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In a show of energy, optimism and talent, 1,000+ turn out for Venture Miami Tech Hiring Fair at Miami Dade College

Nancy Dahlberg
Nancy Dahlberg
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By Nancy Dahlberg

The booths were buzzing with student energy at the Venture Miami Tech Hiring Fair at Miami Dade College on Tuesday evening. In many ways it was a show of force that Miami’s got talent.

Derrian Wilson, for one, was there to tell students to “keep chasing” their dreams. That’s because the former Miami Dade College student found his dream first job at the last Venture Miami Tech Hiring Fair, held in April. About a month after graduating in April with a computer science bachelor’s degree from MDC’s North Campus, Wilson started work at Slalom, a global business and tech consulting company that recently opened an office in Miami. Wilson [pictured below] is an associate software engineer.

Wilson said he almost didn’t go to the hiring fair last April but at the last minute changed his mind, put on a suit, brought his resumes and loaded his phone with more information. He was glad he did.  You got a chance to talk to the companies directly, and that is what makes the hiring fair special, he said. He was particularly impressed by the human touch Slalom conveyed. “It’s changed my life,” he said of his first career position.

Along with other employees of Slalom, Wilson was working the booth, getting to know the students and telling them about potential opportunities, including internships, at Slalom. “It’s amazing to be a part of this event that helps people like myself.”

His advice to today’s job hunters, even though the economy has taken a downturn? “It’s not as rigorous as it seems because there are so many great companies out here. Overcome those fears and go for it.”

The free hiring fair was open to the entire community, so companies were also recruiting for more senior level roles too. Tuesday’s fair featured 45 companies, including giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Ford all the way to startups with a dozen employees or fewer. The companies were recruiting for a thousand positions, 55% of them technical roles and 45 percent non-technical, showing that one doesn’t have to be a CS major to work in Miami’s growing tech community.

Long lines of applicants queued up for Microsoft, Blackstone and Santander. But neobank Novo’s booth was buzzing too, as well as other Miami tech startups and tech companies including Kaseya, Papa, Zigazoo, Neocis, Everymundo, and Strategio and Milo.

Haku Sports is a technology platform that enables sports event organizers to better plan and manage their events. Samary Rodriguez, Head of People, and Adam Wolford, Head of Product, explained that Haku is hiring across product and marketing roles. “We want to tap into talent across the board,” Rodriguez said. Haku Sports, a fast growing startup,  has 46 employees now. One of the employees working the booth was Xhejsa Xharda, who was hired after the last hiring fair as a customer experience role.

DoorLoop, a startup that developed rental property management software, was looking for software developers, sales and marketing management talent among other roles. The proptech startup, which has HQs in Miami Beach and Tel Aviv, has 60 employees now, said Caraline Harwood, office manager of the company.

Mary Jimeno of Majority, a migrant-focused neobank,  said the company is looking for online to hire for its online department, including social media, as well as data analytics, “at the end of the day, we are here for talent. If a person has talent, we want them.” Majority has doubled in size this year, and like DoorLoop, the startup has recently raised a funding round

Meanwhile, TradeStation, a South Florida-born finance company that brought the “Miami Bull” – crypto style —  to the campus during Tech Week, was seeking applicants for client success and tech support jobs at the entry level, a good stepping off point because the company promotes from within, said Rasiel Ruiz, VP of Development. The company also has about 10 engineering jobs open, as well as some very senior roles, and is also always on the looking for interns, he said.

Dignitaries of the city, county and the area’s universities were on hand to cheer on the students.

In remarks to the crowd, Kevin Ruiz, a founder and senior advisor for Venture Miami, ticked off a number of accomplishments the city and county have reached this year, including the metro area ranking 6th in the nation for Venture capital in Q3, the 140% growth in tech job postings this year, tech salaries growing fastest in the US, and the recent launch of the Venture Miami Scholarship Program. “Why? Because Miami.” Talking to the students and technologists in the audience, he added, “Resist the urge to take your foot off the pedal.”

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez called the event “a total success.”

He continued, “The companies that are transforming our economies into one driven by technology came together to offer high-paying, high-quality jobs for our residents. This is the reason we are working hard toward building a tech ecosystem — to open the doors for all Miamians into the jobs of the future.”

Miami Dade College photo (also photo at top of post provided by Miami Dade College).

In his remarks to the crowd, he said, “It’s emotional for me to see the hunger, the desire, the hope in people’s eyes. I also see these companies that we have helped attract to this city. All of this is happening because Miami, because we refuse to be ruled by hate, we refuse to be ruled by negativity. We’re gritty, we believe in scale because we have tasted it, there is no one in this community that can’t succeed.”

“You can do it,” Suarez told the students, offering to write letters of recommendation. “We believe in your future and we are going to fight for it.”

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Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg andr email her at [email protected]

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