living or are otherwise limited in where you can go? What other places offer you a decent chance of landing a job at a newly born company? Or how about if you’re hiring for your already existant new company. Where will your efforts run up against the most competition?
StartupHire.com, a job listings site targeted specifically at start-ups, has combed through all its 2011 listings to find out. And while the top few locales for getting a gig at a bootstrapping or venture capital backed firm will hardly surprise you, some of the states further down the list might be less expected. So where are the start-up gigs? Here’s a list of the top places that are hiring along with what percentage of jobs on the site are in each state:
California (36.3 percent)
Massachusetts (7.43 percent)
New York (7.13 percent)
Texas (4.87 percent)
Washington (4.02 percent)
Colorado (2.66 percent)
Pennsylvania (2.52 percent)
Illinois (2.15 percent)
While the numbers clearly confirm that California is far and away the top dog in the start-up world, the analysis should also cheer those in the likes of Illinois, Pennsylvania and Washington that a nascent start-up scene is growing in their states and that working at a start-up doesn’t always mean packing your bags for the Bay Area. If you’re looking for start-up experience in these less well known places, you’re not entirely without hope, and if you’re starting a business there, you’re not without company.
StartupHire also broke down its data by industry and job function, but with the war for engineering talent well documented, the fact that near half of postings (around 45 percent) were for engineering, product development, science or IT will shock exactly no one. Nor will the fact that despite this sky-high demand, less than 20 percent of applicants on the site went for these sorts of jobs, creating a vast mismatch between techies needed and techies available. Sales, business development, marketing all made up around ten percent of jobs advertised.
