Polle de Maagt 
Polle de Maagt
Story.
In 2019, Booking.com hid a recruitment message in the HTML source of its website. Anyone curious enough to inspect the code found an invitation to get paid for doing exactly that, followed by a link to the careers site.
What they did.
The placement did part of the selection.
Someone reading the message had already shown technical curiosity. They were looking behind the interface instead of only using it. The message reached potential candidates in a place most visitors would never see.
Why it works.
It was cheap. It did not need a campaign. Even one strong applicant would have made it worthwhile.
Do not only advertise the role. Use the placement to demonstrate who the role is for.
Try it yourself.
The broader principle is simple: put the invitation where the right people naturally look. Source code for developers. API documentation for technical partners. Packaging for designers. Specialist tools for specialists.
Name the one place where the people you want to hire already look. Put one sentence there.
Source: my original post of February 2019. The message was present when I first wrote about it. I could not confirm that it is still in Booking.com’s current source code. Magnifying glass made with Midjourney.
