500 new jobs at tech start-ups

The Silicon Milkroundabout recruitment fair first took place in May as a way to lure talented developers into the startup scene. It was such a success that another event is planned for 30 October 2011, during which 100 London tech businesses will be looking to fill 500 vacancies. The event was founded by Songkick and is backed by TechCity UK.

Asked what a career at a startup offers over a job in the city or at a large organisation such as Google or Facebook, Songkick CTO Dan Crow told us: "You have an opportunity to have a big impact. At Google there are 25,000 people, at a company like Songkick there are 25. Numerically alone, you have a lot more influence, and you have much more opportunity to be involved in the entire business.

"You're going to be working on all of our technology, and you're also going to have to understand our users and our entire business strategy: everything that goes on inside the company. So you're not just going off and working on some very narrow piece of a much larger system that's part of a much bigger company. You'll really get to see how a company works, and how we delight our users from start to finish."

Given that the industry is struggling to find appropriate candidates, some say it's time tech startups got involved in on-campus milkrounds.

"In the long term that’s probably right, but in the short term there's a huge appetite out there for this format of event. In the first Silicon Milkround, we were turning people away, both companies and people who wanted to attend.

"We want to say that we're a bit different, that being in a startup is a different experience than coming to work for one of those large corporations. This event has a different sort of energy to on-campus milkrounds. That said, I'm sure individual startups will want to graduate up to doing that, and there will be a good mix of things going on.

Indeed, Silicon Milkroundabout has been referred to as "the recruitment fair for people who don't like recruitment fairs".

"We're being smart and scrappy in true startup fashion and saying we're going to do something that's not expensive, isn't a big corporate event, that's a great way for people to meet the exciting startups that are happening in London."