Millenilink provides tech staffing/recruitment, IT consulting, and project-based services. We specialize in Digital Transformation, helping organizations of all sizes find the talent they need to leverage technology as a critical part of their business strategy. We understand tech specializations, so beyond active recruitment, we’re able to advise our clients on current market conditions, proactive workforce planning, and their employer branding strategy.
We’re equally a premium partner for job seekers in the IT industry. Whether a professional is in active or passive pursuit of opportunities, we offer a differential experience with education and guidance, career coaching, helpful feedback, and consistent communication.
By thoughtfully aligning opportunities with talent and unifying workforce planning with real-time market activity, we help organizations and people to accomplish their digitization, technology, business, and career goals.
Tell us about yourself?
I graduated with an H. BComm from McMaster University as well as a Master of Management Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Queen’s University. I have worked in Tech Sales for most of my career. That has primarily been selling Technology Recruitment or Professional Services to organizations across various sectors. I also have experience as a Technical Recruiter and brief experience selling SaaS software.
I got into this line of work by accident; however, as I have a passion for working with people, it was a natural fit, and I find it very rewarding to help people achieve their career goals.
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
There are many things I would tell myself. However, the biggest piece of advice would be to always be hiring. Good people can be hard to find, and you can’t always follow your planned schedule for hiring a certain skill in a certain month, etc.
The best approach to building a team and business is to always be meeting people, networking, and, where possible, pulling the trigger when great talent is available.
What problem does your business solve?
Today’s highly competitive market has made it exceptionally complex for organizations to attract and retain the specific talent required to achieve technology goals that are a critical part of their business strategy.
Everyone is using technology and looking to hire the same talent and the same tech skills, and the industry doesn’t have enough IT graduates to meet demand and maintain a pipeline. Technology is varying and changing more and more rapidly, IT worker retirement is increasing, and the experienced candidate pool is dwindling. With tech unemployment rates typically 50 per cent lower than general unemployment rates, organizations can’t simply post a job opening and get applicants. They need to have recruiters actively reaching out to the passive job-seeking market.
Organizations seeking tech talent have often had a transactional or keyword-focused experience when previously working with staffing firms. With talent being so important to an organization’s success, this approach is reductive on both sides, considering what it actually takes to successfully attract and retain talent. Tech consulting companies, sometimes seen as an alternative to hiring, can help an organization execute a project, but that usually takes away from the staffing budget, which can affect long-term project management and success.
Millenilink taps into the passive job-seeking market by forming long-lasting relationships that are built on trust, understanding, and credibility. People may not be actively looking for a new opportunity, but they are typically curious enough to entertain a conversation about the current tech job market. We take the time to understand an individual’s skills, goals, and needs and provide growth or placement recommendations accordingly – not based solely on job description keyword matches to a resume. By attracting candidates not actively applying for new jobs, we can provide organizations with more effective talent solutions.
What is the inspiration behind your business?
I founded Millenilink in 2018 when I saw an opportunity to offer better service within the tech staffing industry. I recognized a growing need for niche recruitment services that understand specific technology specializations. Digital transformation requires people with skills and experience beyond technical knowledge, as technology is now an urgent business priority and no longer just in the background of an organization’s operations. COVID-19 has significantly accelerated and heightened this opportunity.
In designing Millenilink, it was important to me to create a flexible, inclusive company culture that was different from the typical old-school culture that is still so common in our industry today. Our company ethos is built on a foundation of high performance and support. An entrenched culture of diversity, humanization, flexibility, and wellness intersects with accountability and achievement. This enables our recruiters to extend the same human-centric philosophy to the clients they work with.
What is your magic sauce?
Our magic is in understanding the entire hiring lifecycle and not just the actual transaction when an organization needs to hire or a person is looking for a new job.
Beyond just taking a job description and finding potential candidates who match the requirements, experience, or keywords, we take the time to share expertise and recommendations with clients to maximize their chances for success. We advise clients on factors such as:
- Which skills are currently most in demand and downstream impact to them.
- Budgetary and timeline considerations for specific talent.
- Strategies to employ in order to attract and retain the required talent.
- Which geographical locations might be best to achieve goals versus just hiring in their own backyards.
We’re in touch with the passive job-seeking market, communicating with candidates frequently even when they’re not actively job-seeking, building strategic partnerships, and sending a clear message that the relationship is not purely transactional.
Employers feel supported by a staffing partner they can depend on, who understands their business. With expert recommendations on the state of the market, they’re confident they can rely on us to help them achieve their goals. They feel relieved that we can present them with options and alternatives to their hiring plans so they can focus their efforts on successful project outcomes.
Conversely, with frequent communication from Millenilink and sincere consideration of their abilities and career advancement goals, job seekers recognize that we have their best interests at heart. They feel confident with negotiations and assured that they will be supported and presented with opportunities that are of genuine interest.
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Within the next five years, we plan to grow our team and expand across Canada and into the United States. As we evolve, it’s important to me that we continue to be a place where self-motivated professionals can be successful, both as an employer and as a partner in helping people advance their careers and find their dream jobs. Built on a foundational culture of wellness combined with accountability and high performance, we’ll be known as the go-to for hard-to-find tech skills and a solutions provider for Digital Transformation initiatives.
We will also explore our own use of technology in the advancement of our service offering. The prevalence of data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence technologies present many opportunities for innovation that will allow more organizations and people to take advantage of working with a recruitment partner to achieve their career and business goals.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
The biggest challenge so far has been getting clients to align their hiring behaviours with the desired outcomes they are looking to achieve.
The world of work has gone through a historical transformation, and organizations are competing for technology talent not only in their own industry or geography but globally and cross-sector. The need for flexibility and new inputs starting at the planning stage has never been more important.
Typically, organizations will focus on project budget, technology selection, and implementation partners and only consider the people when it is time to hire them, using old data. This results in delayed project timelines, over-budget projects, and misaligned hiring practices. Those that are more proactive in their workforce planning and engaging partners like Millenilink earlier are seeing success in hiring the industry’s most in-demand skill sets.
How can people get involved?
If you’re seeking tech talent, whether you’re hiring now or building out your technology workforce plans, we’d love to hear from you! We’re also always looking to build connections with IT professionals – even if you’re not currently job-seeking, we’re here to chat, provide career coaching tips, and help keep you updated on what is happening in the industry.
You can visit our website at www.millenilink.ca, follow us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/millenilink, or send your resume or an enquiry to info@millenilink.ca.