Technical recruiting can be tough. There’s so much to know and the information can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are some ways you can bypass the need for deep domain knowledge on technical topics to reach engineers and get more placements. Here are 5 steps to being an effective recruiter.
- Know Your Audience — When you talk to engineers, address technical challenges. It’s OK not to know all the details, but you should try to understand how and why they do what they do! What they will be working on and why is important, so knowing they will tackle complex solutions that stretch their capabilities will get them hooked. But, know your limits. The sweet spot is a role that includes some things they can accomplish confidently, coupled with challenges they probably haven’t faced.
- Highlight Business Objectives — Engineers are people too and want to know the tangible impact of their work. That’s why selling the mission and vision is vital. Building product with 10MM unique users, integrating micros-services, architecting component libraries from the ground up can all be cool, but without a promising mission or vision, it’s just work for work’s sake. Anyone building a product wants to know the business has the potential to grow into something substantial or meaningful because it means they’ll be able to grow within the organization and make an impact. If it’s a brand name, like Amazon, they may not have as much impact on the overall product strategy, so be specific about problems they’ll be solving for that part of the business unit.
- Less is More — Say more with each sentence. In other words, keep the meat and trim the fat. It’s good to be polite, and with cold outreach, you still haven’t built any real rapport. There are many people who lack empathy and are simply trying to make a placement with little regard for the candidates genuine interests. Finding candidate and company fit is important in the early stages since it give you an opportunity to listen to their needs. It shows very clearly that you’re not simply looking to match a profile with a job description. For that reason, it helps to know the in’s and out’s of a role you’re working on.
- Find your voice — Simply put, write like you talk. Your personality comes out and you won’t make the reader tired. Pretend like everyone has ADD and wants to talk to their friends.
- Call to action — Always ask. That can be asking for a call, coffee, feedback, etc. Usually, you’ve earned an ask by providing a personalized experience for reader. It’s good to make the “asks” approachable and easy to say yes to. The farther along in the process the more you can ask for since you’ve provided more help to the individual. Rapport is definitely built by being caring and considerate, but conscientiousness and consistency over time are big differentiators. Ask for things and following through vigorously.
I’m sure the list can be expanded, but in my time as a recruiter, I found these principles to be helpful!
