How to become a Tech Destination (when you’re not Amazon or Google)
Building a strong engineering team is one of the most important things a company can do to succeed. It’s also one of the biggest challenges.
We’ve reached a point where experienced engineers can practically work wherever they’d like, so setting your company apart is paramount to increasing your ability to land the talent you need.
Developers want to work for companies that have a passion for technology and a reputation in the tech community. If you’re like most engineering leaders, you have the passion, but aren’t sure how to start building your team’s reputation.
Below are some tips to get you started in becoming a tech destination.
Help candidates envision your engineering experience
Developers like to envision their experience before diving in. If it’s hard to learn about your company’s technology and engineering culture after some initial research, candidates who might have been interested will quickly move along. A CTO friend once told me —
“If only we could get them in the room, we would be able to communicate to them all the reasons they would love working here.”
— CTO of NYC startup
But what my friend didn’t understand is that you should communicate your tech vision and culture before they walk in the door. But how?
Host an Engineering Blog
Hosting an engineering blog has multiple benefits. First, it gives the tech community insight into your teams work and expertise. And second, your engineers gain a sense of pride when their hard work is published online.
(Side note: do not, however, start a blog and fail to keep it up-to-date. This can have the opposite effect.)
Open Source Projects
Open sourcing projects that are useful to others show off your team’s expertise and give back to the community in a relevant and authentic way. It also tells passionate engineers you’re in the field for the right reasons.
Get social
Before applying to a job, candidates look for as many touch points on a company as possible, and too often, few companies offer communications that pertain directly to engineers. Having social channels unique to your engineering team illustrates your company values technology and places an emphasis on it’s engineering team.
Show your commitment to the community
If you want the community to recognize you as a destination, you in turn have to recognize the tech community. Getting involved with events is a great way to start. If you want the most impassioned engineers, look no further than the groups of people getting together after work to talk about what they love.
Contribute your space
Lending your office space to relevant tech meetups and communities makes a big impact in the community. It also serves as an opportunity to build connections with relevant candidates, and adds another touchpoint in the candidate’s journey in your physical space.
“Just the fact that GIPHY hosts these types of events told me it’s a place I‘d like to work.”
— recently hired GIPHY Engineer
Contribute your expertise
Getting your team out there to speak at events and hone their presentation skills shows your employees you care about their development and gives them the opportunity to represent your team among like-minded individuals.
As the Richard Branson quote goes… “train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” Ambitious people want to work where ambition is embraced, and getting your smartest minds out there to speak shows you’re committed to employee development and confident in your ability to retain your team.
Don’t stop at the door
Word of mouth is the most powerful promotion tool there is. The values your team portrays need to ring true internally, too. From the moment an engineer walks through the door, they need to feel like their role is valued and understood. So how do you show them?
Onboarding
Engineering isn’t like any other department. So its onboarding shouldn’t be, either. Make sure your engineers are onboarded in a consistent and thorough way, without trying to pack too much in at once. An intuitively designed onboarding process should leave new-hires eager to start contributing, not feeling exhausted before they’ve even started.
Spend time together
Whether it’s going out for team drinks or sending a group of engineers to a relevant conference, find ways to spend time together outside of the office. A team that feels comfortable together is better at communicating and more likely to buy into a team-first mentality.
Talk about tech
Dedicate time to talk about tech in a relaxed environment. Maybe you have a group of engineers who want to learn more about machine learning. If so, start a machine learning book club and meet once a month. Running internal tech talks can be good too, but don’t make them required or it will become a chore and have the opposite effect.
It’s not easy, but it’s worth it
Becoming a tech destination takes time and commitment. But if you’re willing to go the extra mile, you’ll be rewarded with not only a larger pool of skilled engineers eager to join your team, but also a healthier organization to show for it.
If you’re not sure you can do it alone, shoot us an email at inquiries@techgrok.com and we’d be glad to talk.
About Techgrok
Techgrok started when we identified a troubling pattern: talented engineers who want to work with the smartest people on interesting technical problems were only seeking out companies like Amazon and Google.
This isn’t because those companies have more to offer, or are better places to work, but because they have reputations in tech that have made them destinations. With deep roots in the tech community, Techgrok knows there are plenty of organizations with equally, if not more, interesting challenges than the household names, and that have more to offer.
Techgrok is working to even the playing field by giving other companies the opportunity to become tech destinations.
