TechFair LA Helps Bridge the Gap Between Employers and Job Seekers

February 13, 2017

The idea that there is a lack of jobs in the U.S. has become a big misconception as of late as President Donald Trump publicly works hard to bring jobs back to America. The truth is while there are jobs that are or have been fazed out due to emerging technology, automation and a changing economy, there are 5.8 million jobs that are available right now.

To help bridge this gap between the unemployed/underemployed and employers, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti hosted the city’s very first technology job fair, TechFair LA, on Jan. 26 attracting a staggering 13,000 job seekers.

The line at The Reef wrapped around the city block with job hopefuls eager to meet with hundreds of Hiring Managers and Recruiters from 250 local tech companies including Uber, Snap, and Tesla, all the way to blossoming companies like Blurr.

When WorkingNation heard about this event, we jumped at the opportunity to speak with a diverse crowd of individuals to gain a ground-level understanding of what the local tech market looks like, discover any challenges that both sides might face, and see if there are real career opportunities in the community.

Outside of the sheer amount of attendees, one of the things that stood out most about the TechFair was the large number of companies toting “Now Hiring” signs at their booths. Openings were available at nearly every company, across many different departments including sales, engineering, marketing & branding, and business development. It was clear that there was no shortage of excellent jobs available; however, it raised one fundamental question that WorkingNation actively addresses: were there qualified candidates for these jobs?

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WorkingNation spoke with Angela Mayhew who is the Senior Recruiter at FabFitFun, a subscription service that sends its consumers a box of the latest in beauty, fashion, fitness, & wellness every season.

Angela Mayhew (r) looks for potential employees at TechFair LA on Jen. 26. Credit: Jay Tipton

Mayhew told us FabFitFun attended the fair to educate the LA scene about the company but also to showcase the many open positions currently available. We checked in with Mayhew this week and she said she was surprised and excited to find many qualified candidates for their vacant roles. They are currently interviewing applicants, many of whom she met at the fair.

WorkingNation also had the chance to speak with some job seekers. One individual, who was recently laid off by a startup company he worked for for the past two years, said he heard about the fair through a friend and attended specifically to look for sales positions. At the fair, he handed his resume to three companies but said he wasn’t expecting much to come out of it.

WorkingNation recently caught up with him, and he said, in the past week, he has had multiple interviews and is currently in the final round with a local company. He admitted that the fair exceeded his expectations and he was pleased with his current, personal results.

After attending the event, one thing is clear — with the migration of tech companies away from Silicon Valley and towards cities like Los Angeles, new and fruitful career opportunities are available in abundance for local workers who possess the appropriate skills and experience. It also offered incentive for Angelenos who aren’t ready but want to make a transition to seek the proper training and education to get themselves in the door.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.