Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What is a Technical Recruiter?
Technical recruiters are recruiters who oversee the entirety of the recruiting process, from sourcing, screening, interviewing, and extending offers for tech-specific jobs. These roles can include engineers, developers, and technical writers. Generally, these kinds of roles require more technical skills that technical recruiters need to understand. Other recruiter roles typically don’t require understanding the ins and outs of a job like a technical recruiter might.
Why We Need Technical Recruiters
Technical recruiters are important because they specialize in recruiting for tech-specific roles. As technology becomes more and more important in running a business, it’s more important to find the best talent for these technical roles. Technical recruiters help with that.
- Understanding technical terms. When it comes to hiring for technical positions, there can be lingo that most employees might not understand or be familiar with. A technical recruiter is able to speak the proper terms and can build rapport with candidates and make them more likely to consider a position.
- Know what to look for. Candidates for technical positions are in high demand. This can make technical recruiting even more challenging than typical recruiting. Technical recruiters typically are more experienced recruiters and know what to look for when they recruit. This allows them to focus on candidates that are the best fit for a position.
- Experience and training. Technical recruiters typically can be more reliable than other recruiters because they have more experience and training in the field. They have experience in recruiting highly competitive positions which teaches them recruiting skills that can be passed on to other recruiters.
The Responsibilities of a Technical Recruiter
The responsibilities of a technical recruiter are similar to other recruiters. They are in charge of sourcing, screening, setting up interviews, and offering candidates positions.
1. Sourcing
For a recruiter to be successful, they need to have a pipeline to recruit from. This begins with sourcing and finding candidates who will be good fits for current roles to be filled as well as future roles at your company.
2. Screening
One basic but vital responsibility of recruiting is screening. This can be done through phone screen interviews, screener questions, or screening requirements. How a recruiter screens applicants often depend on the role or the company they are recruiting for.
3. Scheduling Interviews
After a recruiter has screened some candidates, they will set up interviews with the hiring manager who will ultimately decide who to hire from the screened candidates.
4. Offering the Job
After the hiring manager decides who to hire, they will typically verbally offer the position to the candidate. After it has been offered and accepted, the recruiter would then write up the offer letter and send it to the candidate to sign and accept.
Needed Skills for a Technical Recruiter
In order to hire the right person to be a technical recruiter, it is important to know what skills are needed to be a successful technical recruiter.
Skill #1: Ability to Connect
As a technical recruiter, you need to have the ability to connect with candidates and build rapport. How that is done is different for everyone, but typically it will consist of listening, caring, and being honest with the candidate.
Skill #2: Drive
Recruiting can be challenging as you deal with rejection and initiating conversations with strangers to convince them that your company is the right fit for them. If you don’t have the drive to pick up the phone and sell the job to strangers, it is hard to succeed as a technical recruiter.
Skill #3: Detail-Oriented
Every job you recruit for is going to be a little different. As a technical recruiter, it is important to understand the details that make every job unique to be able to convey them to the candidate so they have a clear picture of what the job entails.
How To Become a Technical Recruiter
When it comes to technical recruiting, there is no clear path to become one. Everyone’s path is a little different. However, here is a general overview for how one might become a technical recruiter.
Step 1: Start as a Recruiting Coordinator
Being a recruiter coordinator is a great start to getting recruiting experience. You are exposed to aspects such as sourcing or setting up interviews for candidates. This can help give you an idea of what to expect when it comes to recruiting. You can develop essential skills such as time management, organization, and drive.
Step 2: Become a Recruiter
Prior to becoming a technical recruiter, many people will gain experience as a recruiter. While both jobs have a lot of the same responsibilities, being a recruiter gives you the chance to understand the day-to-day of recruiting without dealing with the more technical jobs.
Step 3: Gain Technical Experience
This last step can be gained in a variety of ways. Experience can come from working in the tech field and becoming more familiar with technical terms. It can come from studying the technical terms and roles of a tech company so you understand more of the lingo. It can come from serving in a tech role such as a technical writer, engineer or developer. Wherever the technical experience comes from, it will help make the transition to becoming a technical recruiter much easier.
Questions You’ve Asked Us About Technical Recruiters
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Tanner has over 4 years of HR professional experience in various fields of HR. He has experience in hiring, recruiting, employment law, unemployment, onboarding, outboarding, and training to name a few. Most of his experience comes from working in the Professional Employer and Staffing Industries. He has a passion for putting people in the best position to succeed and really tries to understand the different backgrounds people come from.
