In Southeast Michigan, Keeping Young Talent in the State a Constant Challenge
Jillian Berman2/14/11
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are reluctant to relocate or expand in the state.
“One of the things we think we have an obligation to provide and one of the services we need to offer those companies is awareness and an avenue for them to find the talent that they need,” Simms says.
To that end, Spark recently launched a web job portal to link job seekers with high tech companies looking to hire.
“We’re aggressive about meeting with companies in the area regularly to determine what their needs are and if they are around talent, if the company is growing and if the company is needing particular talent,” Simms says.
A thriving entrepreneurial community will help keep the best talent in the state, experts say.
Tom Kinnear, executive director of U-M’s Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, thinks Michigan’s entrepreneurial culture is way ahead of where it was a decade ago.
He notes Rick Snyder, the state’s new governor, is a former entrepreneur. Ann Arbor features a community of venture capitalists and angel investors that back successful startups like Accuri Cytometers, which was acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company last week.
“We have the stories to tell now to show that it can be done,” Kinnear says. “They went away a bit on us and now they’re starting to come back again.”
Alex Thinath, a sophomore chemical engineering student at U-M, finds the young companies at the career fair attractive because of their energy.
“They’re looking for younger individuals and [they're] more growth oriented,” Thinath says. “There’s a new fresh market where I feel like I have chance.”
For young graduates, though, jobs are not enough.
“We have to be thought of as a place where people want to come to do things, but right now we’re still not thought of particularly as that by the graduates,” said Kinnear of the Zell Lurie Institute. “Unfortunately for Michigan, our big city is not a draw for people yet.”
Thinath says he doesn’t want to stay in Michigan for more than a summer internship because the state lacks a quality of life that would be attractive to young professionals.
“As a chemical engineer, I know there are manufacturing jobs that are enticing,” he said. “But it’s the environment that’s not attractive to me.”
William Volz, executive director of Wayne State University’s Blackstone LaunchPad sees it differently. He says many of the students that walk through his door would love to stay in the state and start businesses in the midtown neighborhood of Detroit.
But the business infrastructure to keep them in the area isn’t quite there yet, Volz said. Incentives like cheap office space might encourage students to stay in Detroit.
“The brain drain is not the issue, it’s providing the building blocks for these young entrepreneurs,” says Randal Charlton, executive director of Techtown at Wayne State.
