Tech recruiters are the best business developers

Want to see the recruiter's job from a different angle? Here's our first " unpopular opinion" — the first article in a series that takes apart the myths around hiring.

The recruiter's job is still poorly understood by most people. Worse, it's often associated with a passive role: receiving a stack of resumes and sorting through them.

In this series of articles, Bluecoders shows you just how full and demanding the recruiter's job really is. Let's tackle myth number one: When you do recruiting, all you need to do is post a job ad and wait for resumes to come in.

Recruiters in the war for talent

Recruiting isn't a job of waiting around. It's not about publishing a polished job ad and hoping resumes land in your inbox. The job is far more active — and far more interesting.

Especially in industries where hiring is hard, like tech, recruiters are fighting a real war for talent. The challenges in these roles are often new, like the questions raised by data management.

These profiles are harder to find than candidates for traditional jobs. The best people are usually already employed. Patiently waiting for great candidates to show up is a complete waste of time — and a serious mistake.

A study by Michael Page showed that nearly 80% of companies struggle to hire tech talent, in large part because there aren't enough qualified profiles to go around.

Hunting for the right candidate

The best strategy for hiring effectively is to roll up your sleeves and go directly "hunt" for the right people. The recruiter's favorite playground is LinkedIn, a goldmine of talent — you just need to know how to navigate it. Here's how.

Clearly identify your needs

To recruit smartly, you can't fly blind. Carefully assessing the requirements you've been given will make your search far more efficient.

Some questions worth working through before you start:

• Which technical skills are non-negotiable?
• What management skills will be expected of candidates?
• What level of seniority are you looking for?
• Where can you absolutely not compromise?
• Where is there room to be flexible?

Experienced recruiters treat this as a meticulous study of the target profile — real craftsmanship.

Write a detailed job ad

Recruiting is also a sales job. Once the hiring needs are clear, the recruiter focuses on writing a job description.

It needs to be especially clear. That saves time during candidate selection and avoids misunderstandings about which skills you're really looking for.

Smart use of keywords makes a job ad even more effective. Take the time to refine it, so your offer comes across as the most attractive opportunity possible.

Spot the ideal candidate

The talent hunt is on. Now you have to comb through the many profiles available on each platform. Lean on the keywords from your ad and pay close attention to the details on each profile.

Does this step sound tedious? Bluecoders gives you access to a pool of 70,000 qualified tech candidates.

We provide expert tech sourcers to handle even your most complex requirements. On average, expect one hire for every four candidates presented.

To learn more, book a call.

Understand their career goals

Not everyone on LinkedIn is looking for a new job. Sending an unsolicited offer often leads to silence — and sometimes a sharp reply.

To avoid those unpleasant surprises, it's important to figure out what the candidate is actually looking for. The recruiter then has to show them that the offer aligns with their career plans.

The outreach phase

The goal is to spark the candidate's curiosity and make them want to learn more. This is the moment to sell both the role and the work environment of your company.

Don't underestimate personalized outreach. It shows the candidate that you actually paid attention to their profile. No one likes receiving a message that feels copy-pasted and sent to a random list.

Sell the candidate's profile

Once the candidate is interested, the next step is to convince the hiring manager or the client. This is when you share your enthusiasm about the talent you've found. They'll have the final say on the hire, so you need to be persuasive.

Lay out the points that caught your attention in this profile. Highlight how well it matches the criteria you were looking for.

If needed, explain the few trade-offs you had to make against the original requirements, and why they won't actually hold the candidate back.

You can also point to the skills this candidate could quickly grow into and show how they could add real value to the team.

A double sale

You may have noticed there were really two sales in this process. First, you had to sell the role to the candidate you'd identified, then sell their profile to the hiring manager or client who hired you.

This is where the recruiter's strengths show most clearly. It's a true business development motion, working a complex sale — finding the ideal talent and then getting that profile accepted by the client — largely on intuition.

Bluecoders Academy training programs

Recruiting in tech isn't an innate skill — it has to be learned. That's why Bluecoders built three in-depth training modules to level up your team's tech recruiting skills.

The first essential is to train recruiters by building up their tech literacy. Our first module helps them gain credibility with skilled candidates and grasp the stakes of these in-demand roles.

To accelerate your sourcing techniques, we built the Sourcing Booster training. By putting growth methods to work for recruiting, sourcing and qualifying candidates becomes child's play.

Finally, to optimize and secure your hiring process end-to-end, take a look at our Closing Optimizer training. The final stages of recruiting will hold no more secrets for your team.

To learn more, talk to one of our expert tech recruiting advisors.

Contact us

Conclusion

Tech recruiters are brilliant business developers. Originally a job of understanding — sometimes technical — what teams need, the recruiter's mission is also a matter of intense negotiation.

On the menu: a double sale, double objection handling, and so a double challenge — but also double satisfaction !