How cities are attracting tech talent

Jonathan Andrews explains how cities are looking to their own universities and colleges for the talent they need to drive innovation

When Michael Mayta, Chief Information Officer in the City of Wichita, posted two openings for a data analyst and data scientist in 2018 he received no applications for the scientist position and two for the analyst job.

“When they found out what our pay scale was, they both dropped out,” he explains.

In December 2018, to fill the void, he took the funding set aside for the positions to city council and proposed an MoU with Wichita State University to tap into the local student talent.

The university then put together a programme involving six studen...