Recruiting In IT: What Are The Key Responsibilities Of An IT Recruiter?

Recruiting in IT, although similar to generalist recruitment, has a specific set of responsibilities and skills to support your business in hiring tech candidates.

As an IT recruiter with 12+ years of experience, I understand exactly what professionals skilled in IT recruitment can bring to your business.

In this blog, I discuss the ins and outs of recruiting in IT. I’ll cover the core responsibilities of an IT recruiter, the recruiting processes they can establish, and the value they can deliver in finding great tech candidates for your company.

What is an IT recruiter?

An IT recruiter, in essence, is a professional who is instrumental in finding, screening, and supporting the selection process of tech candidates for your company.

Technology or IT touches pretty much every part of our daily lives and constantly evolves, making it important for IT recruiters to adapt and become a generalist within a specialist market. IT recruiters, whether working in-house, in an agency or freelance will aid your business’s recruiting strategy and processes for tech hires.

Whilst all recruiters in general have similar responsibilities and duties, IT recruiters need to have much more specific knowledge. At VIQU, we specialise in IT Project Management, Technical & Development, Cloud & Infrastructure, and Cyber Security.

This, in turn, gives IT recruiters a much larger advantage over generalised recruiters. They have the specialist knowledge and ability to create far more effective recruitment campaigns and processes, as they will understand the exact skillset you require, strengthening your recruiting processes.

What is the average background of an IT recruiter?

Recruiters don’t need to have a specific background or qualification to succeed in IT recruitment (just look at the VIQU team – our recruiters come from a wide range of backgrounds!). Although previous experience in either IT or recruitment is highly advantageous for IT recruiters.

Usually, the pre-requisite for a recruiter is to have GCSEs and A-levels, to demonstrate the essential skills of communication. However, many recruiters also have a degree background and come into recruitment to start off their careers post-graduation.

It is the skills, knowledge and experiences individuals gather in recruitment that make them fantastic IT recruiters.

What are the main responsibilities and skills of an individual recruiting in IT?

Key responsibilities:

• Understanding the current market for the specialism you’re looking to hire within, and keeping up with the latest trends and changes
• Advising on the best route to market for your business’ tech job opportunities
• Writing and posting your technical job descriptions
• Sourcing tech candidates for you through various channels e.g job boards, social media
• Pre and post interview screenings
• Assessing suitability for the role you are recruiting for, and exploring candidates’ previous experience and skills
• Liaising with hiring managers on interview times, candidate suitability etc.
• Distributing technical assessments and assessing the results
• Explaining the interview process to all candidates
• Communicating your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) to candidates and selling the company vision and goals
• Chasing references
• Supporting you and the successful candidate as you on-board the individual into the business

As IT specialists are usually experienced professionals with niche skillsets, the recruiting process can take longer. IT recruiters can advise where your recruiting process can be shortened and simplified. Their specialist knowledge means that you can be confident that you will only interview tech candidates who have the right skills for your business.

For example, if you are looking to hire a software developer skilled in .NET, a specialist dev recruitment professional will have knowledge of different coding languages and can properly assess whether a candidate’s experience fits with your requirements.

Key skills in IT recruitment:

• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Experience with a variety of interview formats, using platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meets and Zoom or whichever suits your business
• Technical knowledge of their specialism so they can effectively communicate job requirements to your tech candidates
• Experience with building relationships – whether this is with your business or your candidates, in order to ensure great customer service

How can IT recruiters support your business?

As you can see from my previous points, recruiters have a lot of responsibilities. If you do not work alongside IT professionals or individuals that have the specific niche that you need often, the recruiting process can be intimidating.

Recruiters can help your business create a recruiting strategy that effectively attracts great tech candidates.

Here are some additional ways IT recruiters help support businesses like yours:

IT recruiters understand the current job market

It is well known that the job market is currently candidate driven. However, what many businesses don’t know is to what extent the process is tight across the IT sector. Certain skillsets such as software development are particularly challenging, with 1 in 3 dev roles remaining unfilled in the market.

An IT recruiter who specialises in a certain area of IT will have intimate knowledge of the market, what your potential tech candidates want, and what your competitors are offering them. Collaborating with a recruiter will give you insider information that you can use to your advantage.

Professionals recruiting in IT will take on the tasks you dread

Certain areas of IT recruitment aren’t everyone’s cup of tea – but for IT recruiters like me, it’s our bread and butter.

Certain time-consuming parts of the recruiting process are productivity vampires in every business. Tasks such as sifting through tech candidate CVs, booking interviews, and distributing assessments, may all seem straightforward and simple, but they can take hours in reality.

Rather than seeing your money go down the drain on these admin tasks, using an IT recruiter can end up actually being cost-effective. There are also certain tasks that you might find uncomfortable doing, such as requesting and checking references. However, most IT recruiters are more than comfortable asking the important questions that you might want to avoid!

IT recruitment professionals have access to an already established network of tech candidates

IT recruiters, in particular, grow their online network around their speciality.

By connecting with IT professionals in a particular niche, following specific IT groups and engaging with content relevant to their network, they create a network of both passive and active tech candidates. This means that when the time comes for an IT recruiter to advertise your job role, they have a ready-made audience of relevant professionals.

If you need advice and tailored support from an IT recruiter, contact us here. Additionally, if you would like more insight into what it’s like recruiting in IT, we have a number of articles from our colleagues on what it’s like to work as an IT recruiter day-to-day, and additional content about hiring tech talent.