How to Be An Ace Tech Recruiter

If your search has progressed from ‘How to be a tech recruiter,’ to ‘How to be an ace tech recruiter,’ you’re already on the right track—and at the right time. 

By 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 24 percent increase in the number of jobs in IT, specifically software development. This, naturally, will create a high demand for tech recruiters. Post-pandemic 2021 will put your skills to the test, so we’ve listed a  few pointers that will help you nail your job as a tech recruiter. 

1. How to talk tech: jargon you need to know

A technical recruiter enters this field of recruitment already aware of some of the jargon in the industry. This makes the process of hiring similarly tech-oriented employees easier than otherwise. 

Let’s find a way to add more to this tech dictionary.

Consider you’re hiring a Front End or UX developer, note down the role and skills you would like for the candidate to have. Familiarise yourself with the terms: 

You can map these skills for each tech-based role you’re hiring for, which will help you drive the hiring needs discussion with your hiring manager as well. If you need further help mapping these skills, you can refer to this cheat sheet here.

2. How to source and screen candidates

The tech market is extremely competitive, and the tech skills requirements are continuously in flux. Thus, your ability as a technical recruiter lies in finding an ideal candidate who would seamlessly fit into the company’s rhythm.  To do this, you must be able to source and screen candidates using the tools at your disposal. 

• Hackathons: Setting certain tasks and challenges a group of potential employees must face, a competition of sorts, gives recruiters a chance to analyse abilities in a more precise manner. This setup has quickly become a favourite as companies use this platform to showcase their work environment and make it appealing for the candidates.

• Organise hackathons for hiring
• Make it easy for interested candidates to find and take part in
• Set parameters for what you expect from the candidates
• Analyse candidates’ overall performance: team player, communication skills, fit with company, innovative problem solving

• Know the job requirements: Your relationship with the hiring manager plays an important role here. Familiarise yourself with the requirements tacked on to each open position and what the company is looking for in a new recruit.
• Create an ideal candidate profile: Who would be an ideal candidate? Build a profile of a candidate you would hire for the specific position. List out the years of experience, professional achievements, academic background, goals, interests, and skills that would make a candidate a potential employee.
• Connecting the dots: Now that you have all the puzzle pieces of sourcing, put them together in the right order. Compile a list of candidate profiles that are most similar to the ideal candidate profile you created. 
• Analyse the candidate’s profile
• Look beyond what is mentioned in their resumes and CVs. A lot of skills will not be mentioned outright, but the candidate can be expected to possess said skills based on previous work experience.
• Look for something that stands out in the candidate’s resume; use keywords that go beyond basic searches of job titles and include terms like ‘manage,’ ‘lead,’ ‘develop’ ‘create’. 
• Screening: Once the list of suitable candidates have been passed on to the hiring manager, the profiles of candidates not recruited have to be analysed. Through this process of technical screening, you can streamline your searches and improve your sourcing process based on the data collected from the hiring manager post-recruitment.

3. How to assess candidates

With the efficiency aspect taken care of, the accuracy of the hiring process has to be ensured. One surefire way to do that is through technical skills assessments. According to a study, the popularity of pre-employment technical skills tests have increased by 20 percent in one year.

imocha  provides, through AI powered digital skills assessment, over 2000+ skills, enterprise-ready features, and plug & play ATS integrations.  

The ultimate goal of the pre-employment skills evaluation is to gauge the talent of a candidate that may not be evident in a generic test or interview. For example, the data science section on imocha’s skill library contains extremely specific online skills tests to evaluate Natural Language Processing, Python Coding expertise, Deep Learning, and so on. The recruiter has the choice of customising these assessments to match the requirements of the organisation.

4. How to Positively Impact Candidates’ Experience

As the person communicating with the company and the possible-future-employee of said company, the responsibility of creating a positive image of the brand rests with the tech recruiter. 

What would make a tech talented individual accept the role you are hiring for? What are you offering that would make your company a desirable workplace? You can start with building a positive image of the organisation, encouraging candidates to explore the work done by the company, their social media pages, and their employee benefits. The entire process must be transparent.