By Joe Procopio

Joe Procopio

Did you read the piece I wrote back in May about Tech Jobs Under the Big Top?  Click on it so I get the credit and I’ll boil it down for you here.

1. The brainchild of former Launchbox Executive Director Chris Heivly, Big Top purported to create a job fair strictly for startups and, in doing so, turn the concept of a job fair completely on its head.
2. Underwear joke.
3. It succeeded, and the event drew 15 companies pitching over 85 jobs to over 250 job-seekers in an atmosphere that resembled an actual circus, down to the clowns, jugglers, and free peanuts and cotton candy.

No wait, I know I just blew your mind, so you might have missed where I said 15 companies pitched 250+ job seekers — not screened, but pitched – with each company giving a three-minute presentation on why their startup was the place you wanted to work.

We’re Changing the World Plus We Have a Ping Pong Table

I loved that concept. A lot. I was there with one of the companies doing the pitching. So I sat down with Heivly as he was gearing up for Big Top 2.0, which is taking place Thursday, October 20^th at Bay 7 in the American Tobacco Campus. You can find out more at BigTop.IT or just go register at: bigtop.eventbrite.com.

If you’re looking for a job and/or have ever thought about working for a startup, there is no better way to amplify your job search. Even if you’re gainfully employed, as about half of the job-seekers at Big Top are, you may want to drop by (although if you’re unprepared to be swayed by the magic and the majesty and the long hours and the low pay of Startup Nation, save the ticket for someone who needs it).

In my own view, the concept was a smash hit for a lot of reasons. As I pointed out in my last column, the Big Top event succeeded at removing the stigma of unemployment by turning the tables and having the potential employers sell themselves. Finding a job is hard enough. Finding a job at a job fair is like getting a root canal. Finding a job at a job fair during a recession is like getting a root canal from someone who works in Human Resources.

This is why Heivly had us pitch the job seekers, and I can tell you firsthand that each company got on board and produced presentations that ranged from gut-bustingly funny to eye-opening inspirational. You couldn’t help but have a smile on your face by the second or third pitch.

Do You Have Any Idea Who I Am?

The Big Top jobs event

But this is not the kind of endeavor you undertake a second time just because you made people feel better. Believe me, if I had a nickel for every time something I wrote made someone laugh, I’d make even less money writing than I do now.

You’re welcome.

One thing Heivly pointed out that I wouldn’t have put together is that Big Top and the resultant hype also dropped the names and identities of many local, working, hiring startups into the lexicon of 250 potential employees.

A lot of feedback from the first event centered around the fact that the job seekers just didn’t know there were this many of this kind of company in the area. You may not think this possible, I sure didn’t, but those of us who are immersed in the ecosystem, especially those of us shouting from the rooftops about how awesome this ecosystem is, can easily forget that the vast number of people out there have never heard of any of us.

But most importantly, Big Top succeeded as a job fair, resulting in a vast amount of connections, many useful relationships, and of course, several filled positions.

So What’s New?

Here we are just under half-a-year later and the outlook really hasn’t changed all that much. The silver lining on the cloud is that there are still at least a dozen smart, passionate startups who need smart, passionate technologists.

This time around, Heivly tells me, there will be more focus on the networking. One easy solution is that there are three fewer companies, so they still get the three minute pitch, but it won’t take as much time.

Heivly is also sending out an email to all registrants with all 60+ jobs that the startups need filling, so both sides can get right to the point.

In an additional effort to make the discussions more efficient, Big Top 2.0 will feature 12 tables, one for each company, instead of three tables, one for each discipline (technology, marketing, general business).

You Have To Be Crazy To Work Here

Overall, Heivly admits he’s done a little better job talking about the companies. Correspondence with the registered job-seekers is about making sure that the right people are there – because these are early-stage tech companies, and the jobs are more than 50 percent software development.

Last time, he says, about 20 percent of the crowd realized they didn’t belong there. Why? They just weren’t the special kind of crazy you need to be to work at a startup. Again, it’s high risk, long hours, low pay, and so glamorous that the vast majority of people out there will never have heard of you.

But it’s the other 80 percent that the startups need to reach. As Heivly jokes, and I agree, every developer we get from IBM is a win for the ecosystem.

One thing that won’t change, thankfully and rightly so, is the tone. There will still be jugglers and acrobats and the tent and the straw and the free beer and carnival snacks. All of this lends to a very comfortable networking environment.

At some point, Heivly wants to see this expand out of software and into life science and other startup disciplines. I told him I think gaming would be huge, and he agreed. But regardless of whether we’re talking about a BigTop 3.0 for web, mobile, biotech, gaming, clean & green, or craft brewing, as long as we’re talking about the RTP startup ecosystem, we’ll reach more people who have never heard of companies like Adzerk, EvoApp, Shoeboxed, HEALTHeME, ReverbNation, Argyle Social, and so on.

Mort importantly however, the more those companies keep finding smart, passionate technologists (like you), the less we’ll need to talk about it, because it will speak for itself.

Joe Procopio heads up product engineering for tech media startup Automated Insights (formerly StatSheet). He also owns consulting firm Intrepid Company and creative network Intrepid Media and runs the startup social ExitEvent. Joe can be reached via Twitter @jproco and read at joeprocopio.com.