Look who’s hiring!

If you want to know what your competition is working on? Take a look at what they’re hiring for. This is something that many strategists overlook. The most recent example of this can be seen with Apple’s hiring of Benjamin Vigier. Rumor is that iPhone 5 will have mobile commerce capabilities built in. Apple also posted a job for a ‘Senior Antenna Engineer’ two days after the iPhone 4 release. (Rhymes with ironicle.) Facebook was recently hiring a ‘Senior Search Engineer’ for their upcoming foray into search – Rockmelt or Facebook Search – you pick. This is one of the easiest ways to spy on your competitors, but most don’t seem to do it. Fortunately for us, TechCrunch and others do! If you can afford it, you should have someone review job boards and befriend recruiters to see what your competitors are up to. Human capital is expensive and is an excellent indicator of future strategies.