Technological innovation and digital revolution result in great demand for tech talents. But tech recruitment is a highly competitive market.
Promising developers are hard to find and slippery to catch. It takes special skills to get clarity about the technical candidates to hire.
This is where the need for tech recruiters comes from. Being well-equipped for interacting with high professionals, they bridge the recruitment gap and help find the best match between the business needs and the available talent.
Besides being early birds, they can get their hands first on the best tech talent out there who can even change the course of an entire company by using a developer assessment platform.
For all these, there is a massive demand for qualified technical recruiters. However, being a tech recruiter has its fair share of job requirements. Are you eager to know about this? Let’s dive deeper –
What is a Tech Recruiter?
A technical recruiter specializes in finding candidates to fill technical positions. Fall under the umbrella of a Human Resource specialist, a technical recruiter has an in-depth knowledge of their industry.
They identify, recruit, screen, and present promising candidates for technical positions, collaborating with hiring managers to set realistic technical requirements.
What Does a Technical Recruiter Do?
The primary responsibility of a technical recruiter is to translate business needs to tech needs and find the best match available from the sea of applicants. But it is not as easy as it seems; instead, it is a daunting task.
Here, we have pinpointed the primary responsibilities in detail –
Building a Roadmap
The job description is the best roadmap you need to have for the hiring process. With the required knowledge, skills, and experience, you need to ensure the candidate is culturally-fit and abides by the core company values.
Rechecking and reviewing the job description with the manager and the team with which the candidate will work is necessary. Review, edit and update the JD until it seems perfect for the desired vacancy. And once done, you are ready to go.
Initial Screening
When interacting with a project manager, ask how and where they would like the candidate to be within 6 months of hire. Depending on your responses, you can decide the kind of skills you will be looking at in the candidate and fill the missing gaps accordingly.
Match-making
You are familiar with the company’s vision and values, but it’s not enough. You need to know the hiring manager’s requirements, the department’s responsibilities, and the kinds of clients and projects the candidate will handle. It allows the tech recruiter to look for those traits, experiences, and USPs in the candidate who can fit within the company and its growth.
Recruitment Marketing
A tech recruiter often has to take the responsibilities of a marketing salesperson. It is essential to endorse the job’s potential and let the candidates know how to grow their careers with the company to engage with the candidate.
Facilitating On-boarding
Your job doesn’t end at the offer letter coordination. During the candidate’s interim period and until she/he comes on board, it is your responsibility to keep the candidate engaged with the organization’s upcoming events and new technologies being adopted. It will build up enough excitement and eagerness for the candidate to look forward to their joining.
The Attributes of a Good Technical Recruiter
The key attributes to need to be a brilliant tech recruiter are –
- Decision-Making Skills
Tech recruiters should know how to make wise decisions when reviewing candidates’ qualifications or working to resolve disputes.
- Detail-Oriented
Being detail-oriented, you can evaluate candidates’ qualifications, run background checks, maintain proper records of an employee grievances, and make sure that the workplace complies with labor standards.
- Reliability
Being trustworthy helps you build strong networks and relationships with applicants, the company, and vendors. When the candidates know that you can guide them on their career path, they will get in touch with you even after leaving the company. And you will have a candidate for life.
- Being a Good Listener
The best tech recruiters are the ones who listen carefully. They listen to candidates’ and managers’ words and respond and engage positively in negotiation.
- Speaking Skills
A strong speaking skill helps you to be good at your job. It can help you convey information about your organization and employment to the candidates properly.
- Multitasking Skills
Hiring is a long process, where recruiters need to take several responsibilities. A good tech recruiter can accomplish various things at once and excel in all of them.
- Adaptability
Priorities and situations can change at any time. Being adaptable to situations helps you find a path when you are caught between the company’s requirements and the candidate. Dealing with such situations skillfully and smartly, yet leaving a positive impression on candidates will reap rich rewards to bring back the candidates when needed.
Challenge Faced by Technical Recruiters
According to a survey conducted by CodinGame, the biggest challenges faced by tech recruiters include –
- Finding skilled candidates (61%)
- Stand tall in the crowd (of other companies) to attract the right talent (25%)
- Aligning with the job requirements/hiring managers’ demands (24%)
- Hiring within tight time frames (24%)
Finding Qualified Candidates
Although there is a huge demand for qualified developers in the IT field, there is a lack of talent. This is partly because there are not enough candidates trained in the tech field to meet the increasing demand for skilled tech talents and partly due to the lack of required experience, soft skills, and formal education. So, companies are struggling to find the right candidate.
To overcome this challenge, recruiters can –
- Broaden the search for candidates
- Pursue passive candidates
- Attract candidates with good marketing
Stand Tall in the Crowd (of Other Companies) to Attract the Right Talent
As more tech jobs are available nowadays, companies need to compete among them for the top candidates. No longer do candidates need to take the first job offer they find – now, they have plenty of choices for the most suitable job.
But you can do a few things to attract the top talents –
- Maintain a positive company brand
- Look for employee referrals
- Offer flexible working hours/work from home options
- Offer the best salary possible
Aligning with the Job Requirements/Hiring Managers’ Demands
Hiring managers and recruiters are not always on the same page, especially when some inconsistencies make collaboration difficult. In such cases, both parties need to work together so that the recruiter has the required information to find the desired candidate in the shortest time possible.
And the tips to follow are –
- Ensure the skill set is clear
- Separate your must-to-have from like-to-get for the position
- Keep in touch with the hiring managers & review the assessment process with him/her
Hiring within tight time frames
The first company to hire gets the best candidate. Job seekers are impatient. So, if the hiring process takes a long time, they will move on to something else.
To avoid this nuisance, you can follow these tips –
- Set a “hire by” date and speed up your hiring process to match that date
How to Become a Technical Recruiter?
Follow these steps to become a technical recruiter –
1. Educate Yourself
If you are wondering how to be a technical recruiter, your educational background is the right place to start. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the entry-level education of a recruitment specialist is “a bachelor’s degree in human resources, business, or a related field.” And the coursework includes business, psychology, industrial relations, human resource management, professional writing, and accounting.
The report also states that some human resources positions need previous work experience. And the right way to gain such experience is through HR assistance jobs, customer service positions, and other similar kinds of jobs.
2. Nail Your Non-Academic Skills
Only academic skills are not enough to make you a skilled tech recruiter. You need to complement your academic skills with some personality and cognitive traits. Attention to detail, decision-making skills, communication skills, and interpersonal skills are some of them.
And as practice makes one perfect, work on these skills to prepare yourself for the job. Network with people, attend industry events, and conferences, or get an administrative job to see whether you can enjoy it.
3. Be Familiar with Your Tools
An overwhelming number of recruitment tools like technical skills screening software is available in the market. And finding the right one is a daunting task. You need to go through several demos to ensure that you can make the right decision, and it is a time-consuming process.
What to do? Well, be smart about what you decide to automate. Make the most of integration opportunities to spend the least time possible on moving things around and look for solutions that allow you to do more than one thing.
4. Analyze Your Hiring Efforts
Modern recruitment and marketing have several things in common, and it is not bad at all. Recruiters and hiring managers can use analytical tools and rely on their data to analyze and optimize the recruitment funnel.
Check each stage correctly and if any changes are required, do so to improve your hiring efforts. Evaluating your efforts from time to time brings a positive shift in your recruitment process.
5. Continue Learning
Recruitment is a dynamic world. So, irrespective of your experience and expertise, you need to welcome innovative ideas and ways of doing things smartly. So, keep on learning to improve your skills, get authentication of your abilities, and grow your promotion chances.
Lots of courses on technical recruitment are available online. Completing these courses is a great way to enhance your skillset and showcase your abilities to others. So, embark on an online course to be a great recruiter.
How Does Skillsz Help Recruiters?
Being in a competitive space, you need to walk the extra mile to stay ahead of the competition. Technical hiring is not easy. However, you can make it hassle-free with Skillsz, a new-age tech hiring platform. It offers a plethora of skill tests for developers to hire.
With this, you can create jobs as per your company needs, design and customize tests by adding skills, proficiency levels, pass marks, and more, invite candidates individually or with an open link, conduct assessments, check results, and make quality hires without any bias.
Whether you want to hire expert PHP developers with a PHP online screening test or Angular developers with Angular skill tests, you can enjoy some exclusive features of Skillsz. It includes a ready-to-use library of 5000+ questions, custom branding to promote your brand, an anonymous domain, a real-time dashboard, anti-fraud detection, fair billing, affordable pricing options, extra credits, and more. So, when it comes to tech hiring, Skillsz is the ultimate choice for you.
Bottom Line
Now, you have a fair understanding of how to nail technical hiring and hire talented developers for your company. So, keep learning, arm yourself with the right tools, create a positive experience for candidates, and follow this guide for quality hires.
And to use a pre-hire recruitment solution, choose Skillsz. It offers you the best solution at unmatching prices. To hire candidates with Skillsz, register today and start a 14-day FREE TRIAL today!
About Skillsz
Skillsz’s skill assessment platform allows companies to assess developers with online programming tests. This automotive platform makes recruitment easy and effective. Besides, it enables companies to filter out unqualified candidates and find the best talent quickly. Create coding tests, invite candidates, check results, and find out the best talent. Does it sound interesting? Start a 14-day free trial today!