WAN optimization might not be as sexy as building social networks, but Riverbed Technology Inc., a leader in the market, is one of the fastest growing tech companies in the country.
The eight-year-old firm has 1,100 workers around the world, building and selling systems to speed up corporate computer networks. It also has a 75% profit margin and a stock price that has appreciated six-fold since its 2006 IPO.
FINS caught up with Mike Guerchon, the company's vice president of global employee services, to discuss hiring abroad, poaching and how a $4.3 billion enterprise manages to function like a startup.
Kyle Stock: How does your workforce breakdown between R&D, sales, marketing, etc.?
Mike Guerchon: In R&D, we've got a little over 250 people total. On sales, we've got 425 or so I'd say. Marketing is just under 100. And tech support is probably still about 100.
KS: You've hired almost 200 people in the past year, have you done so in the same proportions?
MG: Pretty much. Our large categories of growth in hedcount are in R&D -- engineers. In sales, we're in 32 countries, so we're always looking for qualified people around the globe. And of course, we have a smattering of hiring in internal IT, HR and other business-continuity functions.
KS: How much hiring do you expect to do in the near future?
MG: We've been growing by 200 to 300 employees a year for the past few years. We'll be right around there once again.
KS: What particular skill-sets are you looking for?
MG: Experience with networking and storage backgrounds is very important to us. I'd say at least a third of our recruiting team is exclusively focused on hiring engineers.
Even in a down economy, the market has not produced a plethora of candidates. The folks we generally look for are gainfully employed.
KS: So where are you finding them?
MG: We have a team of 18 internal recruiters all over the world. One of the key folks who hires in sales and marketing is based in our office outside of London. We have another lead recruiter in our Singapore office. In certain areas, where hiring is more complex or nuanced, we use external search firms. In Japan, it's become difficult to hire on our own there, so we do almost all of our hiring there via a third-party recruiter.
We have a number of standing relationships with universities, so we get young engineers out of Carnegie Mellon, SUNY, CAL Berkeley and University of Illinois.
We have found that over the last two or three years LinkedIn has become a major source for us to gain knowledge on what employees are working for what companies. It's really been a great tool for us. I bet that 40 to 50% of our hires now come to us somehow through there.
KS: What percentage of your workforce is there in San Francisco?
MG: We've got about 450 to 500 people based in San Francisco and another 200-plus down in Sunnyvale, (Calif.).
KS: Any particular parts of the world where you are growing more aggressively?
MG: We've been a very global and international company ever since our founding. I would tell you that Germany and Northern-Central Europe are very strong markets for us. Australia has always been a market that has been very, very good for us.
KS: How many offices does the company have now?
MG: We have a lot of offices. San Francisco, Sunnyvale, (Calif.), New York, Champaign, Ill., London, Munich, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo.
KS: Is it fair to say you have a lot of one- or two-person offices?
MG: Yeah, there are a lot of small ones, but I would say three- to five-person.
KS: On the sales front, do you hire from other industries or mostly from tech?
MG: Mostly from tech. There's probably a list of 10 companies whose people we like. We feel they are well-trained and would call on the same companies we would.
We've always had a strong, internal, very aggressive, old-fashioned recruiting team, because we're exceptionally picky about who we hire into the company. In my past life, we'd hire one out of 3 people we interview; with Riverbed it's one out of 10 or one out of 12.
KS: You mentioned that the labor market is still tight, are you offering upfront incentives to bring people in?
MG: Sometimes. In a lot of cases, we're taking them out of larger companies. But in a lot of cases, they're really interested in making the move. We have a very nimble, entrepreneurial culture and a lot of people like that bigger-fish-in-a-smaller-pond kind of feel.
KS: So even though Riverbed is a big, public company, it still feels like a startup?
MG: That's a great way of putting it. It truly does. It's a very flat organization. It's fast-paced and entrepreneurial. There are only two private offices in the entire company. It's a good place to get things done with not a lot bureaucracy.
KS: What percent of your workforce has equity?
MG: Almost all of our employees do. There are a few countries where stock options or (restricted stock units) are not allowed. But I'd say 99% of our employees have equity.
KS: If you're hiring from competitors, I assume they are hiring from you; how's turnover been?
MG: Our folks get poached in headhunting calls almost every day, but it's been stable. It's been between 10 and 12% a year for the past several years. The majority of our turnover is typically for sales people who aren't performing up to standards or folks who just aren't doing well. And because our leadership has been so stable, we sometimes see really high-performing people having to leave Riverbed go to pursue other opportunities. They see that there probably aren't too many executive spots coming open here, so they have to move on to find that. And we celebrate those steps.
KS: What can we expect in the next few months?
MG: We're having a great year for hiring. I think on our website, we have over 100 openings. It's a great place to work; our compensation is strong, our benefits are great. It's a great place to be and you're part of a winning team that's creating a market that didn't exist a few years ago.
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