Job interview at the booth: how PIN-UP Global finds top candidates at conferences

Valeriia Virchenko, Head of Talent Acquisition at PIN-UP Global, explains how the HR team works at events and why this scenario provides an ideal setting for conducting job interviews.

Opinion.- Each conference booth is buzzing with life: someone is looking for business partners, someone is collecting merchandise, someone is researching the market. But what if we say that right here, among the noisy stands, you can not only talk about business, but also… get a job interview?

This kind of flow has long been standard for the HR team of PIN-UP Global. Conferences are always an opportunity for us to meet top industry experts and get to know them personally.

We launched the practice of interviews at the booth in 2023. After all, an international conference is a huge flow of people. And there is a high probability that someone from the crowd is looking for a job and is right for us. A conversation at the booth is the first quick contact, when we can understand whether a person matches with us in terms of culture, communication style and soft skills. In fact, this is the exact stage that usually takes several weeks in a classic hiring process: first screening, technical interview, then cultural fit check. And at PIN-UP Global, the HR function is the main tool for scaling the business. For example, just last year, we scaled by 58 per cent. And such growth rates have taught us to hire quickly and use all available tools for this purpose. For example, today we are already actively preparing for the SBC Lisbon Summit, which will be held September 16–18.

How do we work at conferences?

Our HR team is very active at events. Depending on the scale of the event (and the size of the stand), we bring from two to seven people (recruiters, HR managers) with us. We get to know each other, tell them about the company, monitor potential candidates and immediately engage them in a dialogue.

We always have well-designed areas. At the reception, there are hostesses who communicate with the public, help with navigation, and tell basic information about PIN-UP Global. If the subject goes deeper and beyond the knowledge of the hostesses, then the HR staff get involved. They can explain what exactly we do and immediately understand whether a person is interesting from a business point of view.

If we feel that a person is potentially interesting to the holding, we exchange contacts. This is how our candidate base gets filled up right on the spot.

After the event, this database is processed as part of our overall funnel: we return to the candidates, write, call, and continue the process in the regular mode. It’s very flexible, fast and truly personalised.

How do candidates behave?

Very few people approach directly with the words: “I’m currently in search of a job, tell me what vacancies you have.” More often people ask about merch, want to get acquainted, communicate a little, without revealing their real interests. And then, a day, a week or even a few months later, they write: “We met at a conference, I am now open to offers, ready to consider a job.”

That’s okay. Firstly, not everyone is ready to discuss career issues in public, especially if they come because of their current job. Any dialogue with a recruiter in public may raise unnecessary questions. Secondly, even those who are not currently looking for a job may include us in their list of potential employers for the future.

If the person shows interest, we give them the opportunity to continue the conversation in a way that is convenient for them. If not, we just note the contact. We have had cases when people wrote even a year after they met us. Someone remembered about us after changes in their company. Someone because they had good impressions from communication. In any case, even a brief contact at an event can be the beginning of a new career turn.

What is the efficiency of this approach: how many and who do we find?

Hiring directly at conferences is a small channel as a percentage. This approach is certainly not comparable in volume to daily work via LinkedIn, job boards and direct search. But that’s the point: quality, not quantity.

Through meetings at conferences, we have been able to reach really rare specialists. This is especially true of C-level candidates (those hard to find and even harder to get interested in through a standard approach). The easiest way to find them is at events. Here they appear as owners, sellers, business developers, representatives of game studios and payment companies. And it is exactly through informal live dialogue that we can notice that this is the person we are looking for.

True, this is not mass recruiting. But still a working approach. What’s more, it’s an investment in recognisability. People see the booth, talk to our HR people, remember us and after 3–5 touches, maybe in a few months, they come back as candidates. In this case, we do not have the goal of “closing the vacancy” at once. We are building a funnel. And that answers the question of why we commit resources to it.

Does a marketing approach to recruiting work?

We long ago stopped thinking of recruiting as a resume-matching process. For us, recruiting is quite a marketing story, only we are targeting future colleagues. We are building recognition, forming trust, strengthening the image of the company as a place where you want to work. And every stand, every event is our showcase.

Today, one touch is not enough to interest a candidate. People choose by feeling: who you are, how to communicate with you, what you are really like. The conference allows us to show all of this at once. The booth, the people, the communication. It all contributes to making an impression. And even if a person is not looking for a job now, he or she remembers: “They were great. The HR staff were very professional; the booth was cool. The company internally must be the same.”

We realise that the candidate journey is a funnel. And the first acquaintance, even a passing one, is already a step towards a future offerer. It’s like brand advertising: you don’t buy immediately, but when choosing, you remember exactly those who stay in your memory.

Conclusion: don’t be afraid to approach HRs!

If you see an HR at the booth, approach them. Even if you are not actively looking for job. Even if you are there for merch or to chat “just for fun”. An acquaintance does not oblige you to anything, but it can play an important role in the future.

The market changes, so do circumstances. Today you are confident about your company, but tomorrow you may want something new. And then it is essential that you already have those very “your people”, a holding that you once thought: “They are cool. It would be cool to work with them.”

So don’t be afraid to get to know recruiters. It’s about expanding your horizons. And sometimes one random “Hi, what are you doing?” can be the starting point for your career path.

So look forward to getting to know you at the SBC Lisbon Summit September 16–18. Booth number D185. Come, get to know us, learn about our career opportunities (spoiler: there are lots of them!) and maybe this will be the turning point in your career.