In this increasingly fierce hiring climate, the stakes are high when it comes to sourcing and hiring qualified tech talent.

For those in the recruitment world, the struggles around local tech talent shortage, slow hiring processes, employee churn, and competitive compensation are nothing new.

Everyone’s looking for the competitive edge, the secret sauce 🥫✨ 

More companies are taking a new approach, turning to external tech recruitment partners while also actively participating in hiring events to build a healthy pipeline of qualified candidates needed to scale their teams.

Having keyed in early, tech startups and scaleups including Bench, Vendasta, and Customer.io  have tapped into the secret sauce, and have been participating in VanHack’s virtual hiring fair making successful hires from past events.

READ MORE: How Bench hired 3 senior software developers from VanHack in 3 weeks »

The Secret Sauce, Revealed: VanHack’s Virtual Hiring Fairs

VanHack’s Hiring Fairs are a recruiting and networking event for employers looking to meet and hire talent from a single event. 

At the hiring fair, participating employers are able to pitch their company, connect with high-calibre candidates and meet dozens of candidates in under 2 hours.

For VanHack, the pandemic has also shifted in-person events to virtual. The shift to virtual has also opened a door of opportunity, and allowed increased flexibility for employers to connect with and hire diverse global talent, without prior concerns around geographic constraints.

Currently, in its 5th year,  VanHack’s hiring fairs have been well received, with high attendance, connections, and over 400 hires made directly from the event. 

And the stats are there to show. The last Women in Tech hiring event saw over 440 attendees, 200 female candidates registered from 50 countries, and 1800 speed interviews facilitated.

What Employers Can Expect from VanHack’s Virtual Hiring Fairs

✅ Access to Vetted Global Tech Talent

When it comes to sourcing global tech talent, employers are often unsure of where to start their search.

The Virtual Hiring Fairs offer access to tech talent, while also simplifying the hiring process by cutting down the extra hours companies’ internal hiring teams spend sourcing and screening candidates. 

Registered candidates are expertly pre-vetted by VanHack’s in-house talent management and technical recruiters to ensure they fit the profile, possess the appropriate skill sets (ex. Javascript, Golang, Ruby on Rails, etc), and experience (ex, 7+ years of experience for Senior Dev events), and actively seeking new opportunities.

The candidate curation and vetting process is a fool-proof way to guarantee all candidates meet the requirements, a necessary step to create the best possible experience and matches for both candidates and employers.

What else can employers expect pre and post-event: 

✅ Pre-event: As a teaser, the Talent Management team handpicks the top 14 candidates (with varying skill sets and diverse backgrounds) companies can expect to meet at the event.

✅ Post-event: To further support employers, attendee lists and profiles are shared with companies post-event to review and connect with candidates they’d like to continue their conversations with.

🔎 Haven’t found the right candidates from the event? Employers are also encouraged to browse VanHack’s 370K+ tech talent pool to find their match.

✅ Specialty Focus & Skill Sets

VanHack’s hiring fairs are typically designed around a specific focus, whether it be a skillset, Women in Tech, or Diversity & Inclusion topics.

In order to create an easy, enjoyable experience for both employers and candidates, each day has been structured to focus on an in-demand programming language.  For example, day 1 of the event will call for Javascript and Ruby on Rail Developers, while day 2 places the focus on Mobile and Python Developers. 

This ensures candidates attending the session are meeting the right employers, and are a good fit for the open role(s).

✅ Company Pitches

Each day starts off with a lightning round of company pitches. Employers are invited to take center stage and provide a quick introduction of their company, product, team, culture, and open roles.

It’s also an opportunity to drum up excitement among candidates who are eager to learn more about the company, and where they could potentially be working.

✅ 1:1 Speed Interviews

With company pitches out of the way, it’s time for the employers and candidates to finally meet. 

In the live networking session, employers are able to virtually speed-interview candidates in a 1:1 format, for 5-7 minutes each. This allows hiring managers to meet with dozens of candidates during the session, with the option for employers to book the next interview from the VanHack platform, in one click post-event. 

To learn more about VanHack’s hiring events, visit the VanHack events page for all upcoming Hiring Fairs.