People: How we attract and retain talent
Talent drives corporate decision making and galvanizes innovation. In 2017, EDC developed programming – to complement San Diego: Life. Changing. – to attract and retain talent throughout the San Diego region.
Some of these were piloted for the first time and some were about taking an existing program to the next level. See more in our timeline below:
- 2013 – BRINGING CAREER OPPORTUNITIES TO STUDENTS
It started with research. After conducting an economic impact study on the sports and active lifestyle industry, EDC wanted to put the data into action. Together with UC San Diego, EDC created itrends in sport and active lifestyle – a series that brought sports and brand leaders to campus to talk about career opportunities in the field. The panels were open to students in any major or school, illuminating numerous opportunities – from marketing to engineering to logistics – to work in the sports and active lifestyle industry in San Diego. - 2014 – EXPANDING TO ADDITIONAL INDUSTRIES
After the success of the itrends in sports and active lifestyle, EDC partnered with UC San Diego to host two additional industry-themed events around life sciences and cybersecurity. Based on preliminary feedback, students indicated they were more likely to explore career opportunities in San Diego after graduation after attending itrends. - JANUARY 2015 – TRENDS BECOME LINK2 SAN DIEGO
Other universities started to take notice. EDC renamed the program “Link2 San Diego” and expanded out its list of schools to include San Diego State University, Cal State San Marcos and University of San Diego. - OCTOBER 2015 – LINK2 GOES TO SD HACKS
EDC partnered with UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering to host a Link2 panel at SD Hacks, a hackathon attended by more than 1,000 students throughout the state. Hackathon attendees took a break from their 36 hours of coding to learn more about career opportunities in San Diego. After the success of the first SD Hacks in 2015, EDC hosted an additional Link2 at SD Hacks in October 2016. - JANUARY 2016 – PROGRAM EXPANDS TO REACH MORE STUDENT POPULATIONS
EDC wanted to ensure it was reaching younger students who had not yet determined their career pathways. Partnering with Junior Achievement, EDC worked to expand programming to include high school and community college students. - APRIL 2016 – LINK2 HEADS TO DT SAN DIEGO
in 2016, EDC partnered with the San Diego Downtown Partnership to take students off campus and into the workplace. Together, Link2 Downtown brought more than 30 UC San Diego students to downtown employers to learn about specific companies – including Red Door Interactive, Zeeto Media and others – first hand. Relive it with us. - OCTOBER 3, 2017 – LINK2 HITS THE ROAD
Three years later, it was time to test our luck outside the region. So we took Link2 to a California university and hub for STEM talent – Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. More than 40 students showed up to learn about career opportunities in San Diego from ViaSat, Intuit, Takeda, Solar Turbines and MindBody.
Stay tuned for more from Link2 – which we’re renaming “Link to” – in 2018.