How to become a Tech Recruiter

So you want to get into the world of tech recruiting? Great choice. Let me walk you through what it takes to be a tech recruiter-no BS, real talk.

What Is a Technical Recruiter?

A technical recruiter is like a matchmaker, fitting the right pegs into the right slots for the tech world. Every company needs talented developers, engineers, and IT specialists, and it's your job to find them. It's not just a matter of filling seats, but understanding both the needs of the company and what the candidate is looking to achieve to make that perfect fit.

Why Are Technical Recruiters Important?

In today's technology-dominated world, good talent is gold. Innovation races ahead in companies, and they just cannot innovate without the right people. Technical recruiters act as a bridge between ambitious tech professionals and companies that need their skills. You're building teams, not just filling roles, that can change the world.

Skills You Need to Be a Technical Recruiter

Hard Skills

• Knowledge of Technology: You are not expected to code in Python; however, you should know the difference between both frontend and backend development. Familiarize yourself with typical programming languages, tools, and technology stacks. At the end of the day, you don't want to sound like a fool and knowing about tech is really important.
• Use of Technology: You also need to know what technology tools to use and how to use them. Today, with the advancement of AI, it's clear that the more mundane parts of tech recruitment should be done by machines. But believing it'll be fully automated is not in our books. Humans will still want to interact with humans for a while. Check-out Stakkd, a database of valuable tools for the job like Metaview or Dewey
• Sourcing Techniques: Learn job boards and/or ways to source candidates from job boards like LinkedIn, GitHub, or Stack Overflow. Use Boolean searches to locate the perfect candidate. And this doesn't just mean the obvious booleans you got from the job description. No, you'll need to go beyond and to be able to do this properly, you'll need to understand the technologies you're hiring for.

Soft Skills

• Communication: You will often be the candidate's first point of contact. Clear and friendly communication can either make or break their interest.
• Relationship Building: Actually develop honest, consultative relationships with them. Individuals know when you don't care.
• Adaptability: Technology happens in the blink of an eye. One has to be ready to switch strategies at any given time.

Requirements to Become a Technical Recruiter

While there isn't any one way set in stone, the following are ways to give you more credibility for the position:

• Education: A bachelor's degree in Human Resources, business, or even psychology would be helpful, though not required. Plenty of amazing technical recruiters started without a degree!
• Certifications: Go for a Tech Recruiter Certification, or a Professional Recruiter Certification. Certifications give you an edge and prove that you are seriously committed to the field. It also helps you differentiate yourself from others in the market.
• Courses: You can take some free online recruitment courses on a foundation level which also include certificate courses.

If you want to find alternative courses and certification for tech recruiters, we've already written about this here but you can also find another extended list in RecruitCRM.

Responsibilities of a Technical Recruiter

• Understanding Job Requirements: Understand with clarity as to what the hiring manager wants/needs. The better you understand this, the easier will be your search.
• Candidate Sourcing: Utilize multiple sources to source candidates and avoid the obvious candidates and sources like LinkedIn. The best recruiters know to go look elsewhere, in certain local meet-ups, or on Github for specific technologies.
• Screening: Perform preliminary interviews so as to determine whether applicants may serve best. The way to do this is not to ask questions about whether the candidate has used a specific piece of technology, but rather, to understand the higher-level picture about the kind of environment they've worked in.
• Admin: Whilst coordinating interviews, making offers, taking notes and summarising calls was an important task of technical recruiters until 2022/2023, in today's AI world, this seems to become much less important as many tools have cropped-up to help you with this part of the job.

Getting Started in Tech Recruiting

Learn about the Industry

• Read Up: The more you know, the better you are. Blogs, news sites, and forums will be your friends. Reddit is of course an incredible source of knowledge - lots of techies love spending their time there.
• Network: Events to do with the industry or webinars get you well-connected with other technical recruiters. This would be very resourceful in gathering insights that one may not find anywhere else. Meetup.com is a great source of local events.

Expand Your Tech Stack

• Tools of the Trade: Learn about Applicant Tracking Systems, CRM software, AI note-taking apps, AI interview coordination apps etc.
• Boolean Search: This will make your candidate searches far more efficient; using tools like Dewey could also help here.

Understand Global Tech Talent

Think Global: Fantastic talent is not limited to your city, let alone your country. If the employer is OK with it, be open to remote candidates; understand the intricacies involved with global hiring. Here you'll find an array of options like Relocate.me or Remote.co or Remote.com

Get Certified

Why Certify?: Technical Recruiter Certification like TechMap or courses in IT Recruitment Training can give you an edge.

Where to start: Search for good organizations offering these certifications. Even some of them provide free online recruitment courses with certification.

Final Thoughts

Becoming a tech recruiter isn't about knowing the right terms of technology or filling up positions sooner; it's connecting with people over their goals and finding them a place to fit in. That position needs heart and hustle.

And remember, every developer you place isn't just a number; they're working on cool projects-possibly even the next big thing in technology-and you helped make it happen.