Startups Stack Exchange Archive

What exactly is the job of an IT recruiter?

One young lady from my university started her own IT business two years ago. I became curious about how being just a student she managed to start it. Because till now she hasn’t got any degree except journalism. And it is quite embarrassing for me to ask her personally about that because we are not familiar with each other..

So, I would like to know what exactly IT recruiters do. Should they have a special IT degree or knowledge for doing that?

Answer 3620

I am a software developer in Los Angeles, and I work very closely with several technology recruiters or ‘IT recruiters’.

The job of a recruiter mainly consists of ‘match-making’ between companies who have jobs and are in need of talent and the technology professionals with have the skills that they are seeking : Designers, Web Developers, Database Managers, Digital Producers, and other technology related career paths.

The value for the company:

The value for technology professional:

A good technology recruiter has an indepth understanding on the wants and needs of the current technology job market. They will openly share the skills that a candidate can sharpen in order to ‘climb the ranks’ quickly.

Answer 3613

Most IT recruiters have enough knowledge to at a very high-level tell if some techie is a match for a random techie opening. That said, real strength is that they’re focused on building a network of contacts with the field of IT.

Simply put, nothing special about them as it relates to other recruiters, other than they are focused on IT.

Answer 3618

It is quite embarassing for me to ask her personally about that because we are not familiar with each other..

Ask regardless. You’ll likely get a long answer around a cup of coffee. (Founders love to tell their story.)

So, I would like to know what exactly IT recruiters do. Should they have special IT degree or knowledges for doing that?

They assess technical skills. It helps a lot to be an engineer yourself. If not, you’ll find helpful questions to that effect in this answer.

The twist is that engineers tend to be flexible. They’re curious about new technologies and have an easy time learning on the fly, so people skills and general attitude are what a recruiter should be looking for first and foremost. (Not saying they all do. Non-engineers tend not to, in fact: they don’t necessarily pick up that if your CV says you’ve experience in Node.js you’re probably proficient in Javascript and io.js, so they fallback to scanning for keywords.)

Answer 3622

I live in a major german city and we have IT recruiters popping up all over the place. I’ve worked with four until now and three of them were really unprofessional. They all have nice websites but that’s mostly it. As a student, the pay in IT is outstanding, that’s the only reason I am still working with these people.

From my experience, the most important thing to know as a recruiter, is people in HR.


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