Yesterday I had the opportunity to hear Alan Noble, Engineering Director for Google Australia/New Zealand present on how they are tackling Google's expansion. While there were many interesting facts (for example, Google receives 12 resumes every second) and insights (like Google's approach to products, "Build it and see if people use it"), the one that I found interesting is regarding Branding.
We all know the value of and hence focus on building our companies brand. In today's environment, it needs to be dynamic, exciting and have "sizzle", as they say. When it comes to recruitment however, we tend to have a bland, boring, "check list" approach. Alan highlighted the obvious issues with this when trying to recruit highly talented professionals, especially "Generation-Y". On the one hand you represent a dynamic exciting work place, on the other your recruitment message says the opposite.
As Engineering Managers, I see it as part of our job to build "brand awareness" of our engineering team. This can include involvement with universities and the local technical community but it's also important to consider what message we are giving when we advertise for positions.
At Ephox we have a team of outstanding developers working on the edge of technology. They work hard as a team and have a heap of fun doing it. It's this kind of message I want to get across when building awareness of our technical team, but it is also important to get this across when we advertise for new team members.
