Talent in the modern business world is your ability to leverage your knowledge, skills and connections to address challenges facing your organization. Finding the right talent is critical to growing a successful business.

TechTown offers exceptional talent programs for mentors, interns, and executives in transition. TechTown is also working to develop a job portal featuring opportunities with TechTown companies.

MENTORSHIP

A mentor is an experienced businessperson willing to volunteer time, knowledge, talent and resources to help others advance their goals and ambitions. Mentors want to give back to the community, make new connections and keep up with the latest startups.

Mentees are new business owners willing to challenge their own thoughts, accept different views and opinions, and come to their own conclusions based on input.

TechTown’s mentor program is a tool connecting two or more established businesspeople, allowing them to share insight and advance the ideas of entrepreneurs. It is a community of business professionals who support many of TechTown’s startups.

Mentors can get involved with TechTown in several ways:

• Join an entrepreneur’s Advisory Business Council. The council meets monthly as a strategic team of three to five mentors for about one hour. Mentors can serve on two to three Advisory Board Councils.
• Mentor Shifting Gears candidates–professionals transitioning from large corporations to smaller companies.
• Consult local entrepreneurs in a walk-in session known as Tune-Up.
• Speak at a TechTown workshop in your area of expertise.
• Support short-term assignments such as business plan reviews and business plan competition submissions.

Apply to be a mentor here.

Apply to be a mentee here (current THRIVE clients only).

INTERNSHIPS

Internships are, simply stated, a win-win for business owners and students.

Business owners accept a qualified intern and gain insight into the newest technologies moving from the classroom to the workplace; they also get the opportunity to groom the next generation of leaders. Meanwhile, interns gain real-world business experience that enhances their resumes and opens doors to future job opportunities.

Internships are:

• Three to nine months in duration
• A part-time or full-time commitment
• Paid or unpaid opportunities
• Sometimes connected to an educational program with academic credit

What do employers get?

• An opportunity to train future employees. Evaluating prospective employees while they are working for the organization in an internship can significantly reduce talent search costs.
• Interns keep companies up-to-date in the marketplace by bringing current thoughts, technology and ideas from the classroom to the workplace.
• Interns can be a source of workforce diversity.
• Interns provide a management opportunity for your staff.

→Companies and interns alike can access opportunities through TechTown’s online internship portal.

EXECUTIVES IN TRANSITION

Executives are leaving their large corner offices in corporations for the satisfaction of running smaller firms. While the concept is enticing, many are unfamiliar with processes such as payroll, staffing and production.

Shifting Gears is a training and development program for seasoned professionals who are looking for a shift into new small business career opportunities that allow them to contribute to success by leveraging their business knowledge and experience in new ways.

This three-month program’s results are impressive: 35 percent of participants land new jobs within 3 months, 55 percent land positions within 6 months, and a whopping 80 percent find work within 9 or more months.

For more information on Shifting Gears, click here.

JOBS

TechTown is building a portal for job openings with TechTown-based companies. Please click here to view current openings.

If you have any questions about TechTown’s talent programs, please contact Entrepreneurial Talent Champion Faris Alami at faris@techtownwsu.org or (313) 879-4482.