To put it in a concise (and possibly politically incorrect) way: Yes, Silicon Valley is desperate for engineers. However, Silicon Valley is desperate for engin

To put it in a concise (and possibly politically incorrect) way: Yes, Silicon Valley is desperate for engineers. However, Silicon Valley is desperate for engineers who are in the 0.1% of the engineer population in terms of intellect, motivation, adaptability, etc. These are hard to find, first of all because it's 0.1% of the population (so it just boils down to a numbers game), and second of all because often these individuals will rather work on their own thing rather then work under someone else's orders. If you have the potential of a John Resig, Ben Kamens, or Craig Silverstein, you won't have any trouble finding a job, and you'll have every startup at your feet. If you're "just" an OK engineer, then SV is not going to move mountains for you, unlike what some have said.