We’ve heard the stories about hiring managers and candidates receiving five, ten, twenty or more phone calls or emails a day from persistent IT recruiters. We don’t deny that this is irritating and distracting and certainly feeds any number of stereotypes we hear about recruiters.
However, having said that, we know a lot of these stereotypes to be blown out of proportion and completely untrue. There are great IT recruiters out there who genuinely work with your best interests at heart, working diligently to make the perfect matches. So with that in mind, here are a few things we’re sick of hearing about IT recruiters.
They Don’t Understand the Candidate
The business world is full of people slinging buzzwords around, and a cynical IT professional will probably assume that recruiters are not beyond doing the same thing. The presumption is that these recruiters simply don’t know IT enough to understand their candidates. But we know a lot of great recruiters, and this is rarely the truth.
Admittedly, they probably don’t have an IT background. But they don’t have to know how to code a custom database or troubleshoot a network outage in order to be great at their job as an IT recruiter. The best ones have done their homework. They know the difference between UNIX and Linux, the nuances between PHP and Python web development, and the advantage Swift provides over Objective-C.
This basic, theoretical technical knowledge is usually more than enough to successfully navigate their way around the IT job market in order to find their candidate a job that will fulfill their career aspirations. Top performing IT recruiters have a handle on today’s tech trends and how that affects employment. In fact, they know this is the only way to genuinely help their candidates.
They Don’t Understand the Requirements
The cynicism of IT professionals in the job market often spills over to hiring managers, who may all too easily assume that an IT recruiter’s first priority is sending over stacks of resumes without much understanding or forethought of the requirements. But once again, we don’t believe this is true. The best IT recruiters will gather an intimate understanding of their clients’ needs, including the technical aspects.
This means that when they first learn about a new client’s company, technical infrastructure and frameworks, they’re automatically building a picture of what the job requirements will look like. And they know exactly how much experience an IT pro would need to fit their company culture, technical specifications and compensation package. It goes without saying that they know what to look for in a resume.
Additionally, with their finger on the pulse of the tech industry, they’ll be able to anticipate certain needs of an employer in response to changing tech trends. This also means they’ll be the first on the phone with their client when rare tech talent shows up at their door who would be a great fit.
They Don’t Care What Happens Post-Placement
Even if an IT recruiter can prove that they understand both the candidate and the client’s requirements, the next assumption we’re tired of hearing is that they don’t care what happens after the deal comes together and the placement is finalized. The candidate, in particular, will be prone to believing that their recruiter doesn’t care about them once they’ve accepted the job offer.
We know this isn’t the case for the best IT recruiters. Following up with that candidate and maintaining the relationship is key to maintaining the client relationship. They want to make sure their candidates are happy with the new job, that their expectations are being met, that they’re not ready to quit within just weeks or months because of miscommunication.
Recruiting is fundamentally about networking (here are 7 people you should know if you’re in the IT staffing industry). Burning bridges is counterproductive, and there’s no way they’d let a potentially valuable connection slip away. There are mutual benefits for recruiters to care about their candidates post-placement. Candidates who are cared for are more likely to refer a staffing firm to their network of colleagues and peers. Plus, should they one day make their way up into a decision-making role in regards to hiring, they’ll remember their good experience and use the recruiter’s services again, this time as a client.
Getting Beyond the Stereotypes of IT Recruiters
We know stereotypes typically stem from some small grain of truth. But in the bigger picture, there are a lot of great IT recruiters out there who know what they’re doing and do their homework.
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