aTalent Recruiting, rekrytointiyrityksen brändikuva

Coding Factory – When you want to reach out to young IT-talents and build up your employer brand

16.04.2018 | Mika Räsänen | Read time 7 min
Why do candidates decide to participate a recruiting event? Of course, the chance of getting a new job is one major reason, but why do the talents come to an event when they can more easily apply for a job online? The answer is face-to-face time.

Events like Coding Factory, which was held this year for the third time already, are a real opportunity for the candidate to get to know the people working in the company that interests him/her. While talking with possible future colleagues the candidate can find out if the company’s values reflect their own and that if s/he might be the perfect fit for them. This type of employer branding work is crucial for the companies since the tables have turned in recruiting and especially in IT recruiting. The fight for the best talents is brutal. Instead of the company interviewing 10-15 candidates and picking the one that they think is the best, nowadays the IT talents check 5 different companies and then they decide where they want to work.


aTalent Recruiting, rekrytointiyrityksen brändikuva

Investment in your employer branding is an investment in your company

Well-kept employer brand can be a good investment for your company. Companies with well-known employer brand have for example lower cost per hire. They also have 50% more quality applications and twice faster recruitment process*.

Recruitment events are a great way for you to give candidates the idea of what it’s like working at your company. Attracting the best candidates can be challenging but when you attend an event like Coding Factory, you can meet pre-screened candidates face to face with your relevant target group and convince them of your company’s culture. This is a great way to put you ahead of the competition when it comes to graduate recruitment.


aTalent Recruiting, rekrytointiyrityksen brändikuva

“When participating a recruiting event you have the opportunity to give candidates the idea of what it’s like working at your company”

During this year’s Coding Factory we had the chance talk with Eniram’s director of Culture and People, Paula Stelander and F-Secure’s Global Cyber Talent Acquisition & Employer Branding Lead, Johanna Kurki. For Eniram it was the first time they attended Coding Factory and for F-Secure the second time. While both of these companies were ready to recruit people straight from the event they both acknowledged the importance of participation in regard to their employer branding. In Eniram’s case, their marketing has been directed to global markets but nobody knows them in Finland so they thought that it was high time to start building up the employer brand also here in Finland, Paula tells us. While F-Secure’s employer brand is in a good shape they still want to actively manage and upkeep their employer brand. So although they came to the event to fill their acute recruitment needs they still want to stay top-of-mind employer with students, says Johanna.

The atmosphere and relevance of the candidates are big factors in successful recruiting events. Paula was surprised how easy it was to approach the candidates in Coding Factory. “In traditional recruitment trade show or fair it’s awkward”, she says. “People come to your stand and sometimes coders are not that outspoken so it can become a little bit awkward. Here (in Coding Factory) it has been extremely easy to start a discussion since candidates have the workshop assignment which they are working on”, Paula repeats. When you have something tangible like a workshop or a coding assignment you can also observe how the candidates work as a team and what is their skill-levels.


“This type of events are more and more coming now and you (aTalent Recruiting) were the forerunners for it”, Johanna says. “First of all it’s selected group of people, not everybody can come and it’s more intimate. You get more time with the candidates so I think it’s a very good concept. The atmosphere is really great and aTalent is really approachable and kind of relaxed but doing everything professionally and in time which is great”, she thanks us.

If you want to be a part of the carefully selected group of companies who are ready and able to recruit the best of the bunch from young IT talents and want to be a top-of-mind employer in that target group, join us in Coding Factory 2020!

*Source: The Ultimate List of Employer Brand Statistics. LinkedIn.

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