Talent Marketplaces, What are They?

Hey friend! Writing this on President’s Day as I am about to get ready to head to Columbia, SC to be with my dad because he is getting hip surgery tomorrow. Prayers it goes well but everything I have heard it should be smooth! While we are talking about traveling, what is your go-to travel essential? I would say the Nintendo Switch I got for Christmas is a game changer for flights also Airpods. I probably love AirPods more than almost any other Apple product. Also, I am pretty pumped about this new newsletter format, let me know if you like it! I have so much going on that I figured I need to work it into the newsletter so we can hang out together soon if I am in a city near you! 

If you’ve been wondering what exactly Gun.io is and what exactly we do— you’re in luck. Today we’re talking about talent marketplaces, i.e. what does that even mean and how are they different from a regular ole staffing agency. You can catch the full episode here:

But if you want to get right into the pros and the cons, let’s go. Y’all are all probably pretty familiar with staffing companies. They’re the ones in your inbox with “new opportunities” and “great fits,” and that’s because they’re set up to go out and find talent after a company approaches them with an open role. So it’s their job to hustle and find/place someone as quickly as possible. Which is great if you want the opportunities to come to you, but it has some downsides that we’ll get to later. Talent marketplaces, go about things from the opposite approach. Basically, we have high end talent on tap so that when companies come to us, there’s a pool of people that already fit the bill and are ready to go. Some other marketplaces you might’ve heard of are places like Upwork or Toptal. And the jobs you’re going to find are most likely going to be a little more niche and senior level (at least at Gun and Toptal). 

So how do you get on a talent marketplace and what do you do when you get there? The process to get started with Gun is currently being updated, but our goal is to make things even simpler than before. You’ll log on and take about an hour to fill out your profile. From there, you have access to submit/see our open roles. Now, hold your horses, just because you submit doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll move you through to the next step. One of the things about talent marketplaces and Gun specifically that you don’t get with agencies is a tech talent team to help guide you to the roles that would be the best fit for you and your skills. Not only that, you also get to set your own rate. 

Alternately with agencies, and one of the biggest reasons that they get a bad rap, is that they’re working on more of a churn and burn model. Their job is to more or less sell candidates to companies— usually sans the teching out talent you’d get with a marketplace. And adding to that, they’re keeping a pretty hidden hand when it comes to showing you all the roles they have available. The goal is more to push you the roles where they would make the most money and can move on the fastest. So if you go the agency route or want to add it on to your tech marketplace search, make sure the vibes with your recruiter are good and be sure to ask them if there’s any additional roles they haven’t shared with you. 

If you’re finding yourself constantly in a race to the bottom of who can do the job the cheapest, come give Gun.io a try. You’re setting your rates, and our team is teeing up the matches for you to review. And for all of you asking, our platform is opening back up in a week or so. In the meantime— update your job search stuff. Resume: make sure it’s formatted well. Half the time the content of your resume is on point… but then there’s 5 different fonts and everything is jumbled together. LinkedIn: it needs to be solid. Maybe one day we’ll get to use our LinkedIn instead of a resume, but until then be sure to use your title as SEO for the roles you’re looking for. Headshot: invest in a good one. And not those spooky AI generated ones either. We can tell. 

So take a minute to throw your profile up on some talent marketplace sites and see how it goes. And if you need more LinkedIn/Resume help, there’s a link for the next Unghosted sesh right down there.

Don’t forget, you’re not alone.

-Taylor

Gun.io/taylor