Over the weekend (and after 6 years of living in Seattle), I finally caught the Blue Angels’ annual Sea Fair extravaganza.   Every summer, the Blue Angels pretty much shut down the city to fly over Lake Washington and the I-90 Bridge.  The official shows are set for the weekend, but they practice during the week, too.  Last Wednesday during one of their practices, I nearly peed my pants when a Blue Angel flew over my house.  I forgot they were in town, and I was convinced a 747 was about to land in my front yard!

Anyway, it was great to finally catch the show up close, and as I tend to do in my own geeky way, I thought, “How does this relate back to recruiting?”

Well, that one is pretty simple, self.  The Blue Angels’ mission statement spells it out:  “The mission of the Blue Angels is to enhance Navy recruiting, and credibly represent Navy and Marine Corps aviation to the United States and its Armed Forces to America and other countries as international ambassadors of good will.”

Yes, the Blue Angles are largely about recruiting, and boy, you could you tell it during the show.  Of course, their target is not adults.  Most adults at the show were past the age of considering Navy enlistment.  And any teenagers who were there should be bright enough to know their chances of one day becoming a Blue Angel are pretty darn slim.  But not the kids.  They were mesmerized.  They all had little Blue Angel planes and were just giddy with excitement.  You can bet there were a lot of kids proudly proclaiming their Blue Angels career ambitions after that show.

As you probably know, there’s a declining enrollment in the computer science field in the US.  If US hi-tech employers think they’re feeling a crunch today, it’s only going to get worse in the years to come.  The Navy knows it’s never too early to begin recruitment, and this approach is already bleeding over into CS recruitment as well.

For instance, several companies are now partnering with organizations to increase interest in the computer science field.  Examples include DigiGirls (by Ignite) and Girls Go Tech (by the Girls Scouts).  (And, yes, it’s true … most of these programs also have a goal of infusing diversity into the software engineering field while they are at it.  It's much more difficult to find examples of "let-just-get-kids-into-CS" organizations - but I'm sure they are out there!)

But there’s lots of other ways to encourage kids and teenagers (who will be your candidate pool in 10-20 years … that’s not too far away!) to consider the computer science field.  Best case scenario, you hook candidates for the future; worst case, you give your company some great PR.

• Speak at a local school or organization’s career day about what it’s like to be a software engineer.
• Partner with a local school or organization on a fun coding project for their students or members.
• Invite a local school or organization to your headquarters to see what it’s like to work for a software engineering company.

And better yet …

• Reach out.  If you hear about a student or group of students doing great work, let them know!  Send them some of your swag or software … or just write them a letter of acknowledgement and congratulations.  And then stay in touch.  Touch base once a year or so to see how they are progressing in their school work.  As your list grows, you can even implement a mentoring program with your employees.  And before you know it, these kids are intern age … and then full-time employee age.  Yeah, easier said than done, but if you are serious about building your truly “long-term” candidate pipeline, you’ve got to give a little to get a little.

So the next time you approach your company's long-term recruitment plan, just asked yourself, “What would the Blue Angels do?”

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gretchen