Marketing 101 for Technology Geeks

Code Camp 2011

I Recently attended the South Florida Code Camp which is a free Geek Fest organized by Florida.net and was held this year at NSU.  The event attracted more that 1000 participants who had the opportunity to hear 78 highly regarded industry expert who presented software development topics throughout the all-day event.

I sat-in on my friend Alex's presentation "For Love or Money", a discussion about the volatile I.T job market.  As a successful recruiter and owner of SherlockTech.com, Alex has a deep understanding of the I.T. job market in general and the South Florida market in particular.  Following along and listening to the participants input, it stuck me that most of the software developers present don't really understand how to use modern marketing tools to help them develop their careers.

When I was a young engineer, things were not so complicated:

1 Develop your craft 

2 join some user groups

3 become a speaker

4 get poached

5 goto 1

and it was quite acceptable to remain in the same company doing the same job year after year - after all someone needs to maintain this monster you created, right?

Today, things are much more complicated, new technology, fickle employers, highly competitive market, age/gender discrimination - too many moving targets.  so what can you do to stay in the game?  Well, believe it or not the 5 steps above still work today but the frequency needs to be higher - if you want to continue to develop as an engineer you need to be constantly challenged in the workplace or you'll simply be getting the same experience year on year without any growth.

You also have to understand your career objectives: developer > team leader > system architect > project manager > I.T. director etc...  Or do you want to be actively developing software throughout your career?  These are very different paths and require that you develop different skills sets. 

By mixing old and new ideas you can build a marketing strategy that works for you and your goals.

1 establish your expertise - blog, blog, blog

2 contribute code to open source projects and online code repositories

3 use social media to showcase yourself (linkedin, twitter, youtube, facebook)*

4 build a relationship with a top recruiting firm in your field

5 goto 1

*Some notes about social media and your personal image.  Employers future and present will use the web to verify you and your skills so having a presence there is very important BUT KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL AT ALL TIMES. 

Steve Earle is Strategic Sales and Marketing Consultant at e2mktg