Travel Industry Founders & Hiring Managers: Look Beyond Industry Silos for Technical Talent

The travel and hospitality tech industry, like many others, often falls into a common trap when hiring technical talent: seeking candidates with prior experience in the same field. On the surface, this approach might seem logical—after all, familiarity with industry-specific tools, processes, and challenges can feel like a safe bet. However, this mindset can be a major roadblock to innovation, growth, and future-proofing your organization.

Here’s why looking outside your industry for technical talent is not only beneficial but necessary in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

The Risks of Hiring Only from Within the Industry

Stifled Innovation

Relying solely on candidates with industry-specific experience creates echo chambers. When everyone on the team comes from the same background, fresh ideas and novel approaches are rare. Companies that embrace cross-industry talent gain access to unique perspectives, often leading to breakthroughs that competitors might overlook.

Missed Opportunities for Problem Solving

Industries outside of travel, such as fintech, logistics, and e-commerce, have already solved challenges that travel tech still struggles with—like dynamic pricing, personalization, and seamless integrations. By hiring technical talent from these sectors, companies can leapfrog traditional barriers to innovation.

Longer Time-to-Hire

When hiring managers narrow their search to candidates with travel industry experience, they shrink the talent pool. This not only increases the time required to fill critical roles but also creates a false sense of scarcity in the market.

Falling Behind Competitors

Competitors that source talent from diverse industries are better positioned to adopt new technologies, streamline processes, and enhance customer experiences. Companies that cling to industry-specific hiring practices risk being left behind.

The Transferability of Technical Skills

Technical roles like software developers, engineers, and product managers require expertise in problem-solving, scalability, and system optimization—skills that are universally applicable across industries. Here’s why cross-industry technical talent works:

Core Skills Are Universal

The foundational skills of technical professionals—coding, cloud architecture, AI/ML, and data analysis—are not industry-specific. A developer who has built robust systems for e-commerce can easily apply their expertise to a travel booking platform.

Adaptability Is a Given

Technical talent thrives on learning and adapting to new challenges. Engineers and product managers regularly acquire new tools, frameworks, and domain knowledge, regardless of their previous industry.

Fresh Perspectives Drive Innovation

Professionals from other industries bring creative solutions and insights that may not yet exist in travel tech. For example, a logistics expert might optimize airline operations, or a fintech product manager could revolutionize payment systems for hospitality.

Customer-Facing Roles Are the Exception

While technical talent can seamlessly transition across industries, customer-facing roles often benefit from deep domain knowledge. Sales professionals, account managers, and customer experience leaders need to understand the unique dynamics and behaviors of travel customers to build trust and deliver results. This distinction is key to designing an effective hiring strategy: hire for transferable skills in technical roles and prioritize industry expertise for customer-facing ones.

How Jethire Helps You Find Cross-Industry Talent

At Jethire, we understand that the best technical talent may not always come from within the travel industry. We work closely with clients to:

Expand Talent Pools

By tapping into professionals from fintech, SaaS, logistics, and beyond, we ensure our clients have access to the most skilled and innovative candidates.

Focus on Transferable Skills

We identify candidates with the technical expertise to tackle your challenges, regardless of their previous industry experience.

Encourage Fresh Thinking

Our cross-industry approach brings diversity of thought to your teams, helping you solve problems in new and creative ways.

Balance Customer-Facing Needs

For roles that require industry expertise, we help you find candidates who understand your customers as well as your competitors do.

The Future of Hiring Is Cross-Industry

As one of our clients recently put it: “Better talent exists outside the travel industry when it comes to development work.” This sentiment is becoming increasingly common as forward-thinking companies recognize the value of looking beyond traditional boundaries.

By focusing on skills over industry experience for technical roles, your company can stay ahead of the curve, foster innovation, and build solutions that set you apart. At Jethire, we’re here to help you make that leap.

Ready to hire without boundaries?

Contact us to learn how we can connect you with top-tier talent, no matter where they come from.

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