Atlassian continues to do things their way and has gone on a hiring binge, despite the GFC.

Known as the Atlassian 32 campaign, the company is looking to hire 32 software engineers in its Sydney Headquarters.

That’s an increase of 25% on their total Sydney headcount, and an increase of 50% over their existing Sydney engineering count - not bad when the rest of the technology world seems to be cutting technical staff.

Mike Cannon-Brookes said this about the announcement:

We’ve always done things differently, from upfront affordable pricing and no traditional sales force. We see an incredible opportunity during the GFC to bring best innovative minds to Atlassian.  We’re weathering the GFC by bulking up our research and development arms

We’re seeing the recession as an opportunity to really invest in our people and products so that when the downturn is over we come out swinging and stronger than the competition.

It’s a really smart move by the team and Mike’s reasoning is bang on. That having been said, there’s a big difference between knowing that a down-turn is the best time to invest in innovation and having the cojones to actually do it - so good on them.

It’s also really impressive to see them driving that innovation by employing Aussie engineers. There is no other technology company, whether start-up, mid-market player or multi-national who is hiring engineers in these numbers in Australia. Just typing that makes me realise, once again, what a super job Atlassian is doing for the local tech scene.

You can check out more details here - including how to get your hands on $2K for referring a successful applicant