I love hearing what some companies will do to attract the best IT professionals to their opportunities and seeing recruiters go to great lengths to get their message heard!
I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while and after seeing this great article from Entrepreneur, Hackathon Hiring: How to scout for coders with confidence, I’m finally doing it!
They are talking about matching top software developers with entrepreneurs but their suggestions make sense for anyone looking to recruit a programmer.
They suggest attending hackathons, marathon programming sessions that happen on many weekends across the world, and following these steps:
- know the language,
- know what and whom you are looking for,
- don’t be a digital wallflower,
- get real as soon as you can, and
- rinse and repeat.
I have plenty of experience hiring developers but, in this case, I think I’d ask, beg or bribe a techie to go along to one of these digital jamming sessions for me!
Australian firm Atlassian went one step further on their recent hunt for developers! They created the campaign Europe, we’re coming to steal your geeks!
They were looking for 15 developers in 15 days whom they are going to relocate to Sydney, all expenses paid! (Sorry all, it’s recently closed!)
Atlassian created pages on their career site and fully embraced social media, including a hashtag to follow on Twitter, checking in on Path and pictures to see on Instagram and Flickr. It gives you a great feel for the company and its employees.
With articles like Why Atlassian is to software as Apple is to design, they have certainly got the right industry reputation to attract the best!
Though I am impressed with my fellow Australian’s creative efforts to attract talent, I am not sure it beats this fabulous video from Zappos Family Careers.
Have a look and let me know if you feel the same after you’ve heard the acting skills of their very own developers. Make sure you see the comments and importantly, the great engagement by Zappos recruiters.
What have you tried to lure developers to your opportunities? What could you try?
