SmartLogic staffers, standing. (Courtesy photo)

I'm grateful to have an online presence with a trusted, unbiased news source, so people that apply can get an accurate message of who we are. Technical.ly has done a top notch job reflecting that.

For SmartLogic, one of Technical.ly’s top employers in Baltimore, it’s all about community connections, whether that’s for new hires or business opportunities.

The software development firm, which builds web applications for growing startups and established companies, once evaluated the growth of the Baltimore technology community by counting the number of pizzas it sponsored for local meetup groups (a whopping 1,792 slices in 2012). For many companies, meetups are a strong pipeline for community visibility and a chance to meet technical professionals and potential clients.

But event strategies are not a complete solution for new connections. After all, it’s not just about being out there. Finding great hires is also about timing, and sharing the right message when that time comes.

We recently spoke to the team at SmartLogic, including CEO Yair Flicker, about how the company was able to hire four developers by partnering with Technical.ly.

SmartLogic CEO Yair Flicker (right). (Courtesy photo)

SmartLogic has a consistent presence on the Technical.ly Talent platform, our digital solution for companies that want to build a pipeline of talented professionals.

SmartLogic’s subscription includes recurring job posts and sponsored content shared via our social and newsletter channels. The services allows for more jobseekers to come across the company’s open jobs and learn about the culture and teammates that SmartLogic supports. Like any jobseeker, you can see featured SmartLogic content on the Technical.ly platform every day.

CEO Flicker told us that having content posted on Technical.ly helps the company demonstrate its core values — and convey why SmartLogic is a good place to work.

“The people we hire are coming to stay with us for years,” Flicker said. “They’re really thinking about their career, so of course their going to do their homework. Not only to ace an interview, but to make sure it’s the smartest move for them.”

Companies like SmartLogic make hires using the Technical.ly Talent platform while building higher quality candidate pipelines that they can tap into in the future.

“I’m beyond confident that Technical.ly not only helped to get great candidates to apply, but to also show them why they’d want to accept an offer from us,” he said. “I’m grateful to have an online presence with a trusted, unbiased news source, so people that apply can get an accurate message of who we are. Technical.ly has done a top notch job reflecting that.”

When we touched base with Paige Finkelstein, Justus Eapen and Stephanie Vizzi in September, the team was fresh back from the ElixirConf in Bellevue, Wash., learning about the Erlang VM–based language and Phoenix, a growing web framework that SmartLogic is using to differentiate itself with prospective clients.

These three developers shared a little about their backgrounds and how they came across SmartLogic’s openings before applying and starting to work at the company. A fourth developer, Jeremy Neal, also found his role through Technical.ly.

Hearing from them was a great way to learn about how jobseekers are finding new opportunities to be excited about, and how Technical.ly is helping to build those connections.

Paige Finkelstein, Developer

• Background: Career changer, moving to new city.
• How she found a job: Searching for local jobs, found SmartLogic on Technical.ly.
• Began working at SmartLogic: January 2017

Like I was hoping, I've gotten to work on a range of varied and interesting projects during my time at SmartLogic.

Paige Finkelstein was on a path to a Ph.D. in English before she taught herself how to code. She knew this new path was the one for her. So she ditched grad school and got her first tech job, coding Ruby on Rails at a software consultancy in New York.

At her new firm, they’d pick up sprint projects with tech teams at different companies. She liked the pace, and liked being able to solve new, complex problems every day. She liked how the company treated code as craft.

When her husband got accepted to a graduate program in Baltimore, the family made the move together and although she was able to work remote, she occasionally missed being closer to her coworkers.

She would keep her eye out for local jobs, occasionally bumping into new companies in the Baltimore area that she’d heard of.

“I saw SmartLogic’s website and thought that it seemed like a place that might be a good fit. It had the same kind of techniques, same idea of programming,” she said. “But I wasn’t really in a hurry because I had my full-time remote job.”

Not much later, she came across a job description on Technical.ly for a developer role at SmartLogic. She felt that seeing the posting was a better sign of the the company’s urgency, and decided to give it a shot.

“Seeing their post made me think that they’re actually looking for people, rather than a website which always has an ‘apply now’ button,” Finkelstein said.

Timing was everything. Finkelstein started working at SmartLogic in January 2017.

“Like I was hoping, I’ve gotten to work on a range of varied and interesting projects during my time at SmartLogic,” she said.

Stephanie Vizzi, Developer

• Background: Recent web development student, looking for her first job after graduating with a master’s degree.
• How she found a job: Searching for local jobs, found SmartLogic on Technical.ly.
• Began working at SmartLogic: June 2018

I was able to land a role in a highly rated software development company working in the latest technologies.

As Stephanie Vizzi was finishing up her Digital Arts master’s program at Goucher College in 2018, she was on the hunt for a software development role.

When she came across a posting from SmartLogic on the Technical.ly website, she applied. She recognized Technical.ly was an important part of the local community, since it was focused on local Baltimore professionals and companies, and since it was involved with many local tech events. She used Technical.ly to create a list of potential opportunities that she could apply for.

Vizzi joined the SmartLogic team as a technical apprentice this summer. After a successful program, she’ll be starting as a full-time Developer in October.

“Technical.ly provided a straight-forward, concentrated list of job prospects in my area,” Vizzi said. “I was able to apply directly through the site and as a developer just starting out, I was able to land a role in a highly rated software development company working in the latest technologies.”

Justus Eapen, Developer

• Background: Recently moved back to Baltimore to launch his own software consultancy.
• How he found a job: Searching for partners, found SmartLogic on Technical.ly.
• Began working at SmartLogic: March 2017

Justus Eapen had been in a variety of software positions in the Boston tech community before settling back in the Baltimore area, where he grew up, in spring 2017.

One of his favorite gigs in Beantown was as a software consultant, so after moving back to Maryland, he was planning on running his own small consultancy, and started looking for other software firms he could potentially partner with. That’s when he found SmartLogic’s job listing on Technical.ly.

At the time, he wasn’t looking for a job — he was set on starting his own consultancy. He had just wanted to create a list of possible partners, to be able to reference and work with as he kept exploring the ecosystem.

But in seeing that SmartLogic was utilizing cutting-edge technology, alongside photos of the company’s welcoming office space filled with natural light and loads of plants, he decided to apply immediately. And he got the job.

In his free time, Eapen started Baltimore’s first AI meetup, too, and has grown it to more than 120 members.

That’s a consistent thread we hear from our our Talent partners: Technical.ly matches great companies with quality, driven people that stand out from the crowd.

And often, like it was for Finkelstein, Vizzi and Eapen, the job match wasn’t planned — it was serendipitous.