How to Attract Top Tech Talent
By: Jimmy Soh
Tags: Recruiting, Entrepreneurship, Talent Acquisition, Startup, Digital Transformation

How to Attract Top Tech Talent

Four suggestions for recruiting talented technology individuals into your new digital startup team (Singapore context)

A few years ago, I joined my first company through a hackathon event that I participated in while studying (and struggling) in university. Hackathons and events are an effective way to recruit tech talents in Singapore.

I enjoyed my time in the company; I started as an intern and converted to full-time subsequently. Looking back, joining the hackathon was the best investment of my time. I later introduced the rest of my friends into the team.

Fast forward a few years later, today, I’m placed in the role to assist with the recruitment of digital talents into a new digital team. Do note that this is not an HR role. I’ll be sharing some suggestions based on my conversations with fellow technologists and what has worked for me.

#1: Focus on building an influential culture and community

The salary for talented technology professionals (at least in Singapore) is generally competitive enough. My technology counterparts (the good ones) are earning quite a decent amount of salary, up to a point where further increments don’t contribute much to their lives.

If you want to reach out to talented tech individuals that are well taken care of, you’ll have to focus on the components at the top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs; this includes a pleasant environment, community, and culture, etc.

Building a culture that attracts strong talents is no easy task, and it can take a significant amount of time and effort. The foundation is critical, e.g. the first few members of the team would set the stage for the rest of the community. If you’re already in an existing large team with an undesired culture in place, it may be worth considering to start a new team with a clean slate.

While your team is still small and new, it’s essential to invest time and resource in planning the types of benefits and leaders to bring into your organisation. Based on my experience, I’ve seen two successful approaches which may work for you:

Set the desired environment — if you’re looking to create a digital startup culture and environment to facilitate innovation, follow the industry leaders. New hires coming from those environments would not get too much of a culture shock, and you’ll attract similar type people. Recruit the influential leader — although this might incur you quite a sum at the start, it could be beneficial in the long run as the rest of the team is likely to follow a good leader into the new organisation; a leader is a strong ambassador.

Having an influential culture and community creates a positive reinforcing feedback loop, whereby the people in your team become ambassadors to refer people that fits and grows the culture. Now, where can you find these people and the influential leader? I’ll be covering that shortly in the subsequent sections.

#2: Provide meaning and recognition

Apart from having a good culture and community, the work has to be meaningful and rewarding to attract the top tech talent who wants to make a difference. As a tinkerer, one of the most disappointing things to experience is after spending a significant amount of time and effort building something only to see it go to waste; we want to create things that make an impact.

Choose the type of projects you undertake wisely. Eventually, you’ll have to sell the projects to the rest of your team to get their buy-in and commitment to start the journey together with you. Find meaning and purpose in the projects that you and your team choose to undertake — pick up negotiation and sales skills if you have to. The best kinds of project are those with nationwide impact and media publicity upon launch, e.g. apps related to COVID-19 to help citizens.

One of the questions I often hear these days from my talented tech counterparts are: “What kind of interesting projects does the team do?” Meaningful projects are a strong selling point for your team to attract talented tech individuals who are keen to make an impact.

#3: Illustrate prospects for the role

It’s important to illustrate the prospect for the role that you’re recruiting. Explain how you’ll be grooming individuals to become a product owner or architect, etc. While some technologists would prefer to stay as a rockstar developer or technical wizard, many see themselves as future product owners (PO), architects and project managers (PM). By showcasing the road map upfront, it could attract potential hires looking to advance further gradually.

You may want to consider including a short description or detail in the job description indicating the type of prospects that the role could open up to, e.g. progression after two to three years to PO, PM, etc. The potential candidate can then envision their success and progress in your team.

#4: Visit and recruit from tech hangouts, events, and online

I joined my company through a digital hackathon event. I remember during the event, my team had a mentor assigned to my team. The mentor is a project manager from the company that took time off projects to participate in the hackathon to coach teams.

We asked him what’s in it for him being here? It’s simple. He said, “We’re looking to hire strong individuals for our team, and we can usually find them here at competitions.” There’s quite a lot of truth in that. During my university days, the ones who join competitions are either those that can juggle multiple commitments (ambitious), keen learners, are genuinely passionate, or a combination of each. These are the groups of people who make time to hone their craft.

If you want to look for the best talent, you’ll have to visit the places that these groups of people gather. You don’t need to organise a hackathon. There are various options these days:

Tech events, e.g. UX meetups, Hackathons, etc.

University career shows and seminars (as a speaker/contributor: go early and stay later to network with the ones who are interested)

Online micro-communities, e.g. Telegram groups, Slack groups, etc.

LinkedIn

It’d be worthwhile even if you don’t get any potential candidates from these events, because these people may refer their friends to you or reach out to you again someday.