Local interest in technology jobs appears to be on the rise, according to Christian Gaddis, director of Forge Buffalo.
Take Forge’s annually held career fairs, for example. Forge, an online platform that aims to connect job seekers with local tech and startup companies, started holding 716 Career Fair's in 2021. Attendance each year has grown.
“I think it shows growing interest in this community for those types of opportunities and what this means in this space and the future of the region,” Gaddis said.
Forge is a program under the umbrella of 43North, a state-funded incubator and pitch competition. The group’s career fairs, which are focused on the tech-startup industry, attracted 113 attendees in 2021, 157 attendees in 2022 and 302 attendees this year.
This year’s event was held March 2 at the Lexus Club @ KeyBank Center and included 36 employers.
“Part of what we try to do with a lot of our events too is to make them a little bit out of the box,” Gaddis said.
That includes strategic moves like having a DJ, a professional photographer doing headshots and a LinkedIn expert to go through people’s profiles with them.
Thanks to platform updates made this year, Forge, which will hold another career fair in September, is also trying to make it easier for those interested to get jobs in technology. While job candidates used to sign up for Forge and have to upload a resume, now they just add their LinkedIn profile to get synched to Forge’s platform.
“One thing we’ve found, especially in the shift of the way people look at jobs, is no one has a single resume anymore,” he said. “Most have a baseline one they tweak based on the job they’re applying for.”
This change also helps recruiters analyze candidates faster since LinkedIn profiles are formatted similarly, versus resumes that could have numerous formats and layouts.
Gaddis works with a 43North recruiter and a part-time recruiter through its partner, Viaduct.
He said his big focus right now, although Buffalo will always be the center of Forge, is outreach to surrounding communities like Rochester and Syracuse, both when it comes to recruiting tech talent and partnering with organizations and employers there.
“Some companies have positions we’ll post on Forge, knowing if it’s fully remote, if it’s a Buffalo employee, that’s a win for both of us,” he said. “And vice versa. We want them to be aware of these opportunities because we know as the region is successful that’s really going to benefit everybody.”
