Everyone knows that IT professionals are overwhelmed with requests – recruiters, IT specialists themselves, we’re all aware of this fact. Taking this ever-increasing IT-market growth into account, and the rising difficulty and complexity projects involve, recruiting in this area is considered a pretty difficult job.
As recruiter, you face a lot of challenges when it comes to attracting IT talent; the most experienced people out there are so baffled by the huge amount of job offers, that they never actually look-up and apply for a position – they don’t need to apply for job interviews, after a number of years in the business, job interviews come to them. This means they are passive candidates you have to look for yourself, and after you will find them, they will hardly answer to your emails or return phone calls.
I’ve read plenty of articles that were advocating for all kinds of tips for attracting candidates: developing an intriguing job description for the projects you post on social media or on dedicated job-sites; rules of conducting a professional interview; suggestions to fully and openly explain the job responsibilities and benefits from the beginning, to keep in touch with the candidates along the recruitment process, to communicate with them often enough that they don’t forget about you once the next job proposition is in, and to keep the relationship as friendly as possible. I know I have something of value to propose to candidates, but it’s difficult to get their attention, long enough to make those benefits known to them.
To rise to this challenge, we need to stay visible to jobseekers and passive candidates alike, by being active on social media, enlarging our online community constantly through joining specific groups, and keeping engagement high through various social media campaigns, competitions, and updates about our events and on-going activity. While I agree that all these actions count, I still think the most important thing is to be there at the right time, to seize the proper moment to act. In terms of managing to be in the spotlight, you should first try to grab candidates’ attention by representing the company and the project you need them for in a fresh, professionally-creative way. If they’ve come across positive information about you before, or have met someone who’s worked or is still working in the company, there’s a lot bigger chance they’ll come to a first interview.
However, coming to the first interview is not always a guarantee that a candidate will become an employee, even if the recruiter finds they’re a perfect match with the project they’re hiring for, and there are many factors that can influence a professional’s decision, before and after the preliminary interviewing phase. So what does increase the likelihood of success? Stay in touch via RSS feed and find out in my next article! In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject, IT professionals and recruiters alike – I’m interested in both your perspectives. Feel free to leave me a comment, or contact us by email.
Appreciate the recommendation. Will try it out.