Innovative talent scouting
How does your company recruit its best talents, and how much effort do you put into it? Numerous companies have recently started using a platform developed at ETH Zurich, which has already provided them with 5,000 young talents with minimal effort.
ETH spin-off CareerLunch hits a nerve with their novel tool for talent recruitment by focusing on getting to know people in person before the actual application process. We spoke with Simon Hofer, Co-Founder and CEO of CareerLunch.
Simon, why do we need CareerLunch in addition to services such as Career Sandwich and Job Fairs offered by the ETH Career Center?
Apart from skills, the following aspects are important to companies when recruiting talent:
- Flexibility and willingness for continuous learning
- Employees must fit in with the company culture, which leads to better performance and more job satisfaction.
The ETH Career Center offers companies and students a wide range of opportunities to get to know each other. CareerLunch complements these services by taking into account not only skills but also the needs mentioned above. The best way to find out whether someone fits in with the company culture is through personal contact.
How does your platform work?
CareerLunch is a kind of matchmaking platform. Students and young professionals register with their LinkedIn profile with just one click. Companies pay a fee to register and create a company profile on the platform. The company's HR selects the applicants they are interested in from the suggestions provided on the dashboard and determines suitable lunch candidates from various departments. The platform then selects suitable partners and automatically generates a lunch date. This reduces the effort for the companies to a minimum.
Applicants and employees meet for lunch in an informal atmosphere - in times of Corona also virtually. At these lunches, students learn a lot about the culture and everyday working life of the company in question, and the lunch partners get a first impression of the personality of the prospective candidates. This will ideally lead to an official application or the company will add the candidate to its talent pool.
Why are you using LinkedIn?
There are two reasons for this: A LinkedIn profile is standardised and therefore offers a certain level of equality. Complete application documents are not necessary at this stage, as it is a matter of getting to know each other rather than a job interview. The second reason is data protection. A LinkedIn profile is public and therefore accessible to all.
How are companies and students responding to the offer?
Very well! We already have a considerable number of large and small companies on board, including well-known firms such as Microsoft, Accenture and Unilever. There is no shortage of applicants either. Since the launch of CareerLunch, we have provided the companies with 5,000 prospective candidates. Some companies have had more than 100 lunches already and have expanded their talent pool accordingly. They particularly like that they can get to know the best talents proactively while saving time and money. The students appreciate that they gain insight into companies and their culture in an informal way that doesn't require a network of contacts.
What's next for CareerLunch?
After a successful start, we are now entering another round of financing and will expand from 6 to 11 employees. We are no longer solely active at ETH Zurich, HSG and UHZ, but operate in seven European countries and work together with local companies and universities.
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ETH spin-offs: facts and figures
Since 1996, 471 spin-offs have been founded at ETH Zurich. ETH transfer, the technology transfer office at ETH Zurich, supports recognized ETH spin-offs in the founding process and in their first years of operation.
With the help of the Pioneer Fellowship Programme, funded by the ETH Foundation, young researchers can develop innovative products and services based on their scientific work at ETH Zurich. A Pioneer Fellowship is awarded to young ETH entrepreneurial minds intending to develop a highly innovative product or service to be exploited commercially and/or for the benefit of society.