Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a top recruiting agency, particularly within the IT industry? The answer is pretty obvious: people. To be a top recruiter you need to have a strong network and this can take years to develop – yet many recruiters find themselves moving into this type of role after helping friends get afterschool jobs in high school or helping their midsemester job fill a vacancy. So, some of the best recruiters have been building their networks since the day they were born. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recruitment

Working with IT Specialists

Although they don’t specifically need to know the ins and outs of every single job, they do generally need to have at least a good overview of the industry or the position type. An HR manager working for a car factory might have a similar job description as an HR manager working for a legal firm, so the recruiter needs to be more aware of the skills and personality types that made an excellent HR manger more than they need to know about either the car manufacturing industry or the legal industry.

Within the IT industry this may be similar if the firm is looking for an HR manager, but looking to fill any role on the IT skill set requires a strong industry knowledge. One computer science degree is not the same as another, and in working with a specialist IT recruiter this is understood.

Although an IT recruiter doesn’t necessarily need to know how to develop a website, fix security issues or replace a server, they do need to have an understanding of the industry specific skills and language used within each branch. They also need to understand the limits of the knowledge and know when to get further information and clarification from the business they are recruiting from – and this is something that a good recruitment specialist will likely have systems in place to ensure happen.

Recruiters Who Have In-depth Knowledge

Of course, if you can get access to top tier IT recruiting agencies who have actual in-depth knowledge in your field you may have found the golden goose. Why? Network and knowledge. One of the benefits about the trend to completely change your career every ten years or so is that increasingly those who have enjoyed a successful career within the Information Technology sector move into other sectors, including recruiting. What this means is that there is the opportunity to work with people who know the industry intimately, people who not only understand in-depth what is really needed in a recruit, but people who have built up a strong network and know personalities. Although a resume may look fantastic, having a recruiter who can quickly discover if a prospective employee genuinely has a strong knowledge and interest, or is simply after a quick pay check, can save a lot of long term aggravation.

Making the Move from IT to Recruiting

What if you’re on the other side of the recruiting game and are currently in the IT sector looking at making the move to a faced paced, people focused environment? Ideally you will want to have some people skills under your belt, have a strong network within in the industry and an understanding around how Human Resources work. Don’t try and go it alone as you will need to have experienced help and guidance around you. Working with a firm that specializes in IT recruiting would be ideal, as they can help you grow in your role as a recruiter while you can bring your IT industry expertise, connections and understanding to the role.

Why Specialist IT Recruiting?

You will have seen all sorts of predictions about how 40% of current jobs are going to be taken over by automation. Although this may be a terrifying statistic indicating a bleak future, one thing that is always forgotten is that the same automation is increasing job vacancies within the IT sector making it currently one of the fastest growing industries. Automation is also allowing for brand new roles to be developed. Becoming a web developer wasn’t a job 30 years ago, becoming a social media manager wasn’t a job 10 years ago. As the IT sector grows brand new positions are being created that people can’t even begin to fathom.

This is one of the reasons why the need to specialized IT recruiters has developed, because they have a higher chance of being able to not only understand the incredibly fast changing needs of the industry but see the trends and be able to predict where the next niche growth will be. A skilled specialist recruiter will understand the industry and be able to translate current skills to apply them to future job requirements.

If you had been in charge of filling a position for an application developer 10 years ago, what skills would you have suggested they needed? What skills would have been transferable from traditional programming skills through to app development skills? Although now we expect an app developer to have specialized skills, knowledge and experience, in the initial stages of the industry it was transferable skills that were needed so that a candidate could pick things up quickly. There was no university paper that specifically taught the skills required.

What Makes A Good Recruiter?

Having a genuine interest in people and a positive personality are obviously prime personality traits for a recruiter. Confidence is another big one, which is something that being sure of your knowledge and your network of potential candidates can help bolster. Part of the skill set is clearly going to be strong communication skills. This includes being able to listen to what a business needs from a candidate and what skills a candidate has to offer. Being able to hear what is being said, as well as hearing the unspoken needs. Being able to communicate clearing and effectively in writing to create job descriptions that are accurate while appealing to the right candidates is also a desirable skill. However, having the desire and knowledge to make good matches that work for both a candidate and a business will get you far.