Europe’s #1 Tech Recruitment Event Returns to Budapest

BBJ: When was the first Tech Jobs Fair held, how did the fairs evolve, and what is the goal of organizing it in Hungary?

László Személyi: TJF was founded by German serial entrepreneur Ashok Dudhat, who is originally from India and his life goal is to cure what we call structural unemployment: i.e. to find the missing professionals from the tech sector. Not only on a local but also on a global scale, as he himself lives as an expat. Future-Now as Strategic Production Partner is going to bring the 29th global edition of this event for the second time to Budapest on May 11, 2023. Our goal is to push Budapest and Hungary to the forefront of the IT and engineering job market and help the local teams grow as they aspire to.

The first-ever Tech Jobs Fair was in Berlin in 2017. Since then it became the leading fair in Europe in the tech sector, connects over 1,000 exhibitors and partners, and has won twice in a row the German Business Awards as "Tech Event of the Year”. TJF is a great platform to build a strong employer brand and find relevant jobseekers among the 1,000+ attendees from the tech sector. For more info and registration please visit our website.

BBJ: How can a fair such as this help Hungary with the so-called “brain drain” problem?

LSz: The focus of the Tech Jobs Fair is on current jobseekers and people looking for a change, their satisfaction is of prime importance. We provide opportunities for them for career development, talks on the future of the sector, and connections between people who have spent decades in tech and others who only entered a year or two. Such opportunities are presented by several foreign recruitment platforms, but if people are drawn by these it easily ends up in brain drain. Thus it is of utmost importance that we show what is available in Budapest and the region.

Naturally, it is a common goal with our exhibitors, the tech companies who are eager to strengthen their teams with creative or deeply technical developers, architects, product owners, project managers, presales consultants, etc.

László Személyi

BBJ: How can exhibiting at the fair help companies?

LSz: Our service packages are distinctive from those of traditional national job fairs: we concentrate not only on the day of the event but the previous and even the following period as well. TJF delivers an in-person event with booths and a stage for talks bringing over 1,000 professionals under one roof, but on top of that it shares the space of nine online platforms to create opportunities for building brand awareness and finding relevant candidates for corporates, SMEs, and startups alike. Moreover, we reach the job market of 15 other countries. Main language is English which brings additional attendees for there is a significant number of expats working or wanting to be employed in the tech sector of Hungary.

TJF will be held in Bálna (The Whale), which is located in the heart of Budapest and has spectacular architecture that adds a lot to the atmosphere of the event. On top of the exhibitor booths, we organize a stage with talks on career advancement, demystifying hyped technologies, and developing those often-overlooked soft skills and company success stories. We will have two roundtables too, one on the employment of foreigners in Hungary and another about women in tech. Last but not least we’ll host an afterparty at the side of the Danube.

BBJ: Are you planning to hold more fairs in Hungary in the future?

LSz: TJF is a yearly event in Budapest, much like it is in every country. So whoever wants to be part of this event either as an exhibitor or as a jobseeker, it is best to go and register right away on our website for the 2023 edition on May 11.

It would not be possible of course to keep up the spirit and bring so many people together every year without the help of our Community Partners who step up to support us in this goal: HIPA, ICT Association of Hungary, Hungarian CIO Association, ABSL, CED, Proptech Zoom, Mensa HungarIQa, and many others. We are very grateful to see so many of them lining up for the growth of the tech sector and assisting tech people in their careers in Hungary.