Companies are facing a problem: how to recruit tech talent. The competition for tech talent is fierce, and recruiters are experiencing the pressure.  Recruiting tech talent is not easy, but with our advice, you can succeed.

Things to remember when recruiting tech talent: 

Be conscious of the tech talent’s specialisation

This is the most important and actually can’t be emphasized enough, because according to a developer survey on recruiting, the number one reason a tech recruiter never heard back from an IT professional is because the role was irrelevant for them.

Remember, Python means different things for different IT professionals. There is a huge difference between whether you are looking for a Python Machine Learning Engineer or a Python Web Developer. Tech recruiters will see better response rates when the job opportunity is targeted correctly.

A collection of real comments from LinkedIn:
“Why, why, does only a few recruiters make the efforts to look at my LinkedIn profile to see who I am and what I can do. If I was a recruiter, I would be ashamed to get an answer “I’m not a frontend developer”, because that would mean I sent the message for nothing. They apparently don’t care at all. Do I need to restrict communication…”

“I get enquiries on a daily basis to come work on React when I don’t know JavaScript at all.”

“I think that recruiters just skript spam bots based on a person’s profession. If the profession has keywords like software, developer, development, etc. they get a message. Hoping that at least one would hit the mark.”

“A lot of recruiters search in bulk with a fire & forget methodolgy. It’s easy to spam professionals without looking at the profiles in depth. “The developers will let you know iF it’s something they want.” This does not aspire confidence in the recruiter and definitely not in the company they are representing!”

Multichannel Sourcing

 The first sourcing channel that comes to mind is most likely LinkedIn Recruiter, however it’s not enough if you want to find talent for the difficult-to-fill tech roles. Not all profiles you prefer are searchable, which means you need to invest in your tools. Utilise your network, your network’s network and tools such as Linkedin, Lever, Workable and many more recruiting softwares out there. 

Contact enough people

Tech Recruitment is not called work for no reason: It’s not enough to contact a couple of people. For a typical case in Helsinki or Stockholm you need to contact anywhere between 50-100 people depending on the attractiveness of the company and the role.

Right now, a Java Developer is a pretty simple recruit and you can get away with contacting fewer professionals, compared to the new technology role such as DevOps Engineers with Kubernetes experience.

Be transparent about the role

Honesty is the best policy – and this applies in tech recruitment as well. You don’t want to start a recruitment process by misleading the potential candidate. This kind of tactic to get someone interested in a job will only cause the new hire to leave in disappointment.

Be as transparent as you can as a recruiter. Lead with the expectations and benefits of the new job, but don’t hide the possible negatives. Being upfront about details related to the role will build trust between you and the candidate.

Pay attention to personalization

 Messages written for the masses look like messages written to no one. In addition to paying attention that the role is relevant for the specific person professionally, you should make it relevant personally.

Start the message with the person’s name and use their actual work experience as examples as to why this new position could work for them. Small personalization details such as these tell the recipient that you are interested specifically in them and make them feel important.

If all else fails, you can pray for Tech Gods or turn to Agile Search!

Agile Search is specialized in tech recruitment and finding talent for the most difficult-to-fill tech roles. Our company is proud to say that our tech recruiters are the best in the business. If you need help recruiting tech talent for your business, don’t be afraid to contact us!