Tell your stories

According to a recent economic development report, there are 4,000 open tech jobs in Hillsborough County. So how does the area attract the needed talent to fill them?

Tampa Bay needs to get better at telling its story, according to Chase Stockon and Daniel James Scott. The region's main IT recruiting obstacle comes from within, the former chairman of the board and new executive director of Tampa Bay Technology Forum (TBTF), respectively, agree.

For example, people don't know that 40% of Chase Bank's ACH transfers worldwide are processed through Brandon, Scott says. Part of the reason people don't think about technology when they think Tampa comes from the higher percentage of B2B companies compared to B2C companies in the area. “It's visible and sexy to tell someone that I work at Google,” Scott says, but there are hundreds of tech jobs out there within companies that people aren't aware of. That's why he's trying to teach companies how to tell their stories — letting people know about the well-known clients with whom they work.