Ask an executive about Vancouver’s tech-sector talent crunch and he or she would be unlikely to point a finger directly at the lack of young people entering the industry.
“The challenge is definitely senior talent because in the landscape that has a lot of regional offices…those roles aren’t presented here,” said Ambrosia Humphrey, Hootsuite’s vice-president of talent.
Avigilon (TSE:AVO) CEO Alexander Fernandes told Business in Vancouver August 8 the region is ripe with talent when it comes to entry- and mid-level positions.
But Metro Vancouver comes up short in terms of senior executives, he said.
It’s a problem, Fernandes said, that’s derived somewhat from a local culture that traditionally isn’t as business-centric as cities like Toronto or Calgary.
And in fact, Hootsuite went to Seattle earlier this year to recruit Groupon’s (NASDAQ: GRPN) Ajai Sehgal as the social media management firm’s new chief technology officer.
But Humphrey said Vancouver-based Hootsuite is trying to remedy the talent crunch through its annual hiring fair running August 27 from 5-7 p.m. at its new Mount Pleasant office.
“If you want to keep talent in Vancouver you have to have opportunities to keep them here and grow them here for long periods of time,” she said.
But there won’t be any intense 30-minute interviews or on-the-spot job offers, Humphrey added.
Instead, the high-growth company is expecting a few hundred candidates to be ready to chat for a few minutes and make impression with hiring managers and some senior-level employees. Last year’s hiring fair drew about 1,200 candidates and the company was able to meet with everyone over two hours.
Hootsuite has been hiring an average of 10 people a week recently and opened a second building in Mount Pleasant in the late spring manage the growth and compliment its headquarters just a few blocks away.
About 90% of Hootsuite’s 600-person workforce is based in Vancouver and there are about 100 more positions that need to be filled in the short-term.
Although the company is one of the fastest growing tech firms out there, many of the jobs that need to be filled are in sales and customer support, according to Humphrey.
“Even though we’re big in numbers, we’re young in age,” she said.
“So being someone willing to come and grab a shovel and work collaboratively and be egoless is really critical to success here.”
More information about the hiring event can be found at Hootsuite's website.
