Estonia’s heavyweight tech start-ups launch global search for talent

Estonia, one of the world’s leading tech hubs, is once again running a global recruitment campaign in attempt to draw the world’s top IT professionals to the country and match them with talent-hungry tech companies.

Called Career Hunt, a similar campaign conducted last year, 5,500 people from around the world applied for the opportunity to work in Estonia. For this year’s campaign, Estonia is again calling on tech specialists to apply for a life-changing job interview. Those who pass initial screening rounds in their interviews will fly to Estonia for a five-day all-inclusive tech tour, combined with exclusive VIP-shortcuts for job interviews.

“Before the campaign, I only knew a little about Estonia itself. But the companies I met convinced me that’s the place I was looking for,” says Brazilian Luiz Felipe de Souza Gomes, alumni of the first Career Hunt who now lives and works in Tallinn.

There are currently around 550 start-ups in Estonia engaging in a variety of sectors ranging from FinTech to GreenTech and beyond. The  number of employees working for start-ups grew by 26 per cent in 2018.

“Do not be fooled by its small size; Estonia is well and truly embedded in the digital economy. The start-up community in Estonia is tight-knit, offering tech professionals endless opportunities to bring their ideas to life, both on the local and international level,” said Kaisa-Triin Kosenkranius, head of the Career Hunt project at Work in Estonia.

Fourteen Estonian IT industry heavyweights are taking part in this year’s initiative to find and nurture more talent. The companies include Transferwise, Monese, Veriff, Starship Technologies, Pipedrive, Thorgate, Taxify, Malwarebytes, Finestmedia, Icefire, betPawa, Swedbank Estonia, Genius Sports Services Estonia and Mooncascade.

Applications for Career Hunt 2019 are open online until March 31.