Why are tech recruiters so clueless?

This is my response to David Heinemeier Hansson’s blog post “Why are tech recruiters so clueless?”

I’m not writing this to bash anyone, or because I’m some expert with the answer to what’s wrong with tech recruiting. I’m writing this because I’m passionate about what I do, and I figured putting my thoughts on paper in hopes of receiving feedback from people who have experienced the “cluelessness” would only make me better.

There's business in moving around mediocre talent. It's what most recruiters do. Why? Because a majority of recruiters are employed by recruiting firms and a majority of recruiting firms are about maximizing profits and not being truly good at what they do, or even understanding the industry they work in. If you’re trying to make money in staffing why would you avoid 80% of the workforce and only work with the top 20%? You wouldn't. Therefore these firms and agency methods become skewed because its no longer about finding and working with the best (candidates or companies), it's about maximizing, movement, lots of calls, lots of send-outs. Well if your presenting the top 15 or 20 percent of a certain vertical's talent then lots of movement is unrealistic. There isn’t a pool of brilliant programmers looking to jump ship. I’m not saying there aren't qualified candidates out there because there's plenty. It just takes a very detailed job description, communication with the CTO, lots of research, and a great company to attract them. It’s a matter of being a master at what you do vs. making the most money in your industry.

So why are tech recruiters so clueless? Lack of passion, lack of participation, and job boards.

Passion

Being passionate about tech recruiting means really enjoying and wanting to be the best at it. Being hungry to learn about new technologies, new companies, and most importantly building relationships. I think a majority of tech recruiters aren't hungry to do anything besides get their next commission. To provide any value recruiting in tech you must educate yourself. Not how to actually write code but at least learn what technologies go together, what a technology stack is, backend vs. front end, things like that. From there you can begin to understand what factors go into being a great developer. How does a recruiter get this education? By dropping their ego and asking lots of questions.

Instead of educating themselves many tech recruiters instead use this mindless, 4 step approach:

1. Get the job order.
2. Search for buzzwords in database and on Linkedin.
3. Spam everyone with the right buzzwords.
4. Present everyone who responds to client.

Just because someone has the same buzzwords on their resume as you do on your job spec doesn't mean they're good. For some reason tech recruiters forget developers are even people, they treat them like robots and if they have the right buzzwords they must be a fit. Well you idiot, think like a human, talk to them. Questions are key, especially if you lack the technical knowledge.

-What kind of applications are you working on or building with XXX?
-Are you on a team? If so how big?
-What is your role on that team?
-Do you attend any local user groups or tech conferences? either on your own or through work?
-How did you start programming?
-Do you have any side projects? If so tell me about them?
-Are there any technologies or languages that you want to work with but just haven't had enough time yet?
-Are they part of an internal tech department, a consultancy, or an actual tech company where they’re building a product/service on site?

These questions can reveal a lot about what kind of programmer someone is.

Participation

Tech recruiters spend most, if not all their time in the office, not in the community. You can’t recruit for a niche if you don’t participate in that niche’s community, especially in tech. Recruiters should be at more meet-ups, user groups, and conferences than the techies themselves. They should invest time and money attending as many industry gatherings as humanly possible- that’s how you build a network, not by spamming via email and Linkedin. Recruiting is about constantly networking in attempt to know EVERYONE in your niche. Building real relationships.

Job Boards

The great talent doesn’t need to post their resume anywhere in order to find a new job. Using Careerbuilder and Monster is a waste of everyone's time.