Few weeks back I read an interesting article on SourceCon about StackOverFlow – a technical community and how sourcers can use the same to unearth great technical talent. The golden nuggets such as this differentiate a “post n’ pray” sourcing process to a “hunting” sourcing process. It is increasingly important for sourcers to hunt new sources for fetching candidates as sources like LinkedIn are being spoken about in the same breathe that of job portals (sadly!).
Technical communities are an awesome platform to engage best of the technical talents as you get to see their work, popularity, passion and thus you can connect with them just like a social platform. Platforms such as these are in fact more effective and targeted than any other social networks. I would like to cover today an upcoming community platform in India called “TechGig”.
SourceCon has a huge following in India and I am sure global sourcing community will also be interested to understand more about Indian market.
What is TechGig?
TechGig is India’s one of the largest technology community which allows users to interact with their community members. It is also a great platform to showcase your talent and “though leadership” through various means like webinars and coding contests. It has just over 500000 members in India; mostly within application development / testing technologies like Java, php, android and testing.
How can it be used for Sourcing?
This community provides a good platform for not only direct candidate research but also to push your “Employer Branding” through various means like webinars, coding contests, skill pages etc.
People Search
It is a free platform to register and do not require any special gateway to restrict recruiters. People Search functionality is fairly detailed to do search specific to companies, institutes, functions, candidate name etc. You may not get direct contact details but it has a “LinkedIn-alike” invitation sending method to connect with your potential candidates.
Job Posting
TechGig also provides a functionality to post jobs across different technologies. These jobs are being matched to your skill to present an unique collection of customized jobs for each person in the system. Guess what – again for free!
Webinars & Coding Contests
TechGig hosts regular webinars around latest technologies and trends in the market with help of various industry renowned technical talent – at all levels. It also conducts various technical contests around specific technologies. Idea is to induce techies to compete against onean other to showcase their expertise in the technical area. Both these tools can provide a great platform to companies to enhance their employer brand and attract talent through thoughtful recruitment marketing. Gamification!
Skill Pages & Company Pages
TechGig has also created special skill-pages for few selected skills to begin with for now including testing, android, project management, php and Java. Each of the skill pages are a collection of news / trends about that technology, webinars and other content. Companies can own these skill pages to brand their capabilities for those specific technologies. Additionally, companies can set up their own pages to attract talent in this community.
Overall, I liked the idea and set-up of TechGig from conceptual standpoint. This is one of the most interesting platforms I have come across for “community engagement” activities to aid your employer branding in India – especially if you are a technology company.
Indian recruitment/sourcing strategies are becoming more digital and social oriented. Hence, organizations need to think beyond Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to expand their social reach to more targeted communities such as TechGig to connect with engaged talent. Innovation is a mantra! Look beyond your comfort zones, reach where your candidates are and speak in their own language.