The secret guild of Silicon Valley
(I realize this was written 8 months ago and the addendum tries to take away the bite, but I'll comment nonetheless)I hate articles that make it seem like there is some magical cult of amazing engineers that have an untouchable and unattainable aura.  I remember how intimidated I was after I graduated college and was coming into the workforce due to it.Well, I used to work with the men and women who "who keep Google’s servers running" and at one point in time I was one of them.  I can tell you that none of the stereotypes listed apply to any sizeable percentage of them, and their variety and skills were incredibly diverse.  Some had years of experience and were grizzled veterans, some of them were right out of college.  Some of them lived in the south bay, some lived in the city.  Some dressed more fashionably than others.  Some were men, some were women.They, like many, liked working on interesting problems.  They, like many, cared about engineering and improving their skills everyday.  But, there was no magical guild which encompassed them.  It is just a bunch of engineers with different skills, different interests, different personalities, who all just enjoyed engineering.  Just like you and me.  Your company doesn't need people from this magical guild to succeed, because this magical guild doesn't exist.I certainly agree that any engineer would like working at a place where their work will have a huge impact and will be appreciated, but who wouldn't?  If your company is marginalizing some percentage of your employees, whatever their job title is, then you certainly aren't going to be able to attract quality candidates for that position.  That really has nothing to do with engineers or some magical guild though.