For someone who is not a high-level tech expert, getting into tech recruitment can seem quite intimidating initially.
It is difficult to vet and hire a candidate for a particular position that you may not be familiar with in-depth. Furthermore, you may not even know what technical skills the candidates you need to hire require. Additionally, you may not be familiar with what to look for in their resumes to ensure that the job profile is enhanced.
When it comes to hiring tech talent, relying solely on the “trust your gut” method isn’t wise, especially if you’re a non-tech recruiter. How should you go about hiring tech talent?
You do not need to know how to do coding or other IT-related things to know the best person for the IT position. Here are a few tips to help you find the right candidate for the job.
Tips for the Non-Techie Recruiter for Making Tech Recruitment
There are numerous subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences among developers that can easily escape the eye of a non-tech recruiter.
For instance, terms like Java and Javascript may not sound so different to a non-techie, but they are not the same in a developer’s eyes.
So how do you go for tech recruitment even though you are not informed that way?
The answer is by following our best tech recruitment tips below, especially for non-techie recruiters.
So here are the fool-proof tech-recruitment tips and strategies for non-techies.
1. Get to learn more about Technical Engineering
- One way to feel comfortable when you make a technical hire is to learn more about technical engineering and keep yourself updated about the subject basics.
- You can listen to various podcasts about software engineering, codes, and so on, especially if you have a long commute every day.
- Keep yourself updated by reading different blogs and books. In addition, there are numerous blogs and materials in the IT area which you can read for more insights.
- For instance, The Non-Technical Guide to Web Technologies is a quick read [a] to understand basic tech-related skills. The book caters specifically to non-tech recruiters and highlights different job titles.
- Another option is to check out videos on YouTube (numerous free videos explaining right from the essential details to full in-depth discussions) or watch TED talks.
- You can also join online communities and groups or forums. Reddit, for instance, has a widespread forum discussion on most of tech-related topics. In June 2021, around 1.7 billion visits were tracked on Reddit’s online forum, making it one of the most visited online websites.[1]
- Slack is another great place for discussions online. Networking is a powerful option for non-techie recruiter to get some tech knowledge up their sleeves about tech recruitment.
- One can network with various engineers (Attending Hackathons or techie meet-ups is one good source to network) or talk with the engineers in your company. This networking will help you know the latest tech community trend and how the tech community works.
- Finally, try to learn from seasoned tech recruiters by listening to how they conduct interviews, screen, and frame the questions. This method will help you derive a lot of knowledge within a short period.
2. Prepare in Advance for the Interview – Plan what you want to get from the candidate
The best people to explain programming skills and programming languages are the programmers themselves.
Ask the candidate to explain what they do as if they are explaining to a person without a technical background. The more efficiently they’ll communicate complex stuff in simple language, the more capable they’re.
Get them to describe the kind of projects they have worked on, and in the case of an experienced candidate, find out if the projects they have worked on are similar to your company.
Get to know about the type of work environment they are used to, which will help you relate. Asking them to do the talking will help you understand their nature of work better, plus you also get to know about their soft skills.
Generally, keep a list of questions that you want to ask ready beforehand, and for each question, list out what you expect and don’t expect from the candidate. This will help you enroll a score for the candidate and look back and analyze them when you compile the tech-recruitment scores.
As a guide, you can ask them questions to know the following:
- Is this person’s skill set precisely what you’re looking for?
- What is their level of seniority?
- Do they have any prior experience in your field?
- Do they have the necessary IT and business tools to complete the task?
- Have they done something close to what you’re looking for in this job?
- Are you able to afford them?
3. Bring in more Technical Resources to the Interview
Bringing more technical persons into the interviewing team will ease the tech recruitment process and enable verified results.
You can ask your developer team about the technicalities and how to hire people like them.
Check with them if they can list out any skill sets needed for a particular job title.
This will help you list the correct terminologies for the job descriptions and decide what skills need to be tested.
Another smart way is to partner with trusted agencies like CodeQuotient to train students in coding, full-stack development, and related industry-ready fields.
It is easy to pick up potential hires from these agencies since their students are professionally trained and industry-ready.
From there you can easily choose candidates who are qualified to suit your company’s needs.
4. Make Use of Trusted Technology to help with Hiring Decisions
Technology has revolutionized recruitment, right from professional networking sites to online application systems and job boards.
Nowadays, technical recruiters are turning to developer events, take-home tests, and data challenges to create a shortlist of good-performing candidates before they take a look at their resumes. Using new software and technologies like filtered AI will do a great job sorting through candidates and help one make a better recruiter. For instance, e-commerce giant Amazon uses a tech tool called Hirepro to manage end-to-end recruitment for their virtual employees.
Quick market research will bring to the forefront such tools for your business.
Finally, it’s time to take it to print once you are all set with the correct technical details like the languages, platforms, technology, and other skills required for the job. Prepare an accurate job description to attract the right techies.
Go For Recruiting Tools (Free and Paid)
Another good option that comes to the rescue of the non-techie recruiter for making technical hires is the recruiting tool.
Recruiting tools are the best option for choosing the right developers, especially when you, as a non-techie recruiter, are not in their domain.
In addition, recruiting tools cater to various requirements. For instance, there are tools to help you stay updated, tools to enable you to reach the hard-to-hire candidates, tools to screen candidates, tools for freelance hiring, and the like.
Enrol for Online Courses
There are various online courses from many resources that offer free videos and teaching resources that can give you a foundation on coding and its related attributes. Choose the one that suits you the best, and you are ready for tech recruitment.
We hope you enjoyed reading our blog. For more tips and strategies, do get in touch with us at CodeQuotient.
