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Having issues recruiting engineers?

Writer's picture: Vidya PatilVidya Patil

Photo by Warren Wong/ Unsplash

Hiring managers blame it on the "hot market", the candidate's ethics, and not being able to offer like a highly funded company. For not being able to hire engineers. ( I am not even saying "not being able to hire fast" )

Let me tell you a secret.

If you are not being able to hire/retain engineers then most likely the problem is in "you". You heard me right! There are high chances that you, as a hiring manager may be the reason.

Don't believe me?

Nobody wants to hear that I may be the problem and I get it!

Here are a few of my conversations with typical hiring managers. If you find yourself thinking/answering in a similar way, then my friend you need to spend some time with your recruitment process. [ If we are not friends, we should be, a friend in need is a friend indeed! ]


 

Me: You are not educating candidates about what your company does during intro calls.

Hiring Manager:

  • If they are applying to us, they should have read our website/blog/podcast/YouTube channel.

  • They should have at least followed us on Twitter.

  • They did not even watch the talk, our engineer gave last year (?) SomeConf.

  • The candidate did not even try our product, otherwise, they would have known about our product.

  • We do not want to expose our idea.


Some facts:

  • You have a medium blog that requires people to create accounts after a few reads.

  • News about your company is behind a paywall.

  • Your website is a marketing page and not a technical how-to site. It is for your customers not for your engineering candidates.

  • Your Twitter is full of memes.

  • No one wants to try your product just to be able to interview at your company.


 

Me: You are an early-stage company, you as a founder should be doing intro calls with candidates.


HM:

  • I am busy.

  • Why should I spend my time talking to candidates? I don't want to waste my time on intro calls.

  • Candidates should join me because I am an ex-MAANG.

  • We have huge funding, candidates should be eager to join us.

  • Send them a coding test first if they pass it, I will talk to them.


Some facts:

  • If you are talking to a lot of irrelevant candidates, you are attracting the wrong audience. Fix your input funnel [ Social media, Blogs, Recruiters ].

  • Interviews are two-way streets, candidates are going to evaluate you as well.

  • Recruitment is a sales process [ This is no more a secret ]


 

Me: Candidate experience is bad in your recruitment process.

HM: What are you saying? We have been awarded the best place to work twice in a row.

Me: That is not the same.

HM: I don't know what you are talking about!?

Actually, this whole blog is about candidate experience.

Me: You can work on the following things -

  • Have a faster response time for reviews

  • Let candidates know about your interview process in advance, help them prepare, and let them know what you expect.

  • Do not reschedule the interview. If you do, please apologize and mean it. Respect their time. Last-moment cancellations are the worst.

  • Ask your interviewers to prepare and have a list of parameters to evaluate to. Do not let interviewers evaluate on their whim.

  • All interviewers should be aware of candidates' current status in the process. [ I know you may not share feedback with each other, but a general status is fine ]


 

Me: We need job descriptions.| You have vague job descriptions

HM:

  • I told you what we need, you can share that information with candidates

  • We don't have time to write it.

  • We could copy it from the internet. Our competitor must have similar openings, no?

  • Do you have a template you can send me? I will change it as per my needs.

  • If a senior person doesn't know what this role is about, then we don't want to talk to the person.

  • You tell them that they will be talking to the founders, and they can clarify about the roles on the call.

  • We need strong engineers. That's it.

  • They should have strong computer fundamental knowledge.


Some facts:

  • JD is not just about what you want. It is also about answering things like - Who are we? Why you should join us? What problems we are solving? What you will be doing if you join us? What is our interview process?

  • People like to know what are the details of their responsibilities.

  • Yes, serious candidates do read your JD.


 

HM: Let us post the requirements in the tech community/group.

Some facts: You have never contributed to the community, but expect the community to help you. You join the community and your first post is "we are hiring". Seriously?


 

These are my daily conversations. I can go on and on. If you seriously want to "build" the team then wake up and treat the recruitment process as a first-class citizen of your company. Listen to all indicators.


Please do not copy someone else's recruitment process, please, I beg you!

Build your own. It's not as hard as you think. #hiring #recruitment #techjobs #techrecruitment

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