Rajeeb Dey: Hunting for tech talent? Attend the world's largest tech festival

Rajeeb Dey, CEO of Enternships and London Loves Talent Award judge, on why you need to attend London’s biggest tech party

Every company, big or small, is battling with the supply and demand issue surrounding digital talent. Good developers have an almost mythical status; ask a hiring manager if they would rather try to source a unicorn or a developer, and the brow will furrow.

Overdramatic? Not really – the EU Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs predicts that there will be 900,000 unfulfilled ICT-related jobs by 2015. Despite a recent revelation that the UK has 40% more digital firms than the government estimated, many of the splendid (not to mention attractively remunerated) employment opportunities available with these companies go to waste. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the the country’s collective student debt squirm with anguish.

Yes, the education system still has to play catch-up to balance the scales, and tracking down top tech talent usually spells out a headache for all involved, be they corporate or startup. But it’s the small companies – those lacking the budget and HR manpower to carry out a tech recruitment mission of sufficient size to attract interest – that suffer most under this digital skills deficit and struggle to tap into the elusive pool of developers, programmers, data scientists and similar folk. Until the UK nurtures a home-grown digital workforce that can cope with demand, many companies are forced to outsource projects or seek to attract talent from overseas.

That’s why Campus Party, the world’s largest festival of technology and digital entertainment, goes some way to circumventing this issue and alleviates the headaches (albeit temporarily) that are brought on by the recruitment conundrum. Campus Party is an annual epicentre for over 10,000 technical minds and general tech enthusiasts from all over Europe, and this September it’s coming to London for the first time ever. The “campuseros” will drink their fill of hackathons, workshops, demonstrations and presentations from tech A-listers for a whole week, 24 hours a day, at The O2 Arena from 2-7 September 2013.

The top bods at Campus Party have recognised the recruitment opportunity here – this year sees a new addition to the festival called Market Place, an interactive forum for showcasing careers in tech through which all Campus Party attendees will pass. At Enternships, we specialise in helping small companies to meet their hiring needs – that’s why we have teamed up with Telefónica to host the inaugural Enternships Careers Fair, dedicated to connecting innovative startups and SMEs to the crowds of technical minds that will be milling around The O2 Arena. Rounding up the unicorns, so to say.

If you’re on the hunt for tech talent, find out more about how you can get involved here, or contact [email protected].

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