Facebook already has a growing engineering operation in Seattle. Now, the social networking powerhouse is heading north of the border — but not in the traditional sense.
The Vancouver Sun reports that Facebook is looking to establish a temporary facility in BC with room for up to 150 staffers. The office is set to open in May and close about a year later, and “will serve as a boot camp” to train “recent software engineering grads for potential full-time employment” at other Facebook locations, reports the Sun.
The company plans to use the office as a beachhead to recruit staffers, training them and getting them ready for full-time jobs in the U.S. The Sun notes:
Besides having a native talent pool, Facebook feels that Vancouver is convenient for them, an attractive location to attract candidates too, and Canada the easier North American destination for some foreign recruits to get into. And a year is about the time it takes to get some of those recruits permission to work in the United States.
Vancouver, B.C. has a growing tech scene. Seattle angel investor Geoff Entress recently partnered with HootSuite co-founder Ryan Holmes to create Invoke Labs, a new startup incubator. Last month, news leaked that Amazon.com was expanding in Vancouver with a new engineering center. Microsoft and EA also have large operations in B.C.
