Spinify Staffing: The Twofold Benefit of Internships

Spinify’s primary coding language is Node.js. We also utilise iOS and Android skills for the App components of our leaderboard solution. We found it difficult to identify Node.js expertise in Canberra so we sought those skills offshore. This was primarily through a freelance contract site. We use freelance people a lot as it suits the agile environment we code in. Features and functionality change almost daily as customers and survey respondents provide feedback on the product. In particular, customers drive our development just as much as new innovative ideas from our product management team.  Our freelance team in 2017 has included experts in SEO, Node.js, Salesforce AppExchange Certification, Ad Words, Script and Video development for Tradeshows, design for a website, brochures, and panels. We’ve hired around 30 people so far on the freelance site we use (Upwork).

We also used final year Computing Science Bachelor and Master Degree students in internships to assist with the project work over the whole of 2017.

The Australian National University (ANU) runs a fabulous program called Tech Launcher which places final year students with a company for the entire year at a minimum of one day per week. We had 13 students for internships from Tech Launcher who were attracted to Spinify and our gamification projects after a pitch fest to all 240 students in February by Chief Evangelist, Sheryle Moon. They broke into two teams and a lone wolf all of whom contributed code and ideas to the Spinfiy projects.

The win for them was seeing their ideas and code translated to functionality that was being used by customers. For Spinify we had access to a different demographic with new ideas and thoughts about gamification, staff engagement, and motivation.

We continued internships to access University students from RIBIT. These students accept casual part time work that is paid for by Spinify. We had 4 students on internships in 2017 which we anticipate converting to full time employees once exams and university has finished. We will seek additional students in 2018 through RIBIT, which again is a pitch by the employer then a speed dating interview format to identify expressions of interest from the students.

Growth efforts in 2018 will be focused sales and marketing staff as well as our continued requirement for expert coders. The response to the launch of our leaderboard product in San Francisco will drive the numbers of staff required here an overseas. We will continue to utilize the many channels of recruitment available to us in 2018.