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4 Ways to Recruit at SXSW

An often overlooked candidate source for almost every position are conferences and large regional events. One such event this week is SXSW (South by SouthWest), the Interactive media conference held each year in Austin, Texas, boasting nearly 24,000 in attendance.  Some of the top engineering and developer talent attends the event along with a mix of social media,  subject matter experts and bloggers, marketing, and public relations folks. It’s a melting pot of cutting edge technology and industry influencers. It is the perfect candidate recruiting ground.


This year for the first time SXSW is hosting a Career Tech Expo with more than 66 companies represented. Also included in their festivities is an all night hackathon where coders can showcase their skills. While these type of events are common among Silicon Valley companies, they are new to SXSW and are a great way to engage candidates and build relationships in a highly competitive job search industry.

But for many companies who are not targeting the highly competitive engineer and developer candidate marketer, a recruiter can still benefit from conferences like SXSW.  Here are a few ideas before you arrive in Austin.

 

Recruiting at conferences and events an extremely effective way to build relationships and promote your employer brand.  Develop a strategy and plan of attack in advance ensuring that members of your team work together to cast a target, specific, and wide net. And most of all learn something new, meet talented people, and enjoy SXSW!

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a HR consultant, new media strategist, and author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. Jessica is the host of Job Search Secrets, an internet television show for job seekers.

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