Recruiting Talent for Startups

Hiring for a startup is arguably one of the most important pieces to having a successful startup. Because startups tend to be small, each member of the team matters A LOT  both in the company’s success and failure. Contrary to popular belief, 64% of millennials would rather take a $40k salary for a job they love over a desk job at $100k. So, chances are you have a pretty good shot at finding someone great to hire.  For startups, time is money and recruiting takes time so we created a program that exists to provide our Founders and startups with top talent. Each semester, we attend college career fairs around the southeast and recruit the best of the best to come work for our startups.  Whether you are in school for marketing, business, finance, or computer science, you are wanted, needed, and valuable for startups. Entrepreneurial studies is now the 3rd most popular major for the Y generation so the term startup is not unknown to this population.  Millennials are trading in starch and a high paying salary for a better chance to change the world.  With students being 1.82X more likely to study entrepreneurship, many universities are taking notice and responding by supporting the movement.  Emory University and Mercer University, two of our amazing partners, have taken notice of this trend within their student body and have both responded to the demand through curriculum, partnerships in the tech community, and even an innovation center. So how do we get these students connected with our startups? Like most things Village, it happens relationally. The Village team personally meets each possible hire that we pass along to our startups. This vetting process is a time save for entrepreneurs as well as for the students. Time is money, right?

And you know what else costs money? Recruiting.

Since the Fall of 2016, the Village team has attended 30 career fairs and passed along 816 resumes to Founders and CEOs. It is not hard to sell our startups to students, especially when they are members of the 4th largest tech hub in the nation (fist bump), because our startups are exciting and they are changing the world.  After we meet those students, we push the application process through the Village’s job board to connect them with our startups.  Our startups are then receiving a high volume of quality applications.

Our last 3 positions were filled through the Atlanta Tech Village job board. The world of recruiting is quickly changing. Gone are the days where we can rely on the large job boards. We just don’t have the time to sift through hundreds of resumes from unqualified applicants. Today, we rely on social networking sites and smaller, specialized job boards. ATV’s job board is that specialized place to go for 'Tech-Focused' individuals in Atlanta!— Dawn Crawford, Director of People, IO Education

So, quick recap:

Tips on how the Village can connect talent to startups and startups to talent:

1. Utilize our job board. Frequently.
2. Applicants, put together a great startup friendly resume.
3. Do some research on our Villagers and pursue who you are passionate about.
4. Read this blog to find out what not to do =).
5. Attend our Startup Student Connection in the spring.

Our promise to Villagers is to provide their startup with the best chance of success.  One of the ways we ensure that success is through faster connections to talent. Startups are hiring and technology is growing, all we need is you.