What are the most common mistakes in IT recruitment?

The coronavirus pandemic has brought countless changes to our daily routines but here is something many of you, readers, may have also noticed: Computer coding and programming jobs have skyrocketed. Thus, a whole world is open to IT professionals, lucky bastards… Nevertheless, HRs are still struggling to find their perfect candidate. The question, then, arises: why is that?

To answer that question I have conducted an interview with one of the top HR companies in Russia - Unicornsearch, led by Daria Barkova.

The main topic of our discussion was the mistakes recruiters make. I believe this info can be useful to both job seekers and HRs. Why? The first is that they will not struggle to find perfect candidates, and the second is that they will learn to determine whether it is worth taking up a case or nothing good awaits.

Without further ado, let’s dive in.

Mistake #1

Usually, HRs forget to mention salary limits in the job description. And here is a fact to keep in mind, IT experts hate this because everyone has a different concept of "good" money. It is like when a kid receives a coat instead of an electric vehicle. Not very pleasant, is it?

Sometimes, recruiters do include the salary bands but forget to check the current market and simply rely on outdated information. Obviously, if there is a lack of C++ experts, it is very unlikely a company will be able to attract the golden goose offering $2,000. Circumstances change, thus HR methods should too.

When considering an application, it is important to ask questions that will help form the profile of the future desired candidate. 

Mistake #2

Recruiters frequently forget to describe the actual tasks “our guy” will be expected to do (for example, write the code in JAVA deployed in GIT).

Instead, the vacancy description contains tons of not very useful information about the company. It is true that most of the time it is hard to be specific, but mentioning more certain tasks is very important. This way the candidate can evaluate what kind of work and projects are offered to him, what is the amount of work required, and its complexity.

Mistake #3

Unawareness of the competitors in the search of challenging positions. It is critical to understand with whom you will compete for specialists and know your competitive advantages: schedule, money, atmosphere, opportunities. In other words, it is not the same to work at Google where you can go chill playing Xbox rather than working at home 24/7 without any additional benefits. 

Mistake #4

Stop looking for everything! Obviously, companies would prefer to have multi-professionals that know tens of coding languages and who will close all the holes in the huge infrastructure but the reality is not that simple. 

Usually, in such "job openings," the described range of skills is so extensive that with sufficient workload it might bury a person, so many candidates do not even want to bring the matter to the technical level.

Mistake # 5

Nowadays, don’t expect perfect candidates to come on their own. There are just too many offers from all over the world. Check your recruiting strategy, especially if you are competing with corporations. The “Rely only on incoming applications” approach is long gone, now you need to practice active search and sourcing.

Mistakes at the interview stage

Mistake #1

It may be hard to believe but often recruiters don’t even read the candidate's CV. 

An interview is not a place where you can raise your self-esteem, indulge your pride and provide an exam for all 5 years of study. It is forbidden to turn an interview into an interrogation; in the modern world, an interview is a dialogue on an equal footing. You choose the candidate, and the candidate also chooses you, especially speaking about the IT field. Never forget that the IT market is the candidate's market. 

Don't be limited to a CV. Internet activities will tell an experienced IT recruiter much more than a candidate’s self-presentation during the interview. 

Many IT specialists publish on Medium or Habr, speak at conferences, have blogs, and are active on social media (by the way, these sources are almost the main way of hunting for IT recruiters). Yes, you may not always be able to find an introverted developer on Facebook, find out his nickname in the professional community, and even understand what he writes about, but it's worth a try. Many people are open to communication and suggestions. Just write in a polite and friendly manner about yourself and an open position. Don’t be too official;) 

Mistake #2

Lack of a selling speech about the company and the vacancy. It immediately reduces your chances of getting a good candidate for your team. 

Tech directors, leads, owners forget that they need to add something personal to sell the company well. The following question may be helpful:

• Why did you come to this company?
• What's your story? 
• How did you choose?
• Why this particular offer? 
• What are the difficulties, why did you doubt?
• What success stories are there (both teams and individuals)

Mistake #3

Incorrect definition of motivation,  career prospects are not described during the interview

IT people also want growth, and they also want medals, they want their piece of cake for God's sake!  

Many IT specialists, having worked in one position for more than two years, “burn out” and just leave the company. In this case, you can discuss a promotion or transfer to an absolutely new position.

For example, offer a developer to become a project manager or department head. However, you should ensure that he’s interested in the development and ready for active communications. If the role is chosen incorrectly, then there is no way back: you will lose both the manager and the developer.

For some programmers and developers, changing roles is not as important as increasing wages. Sometimes this is the only way to motivate. 

Mistake #4

Don’t give a test task immediately, just stop doing that!

From the point of view of modern IT recruiting, the approach is extremely ineffective/crap. 

Firstly: to make a candidate want to do a test task, he should talk to a professional from your company, get answers to his questions about projects, technologies, tools, and workflows, see your interest in him. After that, the candidate is much more motivated to do the test task. But even in this case, you need to understand that the candidate spends his time on the test task. He could spend it on rest, communicating with family and friends, playing sports, etc. 

Secondly: as a rule, the candidate has alternative proposals without a test task and, if other things are equal, the candidate chooses an easier path.

Mistake #5

Delaying the recruitment process, plenty of stages. Is there something worse than time-wasting?  Bear this in mind once and for all, you are not Google.  Do not tire the applicant. It is faster to test him in action than to drive through 5+ stages, which will not reveal anything new to you in the end.

Mistake #6

Low level of competence of the IT recruiter, mistakes in basic terminology.

Instead of “Agile” - “Agil”

If your recruiter does not know how to communicate, do not let him meet with a highly-qualified specialist.

Mistake #7

Assessment of the applicant by appearance. There are not many George Clooney's in programming. Read about Steve Jobs and his diet.  He dabbled with being a vegetarian and vegan at times, and for a while was convinced that having a meat-free diet, free of toxins, meant he didn't produce body odor. He basically stopped showering or using deodorant, much to the chagrin of his co-workers.

Mistake #8

Lack of feedback after the interview, the candidate is left in limbo, the employer's brand is rapidly falling, or long feedback. There is a sign that “if you look at a developer's CV for a long time, you can see how he accepts another offer.

And finally, mistakes at the offer stage

Mistake #1

No elaboration of the pre-offer part. 

The pre-offer stage is the most important. Before the "moment X", the recruiter must determine if the candidate agrees to accept the offer under certain conditions. Skipping this step is dangerous: it’s like going into battle without reconnaissance. Before you send the offer, I advise you to look at each condition together with the candidate to see if there are no omissions. 

Mistake #2

Pressure on the candidate to make a decision. No one likes to be pressured!

IT specialists are mostly introverted and not inclined to make quick decisions. It usually takes 2-4 days to compare offers and advice with the family.

Pressure is immediately perceived as a stop factor and throws you out of the competitive list of employers.

Mistake #3

Low objection processing. The candidate does not have a clear understanding of competitive advantages in his head, or there is no wow effect from the tasks and atmosphere in the team.