IT recruiter

What is an IT recruiter, and what do they do?

Recruiting involves a sequence of activities aimed at searching for, attracting, and hiring employees. It involves many additional procedures, starting with identifying the company's personnel needs and resulting in filling those positions. An IT recruiter focuses on choosing personnel in the areas of information technology. The demand for these specialists has significantly increased, with not just IT companies but almost every business requiring unique digital products like their own website or mobile application. Finding suitable candidates for these tasks is the primary responsibility of an IT recruiter.

How does an IT recruiter differ from an HR professional?

The abbreviation HR indicates that these professionals who work within a company are responsible for human resources. Their role involves not only selecting staff for specific positions but also managing everything related to the employees of the organisation: training, motivating, organising team-building activities, and so on. Normally, in small companies, all these tasks are performed by one person. However, in larger businesses with multiple divisions and departments, the responsibilities of the HR specialist are more effectively divided. Therefore, a separate specialist handles finding and hiring candidates for positions and forming teams to solve business problems. This specialist is known as a recruiter. In digital and IT companies, this position is called an "IT recruiter." Their responsibilities include:

• Creating and posting job vacancies on specialised platforms;

• Searching for candidates on various IT recruitment platforms, forums, and social media;

• Examining candidates' resumes and portfolios;

• Developing test and verification tasks;

• Conducting interviews and evaluating candidates' skills, abilities, and behaviour;

• Closing vacancies.

Therefore, an HR specialist has a broader range of responsibilities. Simultaneously, an IT recruiter concentrates on a narrower set of tasks and must possess in-depth knowledge of the IT field.

What does an IT recruiter need to know and be able to do?

First and foremost, it is important to clarify that a competent IT recruiter must understand the field and the specific industry for which they select specialists. Typically, an IT recruiter works for a particular company and is well-versed in digital professions, specialisations, competencies, and terminology. In other words, a recruiter in IT companies must know the differences and features of various professions such as architect, software developer, QA engineer, DevOps engineer, product manager, project manager, system administrator, frontend developer, tester, and more (the list of IT professions is continuously expanding). Knowledge of programming languages, frameworks, cloud technologies, and tools for designing, developing, and testing software, as well as awareness of modern trends in the IT sector, is also valuable.

Soft skills are equally indispensable for an IT recruiter. Communication is the primary tool for recruitment professionals, not just with candidates but also with clients, such as particular companies or recruiting agencies. It is crucial to adapt to all parties involved in the interaction process, select an interview format that suits the candidates, have the time to ask all necessary questions during the interview, and simultaneously create a pleasant and friendly atmosphere. Building trust with candidates is equally important, as it helps uncover their true experience and skills.

Therefore, a recruiter is partly a strategist. Strong analytical thinking is essential to effectively selecting candidates, objectively evaluating their resumes, and gathering all necessary information during interviews. This is particularly important for predicting how a new employee will perform in a new environment, comparing offers from your company and competitors, structuring large amounts of information, and anticipating possible risks, emergencies, and external threats.

A recruiter's analytical thinking also requires perseverance and attentiveness. Most of the work of a recruiter consists of a long and painstaking search, analysis of resumes, and profiles of candidates on social media and professional platforms. Sourcing, which is the first stage of personnel selection, on which the entire process of interaction with the selected candidates depends, requires special concentration.

Since a recruiter deals with large amounts of information, from an applicant's background to their last place of work, personal life, and plans, it is crucial to be organised and have excellent time management skills. Effective recruiters work autonomously without needing reminders of deadlines, oversight from the employer, or unnecessary approvals. Therefore, they must be able to prioritise and organise their work procedures effectively, ensuring there is enough time to review all resumes, interview the most suitable candidates, and present the management with two or three top professionals within the required timeframe.

Likewise, a recruiter should be primarily focused on results. This involves investing all energy and resources to fill vacant positions within the company quickly. A growth mindset is essential in this process. The IT field is evolving rapidly, so both developers and digital recruiters need to improve their skills and acquire new knowledge continually. Additionally, recruiters must understand everything candidates share with them and stay updated on innovations and revolutionary developments in the field of information technology.

Therefore, another equally important skill is cognitive flexibility. It's crucial always to be prepared for changes, new opportunities, and alternative options.

IT recruiting tools

A recruiter can review over 100 resumes, cover letters, and completed assessments in a single day. Various tools can streamline these processes and automate routine tasks.

The most popular tools for searching for potential candidates and studying their profiles are online services and platforms like LinkedIn, GitHub, and Stack Overflow. A special browser extension, AmazingHiring, allows you to find candidate profiles on various social media sites and professional forums. Tools like OctoHR and GitHub Email Hunter simplify the search on GitHub, helping to find candidates' email addresses quickly. Additionally, the Search by Image extension can help you find a jobseeker by photo-click on the image for quick access to a Google search or any other browser.

Additionally, there are specialised services for examining candidates and evaluating their skills and abilities. For instance, HackerRank provides an online platform with programming tasks of varying complexity. Similarly, Codility, the second most popular platform for assessing technical skills, and LeetCode, which offers algorithmic programming tasks, serve the same purpose. These resources greatly simplify the process of preparing test tasks for candidates.

For resume screening, which involves assessing compliance with the main requirements, services like HighlightThis, Glossary Tech, and HireEZ can be invaluable. These extensions provide hints on technical terms and skills, which can be particularly useful for novice IT recruiters, and highlight keywords. The AI Resume Parser can go even further by answering recruiters' questions about specific candidates, providing descriptions of their profiles on professional social media, and making brief conclusions about which of the analysed applicants are best suited for a particular position.

Extensions like FlyMSG and Happa AI assist in creating scripts for response letters and personalising them for each candidate. These tools allow you to create and save multiple letter templates, check for errors, and generate personalised responses for applicants using brief input data. The Humanistic AI platform goes even further by analysing candidate profiles on social media to predict decision-making speed, risk readiness, and the likelihood of rejecting your offer. Additionally, Humanistic AI can be integrated into LinkedIn and CRM systems.

For data scraping, which involves gathering information from multiple web resources, analysing it, and converting it into the required format, there are excellent tools available to simplify these tasks. For example, Autopagerize automatically unloads data from all pages needed into a single page, while Instant Data Scraper collects all candidate profiles in XLS or CSV formats.

How much do IT recruiters earn?

According to a short study by the former recruiter, writer, and career coach Biron Clark, recruiters in the US earn between $35,000 and $200,000 on average. Of course, this range depends on the industry, the specific tasks the HR specialist performs, and their level of experience.

It is also essential to recognise that, as in any other profession, there are three levels of recruiting:

• Junior - meaning a beginner;

• Middle - a mid-level professional;

• Senior - who can execute the most complex tasks efficiently and swiftly.

The average salary for a mid-level IT recruiter in America is nearly $57,000 per year. In Germany and some other Central European countries, this amount ranges from 35,000 to 40,000 euros per year. However, the city where you live and work, as well as the size of the company, play significant roles. Also relevant is how and in what format you work - whether you work for a recruitment agency, employing people for those organisations that ask for help, or in-house, i.e. for a single IT company, being a full-time employee.

In any case, IT recruiters are in high demand, and the need for professional specialists in this field is growing. This is largely because hiring and selecting employees can only partially be automated. Therefore, it is crucial to stay updated with industry trends, continuously develop and enhance your skills, expand your network, and increase your list of contacts. Additionally, creating and maintaining a personal brand is essential. The more the industry recognises you as an IT recruiter, the higher your chances of quickly filling vacancies, finding the best specialists, and solving the company's business challenges.

How do you become an IT recruiter?

In fact, you can enter the profession in various ways, but the most important thing is to acquire the skills of an HR specialist and have at least a basic understanding of the IT field. If you are deciding on your future profession or considering further education, you might study human resources management. This will teach you a range of HR strategies used in modern companies, how to organise work activities, motivate employees, automate procedures, and understand the basics of psychology, conflict resolution, and business ethics, among many other nuances that competent HR specialists should know.

However, after graduating from university, many recruiters who decide to specialise in a particular industry opt for special online courses. Therefore, you can avoid the time-consuming process of obtaining a second higher education and instead focus on fast and equally effective online training. Typically, specialised education or an IT background is not required; the main prerequisite is a desire to learn. For example, in the course "Profession Basics: IT Recruiter," you will learn in detail about the competencies a good recruiter should have, the differences between working in a company and a recruiting agency, how to build relationships with customers, create attractive job listings, conduct interviews, form offers, and more. The knowledge and skills you gain will help you take your first confident and successful steps in the profession.

And even after completing the course and obtaining a certificate to validate your qualification, it is crucial to continue your education. Pursue several internships in companies, deepen your understanding of the IT sector and its trends, and independently develop your soft skills. By doing this, you will truly set yourself apart as an exceptional recruiter! On the educational platform Lectera, you will find many more diverse courses dedicated to self-development, leadership and career building, including the digital sphere, sales, entrepreneurship and many other areas of activity. Even if you do not have enough time to improve your skills in courses regularly, you can follow the trends of the EdTech market on the virtual pages of Lectera Magazine.

Conclusion

Today, demand in the IT industry significantly exceeds supply. If you're considering a career change, be sure to consider becoming an IT recruiter. This is a fantastic opportunity to broaden your knowledge and skills, stay in demand, and keep up with the latest IT trends. Of course, the profession requires flexibility, adaptability, the ability to focus on tasks, and a constant desire to learn. Despite these challenges, this job will enable you to thrive in a modern and rapidly evolving industry.