Last Thursday April 21^st, 2016 marked the fourth installment of TechDay’s yearly event held in New York City. This year’s event brought tech companies, startups, investors and job seekers alike down to Pier 94 to connect. With 550 exhibitors there was opportunities going all around with the excited buzz of innovations and the promises of a tech-ier future.

I went down to the pier as a part of trip with my peers from the career development program I attend, Year Up New York. Many of us have an interest in tech so it was a no-brainer for our program managers to sign us up to attend such a large scale event. We hoped to get a scope of the industry and sharpen up those networking skills. I, for one, can say thoroughly enjoyed the event. There was just so much to see (and not to mention free stuff)!

I went around looking at as many booths as I could and here are just a few that really caught my attention.

Cloud Reach is a global cloud tech company from London that's expanding rapidly. These guys were really great to talk to. They told me all about the company and how they now had an office in New York City. They have this awesome opportunity for grads called the Graduate Fast Track which teaches grad-level industry skills and offers the option of relocating to any Cloud Reach office across the globe.

Sticky is a company whose focus is a market engagement tool that tracks consumers eye movement. Jamie. one of the reps in the photo below, explained how some company's gather information about their consumers by tracking their eye movement on the website through the consumers webcam. Now, at first it sounded intrusive but let's face it this is the technology of the future and it's kinda amazing despite how strange it may sound.

Stride is a software development company that specializes in the art of agile. Their staff was super friendly and engaged which made it a real treat to chat with them. Stephanie gave me some cool tips and introduced me to "the art of agile". Thanks to Stride!

When I saw this booth I ran over a little too excitedly. I have two dogs at home and so naturally, I had to stop by. I spoke with one of the reps and he told me about the Meetup group and events that Bark & Co. hosts. Incidentally, the third annual Bark Fest in coming up next month, which, I am very tempted to go to. Any gathering of dogs and dog lovers alike sounds great to me.

The last company, but definitely not the least, that I will speak on is Girl Develop It. This is a nonprofit organization that offers affordable programs that enable young women to learn web and software development. I absolutely loved this concept and promptly asked for volunteer opportunities. As a woman in tech, their mission really speaks to me and any organization that speaks to empower any one group of people gets an 'A' in my book. Learn more here.

As a student, my goal was to talk to companies I thought were interesting and could consider joining in the future. I wanted to know what innovative companies like the ones at TechDay looked for in potential recruits. To my surprise, the things these organizations were mainly looking for was hard work and character. They were more interested in soft skills (personality-driven skills) rather than hard skills (technical skills such as coding, typing, writing proficiency, etc). One rep put it to me this way, "...companies know that skills can be taught but you can't teach hard work and the ability to work with others. We are really looking for people that are eager to learn and work hard. Companies want those type of people because they are willing to invest in their growth".

I came in expecting companies to say, "we need people efficient in coding, graphic design, editing...etc." but instead, I got a "hey, if you are willing to learn and have the right attitude then we have a place for you". That's not to say that hard skills aren't important but it can only take you so far. Even in this digital age, the art of communicating with real people is key.