I am going to be honest here, recruiting a tech candidate is easy, sourcing the right one is the hard part.
Let me know if I am mistaking over here because, from my point of view, a good tech candidate is like a wild Pokémon. You have to search for them and actually struggle to catch them before you even think of doing anything else. In our sourcing case, it is the same, you have to find the best places these candidates hide and hook them with a really good line so they will even be interested to speak to you.
So how do we find these Pokémon?
Well, I will give you 3 quick tips and let you decide what is the best solution for you.
Embrace the vast possibilities the internet has to offer:
A study made by Stack Overflow in their annual Developer Survey in 2019 on 90.000 developers around the world, showed that 58.7% are not looking for a new job, however, are interested in new opportunities, when 15.2% of respondents said openly that they are actively looking for a new career opportunity.
What does this mean?
The candidates that you see so often in every social/job platform are part of that 15.2% who are actively looking for a new job. However, if you think about it, that number is pretty low considering the fact that you have to also pick them and see who fits your job description.
It’s this 58.7% that should spark our interest. Those are the passive candidates who have a steady job, but they would not say no to a new opportunity. They are our Pokémon, and most of the time they are not interested in searching for something new. That is why we, recruiters, have to step up our game to find them.
Now, since these wild beasts, as I like to call them, do not hang out so much with the other 15.2%, we have to actually do a thorough search to find them. We have to go away from the usual platforms and take advantage of the vast possibilities the internet has to offer.
Explore every TECH FORUM you can find, see what they say over there. Is someone complaining about their job? Are they interested in changing their career scenery? See what you can find, scan and interact. You will probably meet some very interested Pokémon in search for a new job.
TECH WEBSITES are also a good place to go and look for them. We all know GitHub is so popular right now, but there are others like Stack Overflow.
Give the internet a chance to show you the great yellow brick road that leads to your candidates.
Create referrals:
We all have a friend who has a friend, who knows someone who can help us, right?
Let’s face it, the best connection is the live connection, even though we are living in the era of the internet. You are more likely to trust someone if one of your closest friends is referring them than you are if that person would have come to you out of the blue. This also applies for new candidates you want to find.
TalentLyft posted an article that explained why referrals are important when you want to recruit someone. They presented statistics from UC Berkley which said that up to 30% of referral workers are less likely to quit their new job. They also mentioned that for a referral candidate it takes up to 29 days to get hired, but for a candidate who applied on a career site it can take up to 55 days. Therefore, the process is faster for a referral than it is for another candidate who applied in a different fashion.
If you are a big company and want to recruit someone, think how cost-efficient a referral is, taking into consideration the amount of money you have to spend for job advertising and for people to search for the right candidates.
So, give a chance to the connection that you have on LinkedIn and use them for a good purpose. Ask people around, friends in the tech industry, other recruiters, other tech people that are willing to speak with you. See who has a good referral and who can help you seek the Pokémon of your need.
Get out of that office and interact:
Like I mentioned, the best connections are made face to face.
Considering if all that was mentioned above did not bring you any success in the journey of becoming the best Pokémon recruiter, or you are a Pokémon addict and want to catch as many as you can, I bring you the next best thing after the internet…Human interaction!
Now hold your horses, this is not a psychological intervention. I want to present to you why interacting and attending IT events is a great way to find candidates.
First and most importantly, you get the chance to find those passive candidates that left you on seen when you asked if they are willing to chat, and actually convince them face to face why you are such an amazing recruiter and that they should speak with you.
Second of all, you can actually see if the person you want to recruit knows what they are talking about and if they are actually engaged in the conversation they have with you regarding the new opportunities they might get.
And if all fails you at least got a new connection that can help you out in the future.
That’s all folks!
Wrapping all this up, you already have all the knowledge you need. Therefore, I will just wish you good hunting and may you find all the Pokémon you need!
