SeatGeek Discloses Their Key Strategies In Hiring Top Talent

SeatGeek has successfully revolutionized the way in which tickets to concerts, sporting events, festivals and more are sold. They’ve become a thriving company having acquired a household name and being the immediate destination for those looking to experience a dynamic night out. As with any company, much of their success can be attributed to their team. SeatGeek, however has deviated from traditional hiring processes and has found success in more unique methods. SeatGeek’s Director of Talent sat down with us to specifically discuss these strategies and how they have contributed to the overall growth of the company.

How can SeatGeek's success be attributed to the way it seeks out top talent?

We're selective about who we add to the team and our co-founders remain very involved in the hiring process. In fact, one thing that makes our hiring process unique is the extent to which our co-founders are involved. Most everyone who receives an offer from SeatGeek first interviews with at least 2 (if not all 3) co-founders. This helps us keep our final interviews consistent and also ensure that we're holding candidates to a common (albeit, high) bar.

Why is it important to diversify talent in terms of professional background? How does this lead to further growth?

It's great to have people with a wide range of backgrounds to bring different perspectives to challenges a team may be facing. This not only leads to growth for the product itself, but for the team as a whole by broadening the pool for referrals.

What are the unique means in which SeatGeek goes about recruiting and how has this contributed to the overall brand?

Candidates are often highly sought after, so we really have to think outside the box to hire the best. We've found success by forgoing the more traditional sourcing routes like LinkedIn in favor of seeking a candidate out where they are most likely to spend time. A great example of this is hiring engineers through Reddit. We've recently hired two engineers through a weekly 'who's hiring' post that our Android engineers contribute to. We're also planning on advertising our open customer experience roles in Portland with job postings at coffee shops and a meetup at a local brewery with the head of our CX team.

Has the unique way in which SeatGeek recruits aided the company's visibility? Has specific media attention focused on this aspect of the brand garnered noticeable growth?

We were recently featured in an article on FastCompany for our approach to hiring comedians on our CX team. After that article, we received several inbound applications from candidates who were comedians themselves and had read the article. We've also been featured in lists for "hottest startups" , etc which help aid our visibility. When we ask candidates how they first found out about SeatGeek, candidates will often reference an article they saw us featured in.Outside of specific press, we were also able to garner a lot of interest from applicants through our subway campaign. While the subway campaign was obviously intended to attract more SeatGeek users, we saw a nice uptick in the overall number of applicants and the number of candidates referencing the campaign throughout their interview process.

Have any of your hires been made via face to face interactions as opposed to online? Whether through events, shows etc?

We try to participate in a lot of NYC-focused hiring events, from startup career fairs to campus recruiting to meetups and more. We've made a few hires through these means and we've also made a lot of connections with folks who may be a fit for a role down the road. Events like these have helped us develop more of an employer brand and a network of people to keep in touch with.