From Code to Cause: How Purpose Attracts Top Engineering Talent

I’ve spent my career building teams in environments where the competition for talent is relentless. EdTech and publishing are no exception. If anything, it’s harder now because you are not only competing with your direct peers. You are competing with big tech.

Here’s the blunt truth. If your hiring strategy is “match the competition, improve the perks, add a fancier title,” you are entering a race designed for companies with deeper pockets and louder brands. You can run that race for a while. You will not win it for long.

The companies that win in our space do something different. They stop trying to outbid big tech. They
out-position them.

And that is where purpose stops being a nice line on a careers page and starts becoming a real talent strategy.

The Real Reason Big Tech Wins Talent, and Where They Quietly Lose It

Big tech doesn’t just hire with pay. It hires with narrative.

They sell scale and prestige. They sell the idea that your work will touch millions. Often, it will.

But there is a growing group of high-performing engineers, designers, and learning specialists who are starting to ask a different question:

“Does this work mean anything?”

Not “is it impressive.” Not “is it technically challenging.” Meaningful.

EdTech and publishing can answer that question better than most industries on the planet, if we stop underselling ourselves.

Most large publishing and EdTech companies I speak with tell me a similar story:

“We’ve upgraded our tech stack, modernized our platforms, and still struggle to attract senior engineers or data talent. They all want to go to big tech.”

I don’t think the answer is to outbid those companies. That’s rarely sustainable. Instead, I think the answer is to out-position them.

If your employer brand and interview process sound like:

“We’re using the latest tools.”
or
“We’re trying to be like a product company.”

…you will sound like everyone else.

If instead, your story is:

“We are building platforms that decide how millions of learners access content, get assessed, and progress in their careers – and we need you to help us do that responsibly and well” …you suddenly move from “one of many” to “a place where my work matters.”

Why I Don’t Describe Magic EdTech as “IT Outsourcing”

I know how our category gets labeled. Outsourcing. Staff augmentation. Delivery partner.

None of those phrases captures what the work actually is when you build learning products that shape literacy, credentials, careers, and access.

At Magic EdTech, we build platforms, content, assessments, and accessibility programs that remove friction between a learner and the moment they finally understand something. That is not a small thing. It is not “just services.” It is building the infrastructure of learning.

That is also why we attract the kind of talent that could easily go elsewhere.

The Shift: From “Pay and Perks” to “Purpose and Growth”

When I talk to senior engineers and strong instructional designers, they rarely say they are leaving because of salary alone. They leave because they feel boxed in.

They want three things:

• Work that matters
• Room to grow
• A team they respect

That’s the heart of what we focus on internally. We call it our EVP of Growth, but it is not a slogan. It is a set of choices we make about the work we take on and how we run teams.

A software engineer here is not writing “yet another workflow.” They might be building the backbone of an adaptive assessment experience that has to be defensible, auditable, and fair at scale. They see their decisions show up in real outcomes. Fewer drop-offs. Better diagnostics. More confidence for learners.

An instructional designer here is not turning slides into screens. They are shaping learning experiences that can help someone get licensed, get hired, or keep a job. They design with accessibility baked in because that is the difference between “available” and “usable.”

If you want to compete with big tech, that is the story. Not “we use modern tools.” Every company says that. The story is: “You will build things that matter, and you will grow while you build them.”

AI All In Does Not Mean “AI Everywhere”

This is a piece I want to be careful about, because the market is full of noise.

When I say we are AI “all in,” I do not mean we are replacing people with tools. I mean something more practical.

We treat AI as a capability that upgrades how we work:

• We reduce the grunt work that drains good people.
• We speed up repeatable tasks so teams can focus on judgment and design.
• We keep human accountability where it belongs, especially in education.

The best talent does not want to spend their best hours doing repetitive work that a machine can assist with. They want to solve problems. They want to think.

If you’re competing with big tech, this matters. Not because AI is trendy, but because it changes what the day-to-day job feels like for high performers.

What Leaders in Publishing and EdTech Should Do Differently Next Quarter

If you’re trying to hire scarce talent, here are the moves I’ve seen work, and I’ve seen them work repeatedly.

1. Stop Selling the Role. Start Selling the Problem

Engineers do not fall in love with job descriptions. They fall in love with hard problems and clear ownership.

Instead of: “Build features for our platform.”
Say: “Help us deliver assessment and learning systems that stay trustworthy as curriculum changes, regulations evolve, and learner needs diversify.”

2. Make Your Impact Specific.

“Education changes lives” is true and vague. Specific beats poetic.

Say what your products enable:

• Fairer assessment
• Faster feedback loops for educators
• Accessible content at scale
• Better credential transparency

Then connect the role to it.

3. Prove Growth Is Real, Not Promised.

Top candidates have heard “high growth environment” a thousand times.

Show them how growth happens:

• Mentorship and review culture
• Exposure to modern delivery models
• Room to build, not just maintain
• Learning budgets that actually get used

Education is one of the few spaces where technology, used well, can be a force multiplier for human potential. Used badly, it becomes noise and a distraction.

The talent you want knows that. They want to be on the right side of that line.

That is why I believe Magic EdTech can be a thought leader and a talent magnet. Not because we claim it, but because our work sits at the intersection of technology and real human outcomes.

If you are a publishing or EdTech leader struggling to hire against big tech, my advice is simple:

Stop trying to look like them. Start acting like who you really are.

You are not building “software.” You are building learning infrastructure. Tell that story with clarity, back it up with how you work, and the right people will lean in.