10 Things IT and Tech Managers Hate about Recruiters

IT Managers Hate Tech Recruiters Most CIOs, CTOs and IT managers dislike IT and Tech Recruiters. They have good reasons to. While the good ones can make life better for the CIO, CTO and IT Manger, the bad ones make life annoying. Unfortunately many IT and tech recruiters focus more on quantity over quality, which makes the CIO, CTO and IT manger pay the price.

Ten Things Tech Managers Hate in Software and Technology Recruiters

While a great recruiter might have a few flaws that drive you a bit crazy, hopefully most of your dealings with them help you improve the process of finding the best talent. Tech managers have a lot of responsibility and a limited time to find new talent.

Here are ten things than drive tech managers crazy in dealing with IT recruiters. Too many of these characteristics might mean that you need to find a more efficient staffing partner.

An overabundance of communication. You want an IT recruiter who can communicate effectively and keep you in the loop when they have new talent that will fit in well with your company. What you don’t want is an IT recruiter that bombards you with phone calls, emails, and a plethora of up-selling that you don’t need. If it’s getting to the point that you automatically delete their emails or don’t even open them, it might not be the best working relationship.
They don’t understand the technology they’re recruiting to fill. This is a top pet peeve and represents a huge waste of the tech manager’s time. IT recruiters should specialize in IT. But many recruiters work with talent across multiple industries and don’t completely understand the experience and criteria needed to fill specific positions. If the recruiter is only sending resumes because arbitrary keywords are included, it’s little better than sifting through resumes from a public posting – in many cases, it’s worse.
The recruiter sends too many resumes for a single position. The objective in working with a staffing service is to save time in the hiring process. If the IT staffing and consulting recruiter sends a plethora of resumes, it’s a good indication that they didn’t do their job to find the best candidate for the position. They should be sending hand-selected resumes for a few individuals who best meet your needs for that position.
The resumes they send don’t have the desired experience. This might go along with not understanding the technology but often it’s a matter of the IT recruiter wanting the fill the position even though they don’t have the exact talent available. If you’re very precise in the technology experience you’re looking for, the recruiter should be making certain that those criteria are met. The resumes should showcase a majority of the skills you’ve asked for in candidates.
The recruiter’s job description is missing major details. When you hire a recruiter, you’re investing time in teaching them about your company and the positions you need filled. Your key personnel takes time out of their schedule to detail exactly what a position is responsible for and what types of skills are required. If the IT recruiter comes back with a job description that’s cookie cutter, misses important details, or otherwise doesn’t capture the position, it’s a huge red flag. First, that description won’t get you the right kinds of candidates. Second, the recruiter doesn’t understand the position well enough to help you fill it. Third, it’s a monstrous waste of your time to have invested in explaining the position to someone who clearly wasn’t paying it the attention you need. The recruiter needs to fill in the blanks on the job description for you. In theory, they should be the experts in putting together better job descriptions.
The recruiter relies on search strings rather than comprehensive analysis. Search strings for recruiters are great. Many recruiters pride themselves on putting together what they believe are complex search strings to be used on job boards and Google. From the point-of-view of a software developer, your search string is as complex as what a college sophomore puts together in their first database class. Jut because you spent 30 minutes creating a search string, does not mean you are getting the right answer. Do not tell try to convince the CIO or CTO these are the right candidates just because they showed un in a query result. If the recruiter starts with a search string and then analyzes those results independently to find the best match, that will work better for your hiring purposes.
Your IT recruiter didn’t explain the company or position adequately to the candidate. Finding the perfect fit is more than just locating an applicant who has the right experience for the position. It’s a symbiotic type of scenario – the ideal employee also has expectations of their prospective work place. The recruiter should give the candidate an accurate picture of the company and position. If bother parties aren’t excited about the idea of a future working relationship, the interview might be a waste of everyone’s time.
The IT recruiter is more interested in their commission than they are in your project. Obviously the staffing agency is concerned about their monetary interest in securing your personnel. After all, they are running a business. But a good staffing agency is interested in successfully helping you to staff for your needs, whether permanently or on a project to project basis. If the recruiter is only interested in getting the position filled, rather than getting it filled with an ideal candidate, it might be time to look elsewhere.
There’s no set representative for the tech manager to contact. If the consulting and staffing services office makes it difficult to develop a relationship with one contact person, it’s a pretty big sign that your needs aren’t going to be understood. The best recruiters take a vested interest in their clients. They learn about the company, understand the technology involved, and take great pains to find the right candidates. If there’s a high turn over rate of recruiters or there’s no set person in charge of your account, it’s going to be more time consuming to fill positions or even contact the right person to ask questions.
They don’t follow up with contracted talent. When your company contracts a software and technology person to work on a project or through a certain time frame, that individual isn’t your employee. The staffing firm should maintain contact with them throughout the project and they should follow up with the tech manager to verify that the relationship is working well.
BONUS – The recruiter hasn’t responded. You finally engage with some IT recruiters and then they go dark. Did they not find anyone? Are they busy with other jobs?

How to Make Sure Your IT Staffing and Consulting Service Meets Your Needs

While there are many things about IT and tech recruiters that annoy CIOs, CTOs and IT managers, they still need recruiters and staffing agencies. There are a lot of variables in finding the right IT recruiter for your continued needs. There’s still a shortage of great technology talent and a lot of competition for the best candidates. There are many good recruiters finding that quality IT talent before your company does. They are introducing them to your competition.

When you’re working toward staffing your positions, you need the best talent who will fit in with your company culture. The right recruiter can help you but first you have to find the best staffing service.

Ideally, you want to build a relationship with your staffing agency and the account manager in charge of your company. A personal contact goes a long way in helping you develop a good rapport with someone who understands what you do and what type of candidates you need.

Look for a staffing agency that specializes in IT, rather than a generic staffing agency that represents every type of industry. If you do use an agency that serves different industries, make sure that your recruiter understands IT. It’s a very specific field and working with someone who doesn’t understand the different types of assets isn’t optimal.

You should check referrals and pay attention to the ways that they attract the right candidates. Your recruiter should be able to showcase the return on investment for using their service.

Are you finding it harder to locate the good technical and IT talent? Many companies find them selves in the same situation. There are some better ways to locate and attract the right it and technical people to your company. Contact us to learn more.