The Hustle
Years in Tampa Bay
Hustle (job)
I am the head of operations.
What do you do?
That means a little bit of customer support and love, that means marketing, that means interfacing with our development and testing teams … a little bit of everything. eTeki helps non-techies hire techies. We use an “it takes one to know one” approach, where techies screen other techies, and they do it virtually on our video platform.
Why do you do it?
We do it to help hiring managers increase their return on interview. So instead of them wasting their time reviewing resumes and reviewing unqualified candidates, they can invest their time and energy in candidates who actually are a good technical fit for the role.
What was your Catalyst? (How did you get started?)
The catalyst was a practical business problem in an IT staffing company, where recruiters were missing the mark and hiring managers weren’t happy. So a policy was put into place to screen all candidates before they were submitted to a hiring manager, using in-house technical teams, and when the scope of that became too great, that’s where the vision for eTeki began.
What’s a common misconception or unknown aspect of what you do?
That the candidate’s resume is a good representation of their skill set, when actually the majority of hiring managers have seen more embellished or bloated resumes.
What’s the most challenging part of your Hustle?
The most challenging part, I think, of any hustle is the day and night, and the energy to keep everyone moving forward and your vision moving forward despite the ups-and-downs that you go through on a daily basis as an entrepreneur.
What’s the most valuable piece of business advice/insight that’s helped you?
Perfection is the enemy of good. Get it out the door, get it done, there’s always time to come back and make it better later.
Why Tampa Bay?
We’re a company right here in the Tampa Bay area, and so when I saw the TechDiversity Accelerator program, it really excited us because we have a longer-term vision with eTeki that it could actually help to increase diversity in IT teams. One of the main catalysts for the Me Too movement over the last year started with a lot of female tech professionals speaking up about what was happening in departments. We think that third-party technical interviews are a great way to ensure that your team’s not picking their future co-worker. That it’s actually based on the merit of someone’s skills.
