If you try to think of parts of the US which are synonymous with a specific industry, you’ll be able to think of a few easily: automobiles and Detroit, technology startups and Silicon Valley; perhaps a few others.  With the US coming out of its recession, it’s good to know that Silicon Valley is leading the way.

The 2012 Silicon Valley Index found job growth in the high-tech hub far outpaced the country as a whole last year. The region added 42,000 jobs, a jump of nearly 4 percent, compared with a nationwide increase of little more than 1 percent.

This according to The Washington Post. Thanks to Pando Daily for the heads up on that article.

This growth is certainly something the rest of the nation wants to emulate.  Closer to the home of StartUpHire, we have the DC Mayor giving his State of the District speech last night.  In that speech, he set this course for DC:

In fact, we want to be the tech destination city on the east coast, a rival to silicon valley for talent and fast-growing businesses. We plan to attract to the district a strong presence of mature, well-established tech companies that can bring new energy.

We wish DC all the luck in attracting new companies; Silicon Valley has set a high bar.  One we hope continues for many years to come.

There are some really great things about being a part of StartUpHire. Given the current economic times, it’s good to be working on something that helps both folks who need jobs and the engines of growth for the world’s economy.

The other great thing is being exposed to some really cool startups. The amount of innovation we run in to daily is really exciting. Today’s post is a short list of some interesting companies we’ve come across; by no means is this an exhaustive list of cool startups.

Cogo Labs – this is actually a startup incubator. There are many of these, but any group that can claim over $1 million in revenue per employee is worth a look.

Invincea is a Fairfax, VA based startup company with a very novel approach to browser security. If you’re worried about zero-day attacks on the most used application in your company, give them a look. If you’re interested in stopping malware before it’s known, take a look at their jobs.

Want in at the ground floor of what could be the next big startup? Check out the posting from Yapsee. They’re working on a new way to make friends online.

Roblox is mixing elements of Legos, Minecraft, and user-created MMO content to make some interesting web-based games. They’re hiring like crazy, which is usually the sign of a company doing great things.

We’ve previously posted about startups making tools for developers. Another example is Version One. They have a widely used tool to support agile development teams. If you’re interested in helping accelerate the pace of change in every industry, check them out.

Hopefully you’ve seen some interesting companies from today’s post. If you know of other interesting startups, drop us a line using our contact form.

Quora is an interesting startup in Palo Alto, CA. Recently found on their site was someone asking “What is it like to work at Twitter as an engineer?” An anonymous user (we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they do, in fact, work for twitter) replied with the following:

It’s slightly embarrassing to read about Twitter outages on Hacker News, since the commenters like to talk shit about how we’re all incompetent.
My non-programmer friends assume I’m really good, which is silly.
People keep apologizing for not having an account to me. Seriously, it’s okay.
People think I have a lot of secret insider knowledge.

The work culture is good, though chaotic. We’re on a ridiculous hiring spree, and getting to the size where communication is difficult, and duplicate work is starting to happen.

Twitter has the standard perks you’d expect from a well-funded startup that values its developers: free lunches, and now dinners, MacBook Pros for everyone, flex hours (though individual teams may choose to do daily standups and thus force you to come in at a certain time every day), a lot of really smart, motivated, and competent people, a flat org structure, and ease of transfer between teams and projects.

Overall, Twitter’s setting a really high standard for what I want from my workplace. =D

If you’re interested in learning more about startups, you should first subscribe to the StartUpHire rss feed. Then you may want to head over to Quora and do some searching on startup topics of interest to you.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of twitter, did you know StartUpHire has a twitter stream? Follow it to find out about exciting job opportunities and to learn when we post a blog entry.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Is an infographic worth more or less?
Monetate gave the world of startups a Christmas present with their inforgraphic guide for developers wanting to work at a startup. They cover everything from what stage you should be looking at, to choices of how to impress your potential new company. They could have improved it by including StartUpHire in their suggested web sites, but if you’re reading this, you already knew that.

Monetate is a good tool to try out if you have a website and want to test which pitches get the best responses.

The post we’re linking to today is good both for entrepreneurs hiring and for those looking to get hired. If you’re looking to get hired by the a great startup, you should know what advice they’re getting. With that, you can position yourself to be more easily be found. Over at 500startups, Ethan Bloch wrote about his strategy for finding the best talent.

He advises:

Next, you need to be where your potential candidates are and go where they hang out. Online and offline.
This means: GitHub, Dribble, Forrst, Google Groups, Meetups, Hack-a-thons, Startup Weekends.

To put this in context of using StartUpHire: you should complete a profile, and include links to any websites where your work can be found.

If you’re approached by someone at a startup, you might heed this advice:

Much of the time, you’ll find candidates [who weren’t really candidates to begin with but smart MoFo’s you happened to add to your list aren’t ready to bounce from their current job but still take a meeting cause they’re excited about meeting smart people.

Just cause they’re not ready today doesn’t mean they won’t be sometime in the 6-8 months. These seeds are golden so plant as many as you can.

While that’s directed at someone hiring for a startup, if you’re looking to be hired by a startup, you should pay attention as well. Keep in touch with anyone hiring for a startup. They may not need you today, but they may in the future. If you know the type of startup you want to be hired by, spend some time investing in those places or activity they are likely to look for talent. If you’ve applied to a job and gotten an interview and hit it off with the team, keep in touch even if they don’t hire you.

Mr. Bloch is the former CEO and co-founder of Flowtown, which was acquired by Demandforce.