In recent years, it has become challenging to recruit individuals with relevant specialist expertise in IT. There are too few suitable candidates for too many jobs. Candidates are contacted daily with offers of «exciting opportunities». Social media is teeming with creative recruitment campaigns and marketing aimed at the target audience. As a former IT developer, I can well understand why many candidates lose trust in us recruiters. Therefore, in this article, I want to share four fundamental tips that may be useful to consider if you are looking to recruit IT specialists.
The egg about the timing is right
The first tip is not unique to recruiting for IT roles. Timing is always important – regardless of the role. If a candidate is ready for a job change, the window opens for you to recruit them. And the timing window is even more important when recruiting attractive IT specialists. Since they are constantly presented with opportunities, they are tired of being hunted. You must understand this and show respect for it. Check if they are even ready to receive information about the role before you explain what the role entails.
Be personal
The vast majority of those recruiting in IT have to contact a great many candidates before they get a response. This quickly turns IT recruitment into a volume game, and it becomes difficult to be personal. The candidates you try to contact notice this and are tired of being contacted by headhunters who know nothing about them or their skills. Before you contact candidates – familiarise yourself with their background, what they can do, and explain why you believe they might be suitable for the position. In other words – avoid mass mailings. If the contact is personalised, the chances of you getting a response increase.
Stop saying how exciting the opportunity is
As a recruiter, you are trained to understand what is good about the organisation you are recruiting for, and what is exciting about the specific role you are trying to fill. This is absolutely central to being able to sell the role to candidates. The challenge is that we often try too hard to sell the roles. We quickly forget that it is the candidate who holds the key to whether the role is exciting or not. What is exciting for some might be boring for others. Instead, explain what the role is, and then the candidate can decide for themselves if it is exciting.
Understand what you're actually recruiting for
IT is a broad domain. Whether you are recruiting developers, service managers, data scientists, infrastructure consultants, enterprise architects, or IAM experts, it will be easier if you understand what the field is about. You don't really need to know how to program, but familiarise yourself with what it is, and be curious. Try to understand how architecture relates to development and business needs, why integration roles are often organised alongside data warehouse roles, and what's the difference between on-prem and cloud. Ask ChatGPT to explain any new concepts you come across. The more you learn about the IT domain, the more fun you will have when recruiting for it. And the easier it will be to actually find candidates with relevant skills.
Written by Sverre Haugen, Partner at MeyerHaugen.
Do you have questions about IT recruitment? Contact Petter Meyer or Sverre Haugen.
