I just read this great article on 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks, by the Retrospector (love the name).  He’s talking more about how to motivate a geek once he or she works for your company … but the advice also applies to attracting and selling geeks to work at your company in the first place.  A few of my favorite highlights include:

• Geeks are curious. Let them feed their desire to learn things
• Geeks are creative even if they don’t know it. Give them a chance.
• Private, yet collaborative. Geeks need to be left alone, but not too alone.
• Free stuff. T-shirts, food, desktop widgets, whatever.

The Retrospector also points to other articles on geek motivation such as Top 10 Ways to De-Motivate Geeks ... "Insult their ability or intelligence" and "Don’t communicate enough with them."

All good resources to utilize with approaching your company’s tactics in recruiting engineers …who, yes, are sometimes geeks.  But I’m a geek, too, so I guess you don’t always have to be an engineer. ;-)

To bring this top 10 reasons lovefest full circle, refer back to Zoë’s post on the top 10 reasons why employers have a hard time hiring good talent .  I see these points as a nice companion piece to the geek motivation discussions because you can think about your messaging while reviewing a basic list of activities you should be doing like ...

• You're not selling yourself
• You aren’t following up with candidates
• Your career site is a mess or non-existent.

Another big gaping hole I’ve noticed now that I’ve worked with more employers is that most companies’ existing job descriptions and marketing material completely lack any WIIFM (What’s-In-It-For-Me?) messaging.  Yeah, yeah, your company is great, the job sounds challenging, and the benefits are spiffy … but why should I join your company?  How does this job help me? Remember to always play to the ego.  Let those “geeks” know how you want them to be curious, creative, and collaborative and why that’s important.  It’s not poetry, but a few quick examples:

• "How big can you think?  At Yahoo!, we’re not looking to hire people who think like us…we’re looking to hire people who think like you.” 
• "How far can your potential take you? At Microsoft, we're working toward a future where everyone's potential can be fulfilled. What about yours?” 
• "The sky’s the limit: You know the story you've read in newspapers and magazines—the one about somebody who's a runaway success at their job and says, "I can't believe I'm getting paid to do something I enjoy so much!" Now close your eyes. Put yourself in that picture. Be a part of IBM.”

What motivates your ideal candidates?

gretchen

Via Scoble and EXCELER8ion