Want to find a good dev? You should’ve been at HackerX

by Nenad Tadic
February 6, 2014

If you want a job with some of Chicago’s hottest companies, you should’ve been at HackerX Tuesday. HackerX, the San Francisco-based organization that hosts ultra-exclusive recruiting events, came to Chicago for the second time earlier this week for speed networking.

 

The event was so exclusive in fact that developers were personally invited to attend, community manager Emily Lee said.

 

Developers had just five minutes each in speed dating-style rounds to impress recruiters from digital companies including: Lightbank, Fooda, Belly, CSG International, HighGround, DraftFCB, AKTA, ShopperTrak, The Mx Group, Salesforce.com, Punchkick Interactive, Freebie and Lextech.

 

Companies with big tech needs like these often struggle with finding good developers or attracting them from either coast. It’s been difficult to find good talent, explained Scott Roberts of ShopperTrak to solve tough tech problems, like how to measure retail foot traffic like ShopperTrak. That's exactly why HackerX came around this week - to aid in the recruiters’ searches for mobile dev whizzes.

 

But some companies and developers were lucky to find each other in a single night: “Some of these developers went home with a job tonight,” Lee said.

 

Lee said facetime between employers and candidates is really difficult to come by, so by putting everyone in a more casual setting like this one, “both parties are comfortable and a lot more easygoing than at a formal career fair or interview.” Over 50 developers were attracted by this casual setting: one said he’d “never heard of something like this before”

Other ways you can get your dev fix this month include a panel on how to hire a CTO or developer at 1871 on February 25 and the Chicago FoxPro Developers Group happening every third Monday of the month also at 1871.


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