Technical Recruiting Agency Talks About These Outside The Box Tactics
Wondering what are the bets recruiting agency tactics?
What does a technical recruiting agency have in common with the tech industry titans of Silicon Valley? We all want top tech talent.
It’s no secret that skilled engineers and developers are in high demand and that employers will go to great lengths to secure talent. While a mid-sized firm’s HR department or a technical recruiting agency will typically use conventional tactics to identify talent, some of the bigger tech companies have been known to pull some pretty cool recruiting stunts over the years.
Here are a few of our favorites:
THE GOOGLE BILLBOARD PUZZLE
Back in 2004, while trying to hire web developers, Google decided to take the road less traveled and post their ad on a billboard in California. However, instead of posting the job specifications, Google posted a math problem that led to a unique URL.
“{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com”
There was no mention of the company, or even the fact that this was a job advert, but inquiring minds who visited 7427466391.com were invited to submit their resumes to Google. In addition to testing the recruit’s math competency, this method also drew in applicants who solved the problem out of genuine curiosity, rather than for career advancement.
Since then, the tech giant has tried a number of other great recruiting stunts, but this remains my favorite.
SKILL TESTING QUESTIONS
A number of other companies have taken a page out of Google’s book.
Ticket reseller SeatGeek has hired programmers through a back-end hack challenge where applicants had to change the site’s code before submitting their resumes.
When Daily Mail, a British news media company, was hiring for an SEO manager, the company cleverly hid the application instructions inside its robot.txt file, ensuring that only those who fit the bill could even access the info.
SWIPE RIGHT
In Seattle, Amazon workers once recruited new talent via Tinder and other dating apps. Though this method was controversial, and a little bit creepy, it was certainly interesting enough to warrant inclusion on this list.
As these examples show, some of the biggest companies in the tech industry are constantly looking for ways to recruit technical talent. Sometimes the methods are unique and successful (Google), sometimes they are creepy and weird (Amazon) but either way outside the box recruiting is here to stay.
With that said, you don’t need a giant billboard or a series of skill-testing questions when you use a technical recruiting agency.