Who Are You Recruiting For?

Every now and then a high school superstar athlete chooses a college that no one’s ever heard of rather than one of the “premier” programs in their sport.

There are likely a few reasons why this happens, but most likely the coach of the smaller program made an impression that was unique and different from what the big program offered. Perhaps they promised to build the program around the recruit, or went out of their way to get to know the recruit just a little bit better than the other coaches.

I think the same analogy holds up in recruiting technical talent. If you’re a recruiter at Google or Facebook, you have the luxury of a large percentage of the available talent thinking you hold the keys to the ideal job.

If, however, you’re the CEO of a company no one’s ever heard of, you’ve got to work a lot harder to land the best and brightest. At the very least, your promise has to be unique and different enough to pique the interest of those who would otherwise end up elsewhere.

The challenge is, then, to understand who you’re recruiting for. You’re not playing by the same rules as the Big 4 or that other company with whom you’re going head to head.

Understand and fully embrace what makes you and your company unique, and use those traits to land the best recruits.