East Coast recruitment firm Venor talks navigating the Atlantic tech job market

Tech recruitment is evolving rapidly, and firms like Venor are at the forefront of this transformation. With offices in Halifax, Moncton, and a newly opened space in St. John's, Venor works with clients across the globe, connecting them with talent that is often tough to find.

“In any given year, we'll complete upwards of 100 successful searches on behalf of our tech portfolio of clients. Among those clients are international software innovators, as well as locally owned and operated Atlantic Canadian businesses,” said Nick Misener, Venor Partner, during Episode 39 of All Hands on Tech.

In this latest episode, Misener and IT Recruitment Specialist Steph MacIntosh discuss various aspects of recruitment, including useful strategies, the current tech market landscape, the growing importance of soft skills and the integration of AI in the hiring process. For employers and job seekers alike, the pair emphasized the effectiveness of online platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed.“I would say that you might be missing out, especially if you're a job seeker, if not to develop your own personal brand, the jobs that are posted up there would help you immensely when people who are looking at your profile after you do apply,” says MacIntosh. Shifting to the current state of the tech market in Atlantic Canada, Misener says Venor has noticed a significant trend of non-tech firms hiring for digital roles, despite layoffs within traditional tech companies. “Universities, public sector, Crown corps, traditionally owned and operated Maritime businesses that need IT and tech people, they've remained really resilient to this time, and they're actually able to punch above their weight class, so to speak, when they're hiring because there's a better availability of talent,” he says.Amidst the focus on technical skills, the discussion brought to light the often understated importance of soft skills in tech recruitment. Networking and building relationships emerged as crucial elements of the job search process with a focus on authenticity. Misener also stressed the significance of highlighting your most meaningful accomplishments and skills within the first 20 seconds of your resume.

“If you capture someone's interest in those first 20 seconds, they'll read the rest of your resume, and you'll get more consideration. So I always encourage people to really, really fine-tune the resume and put the best possible highlights in the top half of their first page,” he said, adding cultural standards also play a role in resume design, with the inclusion of personal photos and concise content being subjective considerations.

“I remember applying to jobs overseas, just a number of years ago now. I was applying to schools to teach in Korea, and I wasn't getting calls. And eventually, a recruiter came to me and gave me advice. He's like, ‘Well, Nick, your resume is terrible.’ He's like, ‘It's just not there. There's no birthday. I don't even know how tall you are.’ Like, these are just cultural standards. So I tweaked my resume for the Korean standard and I started getting calls.” The pair also spoke about the use of AI tools to streamline Venor’s recruitment processes. “​​ChatGPT has really simplified a lot of our processes as well, generating interview guides, and creation of job descriptions. Obviously, we tweak and make sure that the prompts are aligned with the conversations that we're having, but there's a lot of things across the board that we've been utilizing, from an AI perspective that have made our jobs a lot more efficient and effective,” says Misener.Additionally, AI-powered writing assistants like Grammarly help the team create personalized emails and templates, making communication more effective and efficient. To listen to the full conversation, and check out other episodes, click here. https://youtu.be/gyk3kMX_jP0?feature=shared