You don’t have to be a recruiting expert or a hiring master mind to hire tech recruiter. Of course, there are certain rules and requirements that need to be obeyed and fulfilled in order to have a fully functional and above all motivated team. Welcoming new members aboard can get surprisingly difficult sometimes (even if you followed all the instruction and your instincts too).
The good news is that chances of having hiring doubts and problems can certainly be minimised (let’s not be pretentious and speak of completely eliminating these odds, at least for now). Good HR strategy can substitute the usage of crystal ball and help you spot potential problems before they actually occur.
And you’d need the right staff to create a successful staffing strategy. There’s a whole set of rules and distinctions when it comes to recruiters too.
What does it take to succeed as a tech recruiter?
Dedication with a dash of gazing
First indicator of crafty (and hirable) IT recruiter is patience. Recruiting, when being done properly, requires time. If someone’s willing to tiptoe around a LinkedIn profile (and possibly around other social media profiles – no stalking potential intended), plus to be regularly checking out other platforms and sources, he might be a keeper.
This patient tech recruiter will look into (almost) everything that can possibly be useful and found online. He’ll track down information about candidates (and clients when needed) and he’ll categorize it carefully and methodically.
Keeping colleagues in loop and keeping files, CVs, documents and information organized will contribute to success of the whole team involved in recruiting and hiring (no matter how big or small the team might be). Even if there’s one single recruiter working for you, his behavior and competence (or the lack of it) might easily effect the entire company.
So – Don’t choose a sloppy recruiter, he’s almost destined to mix up names and available positions and the next thing you know – you’re hiring a Senior Ancient Greek Satyr (priceless for development of 5th century B.C. theater but inexplicably bad if you’re developing a team of IT experts).
And here’s the thing – every recruiter should examine those professional (and/or social) networks. But he has to know about boundaries and make sure never to cross certain lines.
The thin line between being thorough and plain scary
The worst case scenario – a recruiter being desperate and needy. If a recruiter messes up big time and confuses a bunch of stuff, or seriously mispronounces some names and tech terms – there’s still a possibility they’ll miraculously manage to persuade a developer into considering their job offer. However, being winy or tedious will surely get them a one way ticket to “seen”.
If you’re looking to hire a tech recruiter, make sure he knows how to deal with deadlines, stress and ultimately – each recruiter must know how to communicate and distinguish persistence from perpetual, compulsive texting. The kind of individual that’s willing to exchange quality for quantity is very much likely to send texts without true substance (which will lead to extremely poor response rate, and then back to more pointless texting).
Yes, recruitment gets difficult sometimes, the market keeps getting more competitive and everyone’s in a hurry to hire. But this is no excuse for anyone to come off as borderline obsessive. Following up every now and then is a must, just make sure they know the frequency limit before they end up characterized as literal head-hunters.
- Cold-calling is out of the question.
- Emailing or texting until you’re blocked, banned, or ostracised are not allowed.
- Generic texts and copy-paste messages aren’t welcome.
- Irrelevant information and redundancy are inadequate and will most likely be ignored.
The importance of questions and coffee
Recruiter is indirectly taking part in your employer branding. This is the person that should represent your company with all its’ values. They need to be fully aware of the priorities and they should be asking questions about basically everything.
Be specific about what truly matters so they can spread the word.
Let’s imagine for a moment you’re contemplating a career change. You’re receiving some offers and this really poetic text hits your mailbox. You’re being informed about some utopia among tech companies, everyone there has some cool Tolkien – like title and they’re all having so much coffee you can’t help but wonder if the job’s actually on a plantation.
Feeling special because you received an offer like this yet? Of course not, you know better. So does a (potentially) good recruiter.
Attention, employers! Do not withhold information from our fellow recruiter.
If the employer (or some other person in charge) doesn’t provide a recruiter with the necessary information, the result might sound like random babbling about unicorns, rock stars, vegan burgers etc.
Recruiter needs to be all about the questions.
And they need to be well informed and up to date. You should be looking for a tech oriented HR enthusiast who’s asking the right kind of questions and who’s able to correctly rank benefits from “very important” to “wow, look – a doormat that glows in the dark”.
It’s easy to spot a person who’s eager to learn and develop new skills. Successful recruitment has very little to do with seniority itself sometimes. Have this in mind while hiring:
- Experience does not necessarily equal the amount of time spent doing something.
They should be asking significant questions, and so should you.
Technical pre-screening of your candidates performed by our interviewers would provide you with an insight in candidates’ knowledge, skills and relevant experiences. Start your recruitment journey with us!
