The profession of an IT recruiter is quite popular among those who do not know how to code, but would like to work in the field of information technology. At the same time, it should be remembered that such a specialist, although he does not perform technical work directly, should still have quite deep and versatile knowledge in this field. After all, his duty is to find professionals, and it is very important that they fully meet the given criteria. Therefore, not only a sociable person can become an IT recruiter, but someone who has analytical thinking, is technically knowledgeable and wants to study all the features of the IT field in more detail. Fortunately, acquiring the necessary knowledge today is not a problem, because there are appropriate courses and many educational materials that provide the basics necessary for this profession.
Who is an IT recruiter?
An IT recruiter is a specialist who hires specialists needed by the company. This process is a complete cycle, which includes the direct search and evaluation of potential candidates, conducting interviews and drawing up an offer, that is, a final offer. Thus, both the company's success and its image largely depend on the IT recruiter. Therefore, it is very important that the position is occupied by a person who is really interested in fulfilling the duties assigned to him as best as possible.
In general, the specifics of the work are the same as those of a recruiter from any other field. At the same time, there are some rather significant differences. The main one is that IT recruiting is very dynamic. This field is constantly developing, certain professions appear in it, and others disappear, so a specialist must not only possess technical knowledge, but also constantly update it in order to be aware of the latest news.
Responsibilities and tasks of IT recruiters
The profession of an IT recruiter involves a fairly wide range of responsibilities. During his typical working day, such a specialist performs a number of tasks:
- writing and sending vacancies;
- selection of online resources on which the publication of advertisements will be most appropriate and effective;
- communication with potential candidates by correspondence or telephone conversations;
- search for specific specialists, the so-called hunting (if necessary);
- conducting interviews of various types;
- formation of offers;
- preparation of reports on work performed, entering data into the database;
- participation in work meetings of recruiters, communication with customers.
Pros and cons of the profession
The advantages of the IT recruiter profession are much more than the disadvantages, so let's start with them:
- constant development, absence of stagnation and boredom;
- the opportunity to make many useful acquaintances, because IT recruiting is great networking;
- development of reflection and empathy, which will definitely come in handy in life;
- satisfaction with the achieved results, because they are quite obvious;
- the ability to work both remotely and in the office;
- decent salary level.
As for the disadvantages of working as an IT recruiter, it is mainly about emotional burnout. This often happens because you have to communicate with a large number of people. Also, the profession of an IT recruiter is quite multitasking, so it is not easy for everyone to cope with a significant flow of tasks.
Salary level of IT recruiters
The question of how much an IT recruiter earns worries everyone who has decided to connect his life with this profession. In this case, everything depends on the level of specialization. For example, beginners can count on $400-700, but an experienced IT recruiter's salary can reach $3,000. At the same time, it should be taken into account that in most companies these specialists have a rate and additional payments for each closed vacancy. Therefore, there is always an opportunity to influence one's own earnings.
In the world, the salary of an IT recruiter is very different depending on the country. Average indicators for the year are as follows.
| Germany | 40 000-60 000 € |
| France | 35 000-50 000 € |
| United Kingdom | 30 000-50 000 £ |
| Canada | 50 000-80 000 $ |
| USA | 60 000-100 000 $ |
Professional development
A person who has become an IT recruiter has almost any options for professional development. But more often than not, specialists of this profile stop at the following options:
- Recruiter Lead. Becoming a manager of recruiters is the most logical way to advance on the career ladder, so experienced employees often choose it.
- Technical Sourcer or Senior Technical Recruiter. Many mistakenly believe that a sourcer, whose task is only to form a candidate base, is a position whose importance and complexity is inferior to recruiting. In fact, experienced Technical Sourcers are highly valued, especially in large companies such as Google or Amazon.
- Account Manager or Project Manager. Experience shows that it is quite easy for an IT recruiter to master these areas, since he has excellent communication and management skills.
How to become and where to learn to be an IT recruiter
Anyone can make a career as an IT recruiter, because for this it is not necessary to study programming languages for a long time and in detail. The main thing is to make sure that this specialization is right for you. Therefore, to begin with, it is necessary to find out what skills are needed at work. Let's start with the hard skills of the IT recruiter. Even though he doesn't have to code, this specialist should have a good enough understanding of the technical aspects to be able to assess the professional level of a potential candidate. This means that an IT recruiter must know English, have a fairly deep understanding of programming languages and platforms for which development is being carried out. In addition, he must have such specific tools to perform the work as:
- DISC technique;
- competency-based interview;
- PAEI-test of Adizes;
- copywriting skills for creating ads, etc.
It is also important for an IT recruiter to thoroughly study the operation of platforms for placing and promoting ads. We are talking about such sites as Linkedin, DOU, Happy Monday, AIN, etc. An IT recruiter also needs skills in working with various services for communication, such as Zoom, Skype, Jira, Trello, etc.
Of course, an IT recruiter cannot do without Soft Skills. The most popular are the following:
- High sociability;
- Empathy;
- Analytical composition of thinking;
- Perseverance;
- Organization;
- Result orientation.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to obtain the education of an IT recruiter in Ukrainian universities, because such a specialty is not in the list of faculties. However, there are related professions, such as psychology, marketing, sociology, business, which provide a certain basis. In addition, there is an opportunity to be trained as an IT recruiter at specialized courses. There are many of them:
- "IT-recruiting" from ITEA;
- "IT-recruiting from scratch" from GoIT;
- "IT recruiter" from Laba;
- "Recruitment" from Mate academy and many others.
Most courses are held online, which is very convenient. In addition, some of them promise to employ graduates after graduation, which will be especially relevant for an IT recruiter without experience.
You can also learn a lot of interesting information from articles and videos on specialized sites and channels. In addition, interesting books and guides can be recommended to the IT recruiter, such as:
- "Automation of recruiting. A practical guide to the selection, implementation and use of ATS systems", Victoria Syrotenko;
- «Who: Solve Your #1 Problem», Geoff Smart, Patrick Lawlor;
- "The art of personnel selection. How to evaluate a person in an hour", Svitlana Ivanova;
- «Are you smart enough to work at Google?», William Poundstone;
- "The World's No. 1 HR Textbook" by Michael Armstrong.
Like any other professional in this field, an IT recruiter must constantly develop and be aware of all trends and innovations. Therefore, it is important to remember that this specialty is suitable only for those people who like to learn something new and never stand still.
