State of Technology Event with Chicago Tech CEO
Today I attended a really cool event at the DePaul University Jarvis Student Center. At this event, the CEO of Caxy Interactive, a software company located here in Chicago, presented on the state of technology and the market for tech jobs right now. His name is Mike LaVista, and his presentation gave us some great insight on all things related to tech and finding a job.
Mike began his presentation with an explanation of his story. He started out his career journey by getting a chemical engineering degree. From there, he chose not to return to a full-time position at a company he had interned at and instead tour with a band for the next five years of his life. Once he was done with touring, he wanted to go back to a more traditional career path. This is when he initially created his company, Caxy Interactive, with a few friends. One thing that he put a particular emphasis on during his presentation was the willingness people in tech need to have to adapt to the circumstances of the age that they are in. Technology changes at a relatively rapid pace and if you do not learn new skills and keep up with modern tools, you will be left behind.
After talking about his story and how he built Caxy Interactive as a company that focuses on whatever technology is relevant, he began his presentation on the state of the technology job market. Being a CEO, he has a ton of experience with finding the right talent for the right role. However, he also brought along the director of recruiting at Caxy Interactive, and he chimed in many times to provide insight on what he looks for on the day to day interviews he conducts. They went into detail about what things to focus on to build yourself as an attractive candidate.
They mainly talked about how the best thing to put your effort towards is becoming really good at what you do. One thing that I liked specifically was when he mentioned that he believes you can become virtually “recession-proof” if you are truly skilled at your role. I have heard this advice before, and I have been trying to focus on it. Sometimes it’s tough in college when you are getting a ton of advice about your career, so this simple option is definitely attractive.
Something that I found very interesting about the content of their presentation was the small company attitude that they had. Caxy Interactive only has around 20-30 employees, and so Mike has built a tight knit community. With that being said, he and his director of recruitment consistently mentioned how they do look for tech skills during interviews, but they put a larger importance on if they could see the candidate as a good fit for their workplace and attitude as a company. I specifically remember he said he would always be thinking about who he imagined the candidate’s work best friend would be, and if he couldn’t really see anyone working out he would not really see the candidate working out.
Overall, this event was very valuable for me to attend as a computer science major. Even beyond that, I think it provided a ton of great insight on finding a job in general and the other side of the job search process. DePaul does a great job of hosting these types of events all the time, and this is just one of the many opportunities the university provides to set yourself up for success upon graduation.
~Jeff