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AppWorks Recruiting Master: How to build a startup that attracts top talents? Treat recruiting like pitching
In this article, Izza Lin, the Recruiting Master of AppWorks, is going to share some useful tips on startup recruitment, especially for Taiwanese engineering talents. Also, for entrepreneurs outside of Taiwan considering establishing a company here, different types of visa are also introduced.
In 2011, Business Next launched Meet Startup as the communication platform for digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Meet Global collaborated with AppWorks, one of the largest accelerators in Taiwan with a strong founder community in Greater Southeast Asia, to publish a series of articles aiming to make the journey of starting a business in Taiwan smoother and easier.
Since 2012, AppWorks Masters Team has been helping to navigate startups through the competitive world of the business jungle, helping startups survive and stand out.
In this article, Izza Lin, the Recruiting Master of AppWorks, is going to share some useful tips on startup recruitment, especially for Taiwanese engineering talents. Also, for entrepreneurs outside of Taiwan considering establishing a company here, different types of visa are also introduced.
Fledgling startups: Don’t assume the candidates would come by just doing the job posting.
Izza Lin has been in the field of HR for more than five years. After graduating from Washington State University, Izza joined a Taipei-based global headhunting firm as a recruitment consultant, where she specialized in searching for senior high-tech talents. Prior to studying in the US, she had spent parts of her childhood in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar and Cambodia.
With extensive experience in recruitment and her diverse cultural background, she became the perfect fit for AppWorks recruitment team, where she combines her profession in recruitment and knowledge of Greater Southeast Asia both at once. Her key role now is to advise AppWorks startups on all talent acquisition matters, particularly for the strong need for Taiwanese engineering talents.
“One common mistake these startups make is that they assume just by doing the job posting, the right candidate will come. This might work for big companies, but not for fledgling startups,” Izza mentioned.
Due to the limited resources startups have, recruiting talents in competition with established companies in terms of salary can feel like biting off more than one can chew. This makes sharing startups’ mission, vision, and value especially important. Startups need to work extra harder on the art of story-telling and sophisticated persuasion. The followings are three practical tips offered by Izza.
Top three tips for startup recruitment in Taiwan.
Build a network on LinkedIn.
Startups can start by connecting with people in the related industry. Connect with an individual first, then try to expand the network to the whole team. That way, once startups post about job openings, the posts will be automatically shown on those potential candidates’ LinkedIn feeds.Create your own content.
Blogging is a good way to demonstrate expertise, brand a company, and gain free exposure for new products or services. Sharing useful information in specific communities may help too. For example, in order to hire strong developers, try to increase engagements and be helpful in communities such as Front-End Developers Taiwan Facebook Group.Treat recruiting like pitching.
As mentioned above, the talents startups want are often different from those jobseekers on typical recruiting platforms like 104 Job Bank or 1111.com. Take the initiative to reach them and show them what company it is, what pain points are targeted, and what makes the candidate worth investing time and effort in. Face these candidates as if facing investors.
“I remembered when I had my first interview with AppWorks, Jamie (the founder of AppWorks) spent 30 minutes telling me the mission, vision and value of AppWorks. That’s what inspired me and made me join, ” Izza recalled.
Taiwanese engineering talent market is getting more and more competitive.
Taiwan offers relatively low-cost but highly educated engineering talents. Internet and e-Commerce industry in the past decade have established a good foundation for Taiwan, which gives Taiwanese engineering talents a head start over other regions.
In addition, Taiwan has been known for its manufacturing, with big names such as TSMC, Wistron, Quanta Computer, ASUS, Acer and Foxconn. With this foundation, Taiwanese developers excel at the integration of software and hardware.
This explains why tech giants like Google, Oath, and Microsoft all came to Taiwan to set up R&D centers.
However, as Taiwanese engineers continue to win the favor of global tech companies, domestic semiconductor businesses like TSMC and MediaTek are crying out for engineering talents as well, especially in recent years when AI, 5G and EV industries are booming.
This will make labor shortage more acute, at the same time increase wages in the engineering labor market, which seems to be bad news to startups.
“Yet, on the other hand, these healthy competitions are going to push Taiwanese engineering talents to the next level, which is actually beneficial to the development of startups in the long run,” Izza commented.
What kind of visa should I apply for?
There are two main types of visas for entrepreneurs wishing to run a business in Taiwan -- Taiwan Entrepreneur Visa and Employment Gold Card. As for Employment Pass Card, it is more for white-collar foreign workers like language teachers and sports coaches.
When deciding which type of visa to apply for, one deciding factor is whether you have joined an accredited accelerator program. If you have, it is likely that you can apply for Taiwan Entrepreneur Visa easier. Taiwan Entrepreneur Visa accepts both individual applicant and group applicants up to three people, which make it especially suitable for start-up teams.
If not, try Employment Gold Card. Applicants do not need to be employed by a certain employee, which makes it perfect for startups who want to “test the waters” before hitting the market.
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