Last September, Motorola laid off hundreds of employees at its Chicago headquarters. Many were hardware engineers who spent a decade or more at the company working on projects like the Razr, Droid and Moto 360.
If you are into hardware and live in Chicago, Motorola is not only an ideal job--it's one of the only jobs. It's one of the few places in Chicago that hires consumer electronics hardware engineers in mass, and it's why many of its techies rarely leave.
But last year's laid off Motorolans found out something interesting after getting the axe from the Chicago cell phone maker: Their skills were in hot demand from some of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley.
Within weeks of Motorola's cuts, Google, Facebook and Apple all held recruiting events and meetings to scoop up hardware engineers who had been laid off, according to multiple former Moto engineers who were present at events and meetings. Amazon also contacted multiple impacted employees, but it's not clear if they came to Chicago. Google and Facebook confirmed they were recruiting ex-Moto staffers in Chicago; Apple and Amazon did not respond to emailed requests.
The goal for these Silicon Valley giants was fly to Chicago and hire hardware folks to work on the West Coast, with one exception. Google used the layoffs as an opportunity to hire hardware engineers to be based in Chicago, making it the first time Google had recruited hardware employees to work in its Chicago office. Up until then, the only Google engineering hires in Chicago had been in software roles--not including the employees who came under Google's umbrella with its 2012 acquisition of Motorola.
Several former Motorola employees, who asked not to be identified, said within 2 weeks of getting laid off Google set up a meet-and-greet at its Fulton Market office. The meeting included "at least 200" hardware engineers, "100%" of which were laid off Moto employees, one source said. At the info session, Google demoed some of its hardware products--like Google Home and Google VR--and talked about bringing hardware jobs to its Chicago office for the first time.
One former Moto employee who was at the event said Google talked loosely about its hardware roadmap in Chicago and didn't give many details other than potentially having three product teams working on different devices. Google's Chicago hardware plan, which the attendee described as in its early stages, may have ramped up as Google saw an opportunity to hire axed Moto employees looking for work in Chicago, the source said.
Google currently lists several hardware positions in Chicago on its careers page. A spokesperson confirmed that these are among the first hardware positions Google has hired for in Chicago, but wouldn't comment on how many hardware roles it was looking to fill or what projects its Chicago team would be working on.
Facebook and Apple take Chicago hardware talent West
In the fall, around the time Google held its in-person event, Facebook and Apple also set up shop in Chicago to recruit laid off Motorola workers. One former Moto employee who attended Facebook's recruiting event said the social media company stayed at the Virgin Hotel downtown and interviewed several Moto workers for its Building 8 operation, a secretive program "focused on building new hardware products to advance our mission of connecting the world." The project is led by former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chief Regina Dugan.
A Facebook spokesperson said the company hired a "handful of people" from the recruiting event.
Like Facebook, Apple also set up a meet-and-greet with Moto engineers at a downtown Chicago hotel, according to former employees. The info session included Apple engineers who flew in to talk about the company, and Moto employees could schedule interviews with Apple recruiters.
Both Facebook and Apple were looking to relocate hardware engineers to Silicon Valley, a source said.
Moto alums spread across tech
It's not surprising that tech companies pounced on Motorola's struggles. As Motorola has changed ownership several times in recent years, and has experiences two rounds of major layoffs in the last two years, Moto talent has ben scooped up by almost every major hardware company in the US.
You can already find Moto alums at Google, Apple and Amazon. Magic Leap hired a wave of Moto workers who were fired in Florida, and Snapchat's popular Spectacles glasses are being led by Steve Horowitz, a former VP of engineering at Motorola.
During a trying time for the cell phone maker, it appears that Motorola's loss is the rest of the tech world's gain.
