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I've recently had discussions with a number of our entrepreneurs who are looking for key talent to add to their growing companies, and I am often contacted by people who are networking to find job opportunities. ITEN has a number of ways in which we facilitate talent and opportunity matching. Most of what ITEN offers is geared to help our entrepreneurial ventures find the talent they need to grow, and yet these same offerings can be useful to people searching for positions with early-stage companies. Here are some of the ways talent and opportunities can find each other through ITEN:
The Start-Up Connection is an event held two times a year, once in the Spring and again in the Fall. The original inspiration came to Blair Forlaw of Bounce Back and me from the joint realization that a lot of very talented people were being laid off from larger companies and those people's skills could be very useful to our ITEN companies looking to build out their management teams. We had our first Start-Up Connection in early 2009. The event has since grown to be a networking fair for early-stage technology companies, and is now also sponsored by Nidus, the Biogenerator and Innovate St. Louis. The Fall 2010 Start-Up Connection is just around the corner, the afternoon of November 4. You can find more information about the event and the link to the registration on the ITEN events page.
Our C-Level Program, which was started just a few months ago, enables serial entrepreneurs and experienced executives to find ITEN companies that would be a good fit for them. Candidates are interviewed by 3 volunteer mentors and, if accepted, their anonymous resumes are made available to all of our companies. If a company and the C-Level candidate both express interest in each other, ITEN makes the introduction with hopes that a successful match takes place. As of the middle of September, 3 of our 7 approved C-Level candidates have "landed" with ITEN companies.
Posting Job Opportunities on the ITEN site is something any ITEN company can do, and the most direct way of making their employment needs known. These postings vary from very specific descriptions to very general ones. Many of the companies listing opportunities have a need for more than one skill set, and job seekers should not be put off by thinking of posted early-stage opportunities in the same way they might look at an opportunity posted by a large corporation. Following up with companies even though the posted opportunity doesn't seem to be an exact match can prove to be a good idea.
Our new Linked-In subgroup: ITEN Jobs and Positions, has been set up to enable mentors and entrepreneurs to help each other identify open opportunities for talent within the ITEN community and find the people needed. Our mentors who specialize in talent recruiting and networking for opportunities have been invited to join this group, which is open to all ITEN mentors, companies and investors accepted into the Network.
If you're looking for talented and experienced people to join your company, I highly recommend taking advantage of all of these avenues I've mentioned. Beyond these methods of linking talent and opportunities within ITEN, there are two programs in our region that can also be very helpful. One is RCGA's Bounce Back program that Blair Forlaw manages, and the other is the St. Louis Job Angels, a Linked-In networking group run by David Strom. I recommend connecting with both programs, as they can provide additional opportunities to find the person or people you're looking for.
Great companies are created by great people; and the more of them the better!
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