When Heidi Moos attended the Birmingham Business Alliance’s (BBA) Code the Classic last October, she had no idea she would meet her future employer at the event.

Heidi Moos landed a job at Birmingham marketing agency Syntropy Group after connecting with the company at the Birmingham Business Alliance’s Code the Classic.

Moos, who graduated from Innovate Birmingham’s third data analytics bootcamp last December, was beginning to look for full-time work around the time she attended Code the Classic, an event designed to help connect employers with diverse tech talent.

At the event’s career fair, Moos approached Syntropy Group’s table and struck up a conversation. She hadn’t heard of the marketing agency before Code the Classic, but, as she spoke with company representatives, Syntropy Group’s search for out-of-the-box thinkers sounded a lot like her, she said.

“[Syntropy Group] was not the type of company I was necessarily targeting,” Moos said. “It wasn’t one that was on my radar. But it piqued my interest when I met one of the partners at Code the Classic and he said they hired people who think critically. For me, that was great – I wasn’t interested in a company that wanted people to stay in their lane. It appealed to me because I really enjoy working at a place where I can just be creative.”

Moos impressed Syntropy Group enough to get an interview offer while at Code the Classic. Within a month, she had a job offer and began working for Syntropy Group full-time on January 2 as a data analyst and production manager.

“She was sharp, well-spoken and articulate,” said Patrick Lantrip, partner and chief solutions officer at Syntropy Group. “I was really impressed with her upfront.”

Syntropy Group wasn’t the only company Moos connected with at Code the Classic. She also got interview offers from Shipt, Books-A-Million and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

The BBA holds Code the Classic in conjunction every year with the Magic City Classic football game, played annually between Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University. In its sixth year in 2019, Code the Classic specifically targets students of color, underrepresented minorities and first-generation college students from colleges and universities around Alabama in an effort to bring more diverse tech talent to Birmingham. With thousands of people visiting Birmingham for the Magic City Classic, Code the Classic uses the opportunity to connect HBCU students and tech professionals to Birmingham.

“As we have seen from the Building (it) Together report, equity will play a key role in Birmingham meeting its current and future hiring needs,” said Waymond Jackson, senior vice president of public policy at the BBA. “Code the Classic exists to help companies fill their talent pipelines with diverse hires who could be a great fit for the role, and events like this serve as a good first step towards increasing local companies’ access to talent.”

Moos, a 48-year-old woman in her second career, is a nontraditional tech hire, and chose to attend Code the Classic because of its mission to help nontraditional tech hires like herself get jobs. She said the companies there understood the value of hiring a diverse workforce because of the different perspectives nontraditional tech hires bring to the table.

Moos said she is grateful for the doors that opened because she attended Code the Classic, including her first full-time job in her new career.

“The people I work with are phenomenal and it is really refreshing,” she said. “There is so much opportunity to grow.”