????如今，在硅谷招聘一名優秀的軟件工程師就跟創造一件新事物一樣困難。硅谷的公司對此都有切身體會。

????時尚網站Polyvore的CEO杰斯?李最近對《財富》雜志（Fortune）表示：“我認為現在的工程市場是史上最糟糕的。” 杰斯?李曾在谷歌（Google）擔任產品經理，她發現自己已經實現盈利的初創公司要跟Facebook和Twitter這樣的大公司搶人才。杰斯?李補充說：“他們給出的薪酬對我而言簡直是天文數字。”

????確實如此。據求職網站Glassdoor統計，谷歌軟件工程師的平均年薪目前約為143,000美元，最高可達到550,000美元，還不包括豐厚的簽約獎金和公司福利。【Facebook和蘋果（Apple）等大公司也毫不遜色。】人才真空對于舊金山灣區的公司而言依然令人頭疼，但卻給求職者創造了巨大的機會。填補人才真空要比以往更容易。

????歡迎來到硅谷“新兵訓練營”。這些新興的職業學校以編程為主要學習內容，課程包括Dev Bootcamp、Hackbright Academy和Hack Reactor等加速課程。它們為期9至12周，可以讓學員們掌握與工程師們競爭所需要的基本技能。學習這些課程并不要求編程經驗，再加上被抑制的人才需求，因此，課程的申請者們來自各行各業，既有三十多歲的保姆，也有四十多歲的律師和銀行從業人員。

????杰西?法莫爾是Dev Bootcamp的聯合創始人，她解釋說：“我們的許多學生都是30歲、40歲甚至50歲的人，他們意識到自己目前從事的工作不適合自己。”Dev Bootcamp為期9周，2012年初開課。另外一家新兵訓練營的聯合創始人解釋得更加直白：“人們希望過上更好的生活。”

????要想真正獲得錄取也是一項挑戰。這些課程的平均錄取率低于20%，而Hackbright Academy目前的錄取率甚至只有5%。女性工程類課程為期10周，學費12,000美元，授課時間從周一至周五上午10點至下午6點。授課地點在舊金山的金融區。Hackbright目前的班級由從400多名申請人當中選拔出來的26名學生組成。雖然不要求之前有編程經驗，但CEO兼聯合創始人戴維?菲利普斯解釋道，Hackbright錄取學生的條件是，學生必須證明自己有興趣成為一名軟件工程師。其中包括通過免費或收費在線資源或大學課程，嘗試自學計算機科學基礎知識的申請人。

????在Hackbright，學生前五周兩人一組學習HTML、JavaScript和Python等基礎知識。后五周的重點則是最終項目。在招聘日，畢業生們會搭建自己的展位，Twitter、照片分享網站Pinterest和移動支付公司Square等合作公司會在每一個展位拿出七分鐘時間，了解他們的項目——軟件工程相當于速配交友。Hackbright和Dev Bootcamp的畢業生約有90%在三個月內都收到了工作邀請，目前都在Facebook和在線活動策劃平臺Eventbrite等公司擔任工程師。成立僅一年的Hack Reactor目前總共培養了70名畢業生，其中有68人在客戶關系管理公司Salesforce等公司擔任軟件工程師，平均收入六位數出頭。

????Hiring a good software engineer in Silicon Valley these days can seem almost as daunting as creating the next big thing. Just ask the companies.

????"I think this might be the worst engineering market ever," Jess Lee, CEO of the style community Polyvore, told Fortune recently. A former Google (GOOG) product manager, Lee now finds her profitable startup vying for talent alongside Facebook (FB) and Twitter. Added Lee: "The kinds of offers they're giving out are astronomical."

????Indeed, the average annual salary for Google software engineers now hovers around $143,000 and skyrockets to as much as $550,000, according to job site Glassdoor, and that's beforefactoring in generous signing bonuses and company perks. (Larger companies like Facebook and Apple (AAPL) aren't far behind.) While the talent vacuum remains problematic for Bay Area companies, it presents a huge opportunity for candidates. And filling that void may be easier now more than ever.

????Enter the Silicon Valley "boot camp," a nouveau vocational school for the coding-inclined. Such nine- to 12-week accelerated programs, including Dev Bootcamp, Hackbright Academy, and Hack Reactor, arm students with the fundamental skills needed to compete as engineers -- no previous coding experience required. That, coupled with pent-up demand is why program applicants come from all walks of life, from thirtysomething nannies to fortysomething attorneys and bankers.

????"We've had plenty of students who are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s and realized that whatever they were doing wasn't working for them," explains Jesse Farmer, co-founder of the nine-week Dev Bootcamp, which taught its first class in early 2012. Another boot camp co-founder puts it more bluntly: "The promise is the promise of livelihood."

????Getting into a program can prove a challenge. The average acceptance rate averages below 20% and can go as low as 5%, as is currently the case for Hackbright Academy. The $12,000 10-week engineering fellowship for women is full-time, with classes taught Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in San Francisco's Financial District. Hackbright's current class includes 26 students winnowed down from 400-plus applicants. And while previous coding experience isn't required, CEO and co-founder David Phillips explains that Hackbright looks for people who have some sort of demonstrated interest in becoming software engineers. That includes applicants who have attempted teaching themselves the basics, whether via free or paid online resources or college courses in computer science.

????At Hackbright, students spend the first five weeks working in pairs, learning basics like HTML, JavaScript, and Python. The last five weeks are focused on a final project. On career day, graduates set up individual stations, and partner companies such as Twitter, Pinterest, and Square spend seven minutes with each, learning about their projects -- the software engineering equivalent of speed dating. Almost 90% of Hackbright and Dev Bootcamp graduates receive offers within three months and now work as engineers at companies like Facebook and Eventbrite. In the case of one-year-old Hack Reactor, around 68 out of the course's 70 total alumni are now software engineers at places like Salesforce (CRM), earning an average salary in the low six digits.