Tips for Being a Rockstar Recruiter in the IT Staffing Industry – Part 2
Nick Walter | Recruitment Lead | Ward Technology Talent | Twitter | LinkedIn
This is Part 2 of a 2 part series discussing the keys to being a great recruiter in both IT staffing and staffing in general.
- Are you an IT Staffing Rockstar?
7 More Tips on Being a Rockstar in IT Staffing
8. Referrals
The best way to find quality candidates in our industry is often through referrals.
“Good people know good people. I believe this on a personal and business level. They say you can often tell a lot about someone from their friends and I believe the same to be true in IT staffing. Good technical people hang out with good technical people that push them to be better and who they learn from. Whenever we get a new search to work on the first thing I do is think of who I know that is good for that role and call them for referrals.” – Jonathan Ward on IT staffing, from his blog post, ‘3 Reasons Why Job Boards are a Waste of Time‘.
9. Network
Another great way to meet potential candidates is to go to different events such as conferences, meetup events, etc. For example, we host the Mobile Learning Lab, a group which brings together mobile developers and people interested in the topic from around the GTA. This is a great chance to meet with developers who may not bother posting their profiles online, especially those in high demand.
10. Professionalism
This is really important to me. Nothing is more frustrating for a candidate, than when you ignore them. If you get feedback from a client following a resume submittal or an interview, it is important to tell them so that they don’t sit around waiting for something to happen.
11. Set Goals (metrics)
Whether or not the company you work for has specific metrics in place that have to be met, it is important to stay on top of things yourself anyway. At the end of the day, the most important stat is placements. But in order to make placements, it can be very helpful to set goals for resume submittals, send outs, phone calls, candidate interviews, etc.
12. Prioritize
Focus on clients and roles where you know you can get interviews and where you know they hire. If your account manager has a good relationship with a certain manager or client, the odds are they will be more likely to hire. Also, if a certain client has a history of hiring quickly or giving you exclusivity, you should probably search on their roles ASAP.
13. Know Your Clients
When you are speaking with candidates about a potential job, the more information you know about the employer the better. This will help you sell the candidate on the position. It might be the location, the job title, the responsibilities, or working environment, etc. Also it is extremely useful to know what clients look for in candidates. For example, a lot of our clients are starting to place more importance on cultural fit as opposed to skill-set.
14. Ask the Right Questions
The better the questions you ask during the screening process, the more likely you are to find the most suitable candidates for a position. Here are 5 questions that will be a good starting point: 5 Questions to Expect From a Staffing Agency. After these questions, you will probably want to go into more details regarding their top skill. For example, when determining if the candidate is a good fit for the position, you might want to try asking them about 5 different skills, but asking them about the most important one 4th. This way the candidate may not think the 4th question is the most important, when really it is the determining factor as to whether they would be a good fit for the role.
15. Memory
Take a lot of fish oil to keep your memory up to speed :). If you get a job order and you already know of a great candidate off the top of your head, it will save you a lot of time.
Any comments or feedback on this Blog are greatly appreciated. You can also follow me @WTT_Nick on Twitter.
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