Tips for recruiting hidden tech talent

Attracting and hiring top engineers is a constant challenge for tech companies. Competition is fierce, so it’s never been more important to hone in your recruiting strategy and think outside the box. Often there is an abundance of talent waiting to be uncovered that’s beyond the scope of traditional sourcing methods.

Here’s what you need to focus on in order to discover A+ tech talent.

Search for candidates based on attributes, not keywords

An important element of any talent search is to look beyond traditional resumes and keywords to find the right people for your business. As only 8% of resumes or profiles are filled out using the right set of searchable keywords, sourcing candidates this way will always leave you with an artificially constrained talent pool.

Findem offers an ability to start your candidate searches in a more specific, targeted way.

Heap, a digital analytics platform, used Findem to define very specific technical attributes for their talent search and increased outreach response rate to 60%.

For example, if you’re a high growth company, you might want to bring on people who have experience at companies that have been through similar stages of growth. With Findem, you can search specifically for candidates who have been at high growth companies in the past and find all candidates with this attribute even if it isn’t explicitly stated on their resume or profile.

Or, perhaps you’re looking for someone who has entrepreneurial spirit, has experienced an IPO, codes in Python and builds diverse teams. Whatever it is you’re looking for, leveraging the latest in people search technology and going beyond resumes will help you hone in on the candidates who would be the best fit for your company.

Look for technical strength

Technical strength isn’t guaranteed just because of a college degree. We examined the attributes recruiters are actually using to recruit for software engineers and SaaS experience tops the list.

When it comes to tech, practical experience is a key marker of ability, and there’s a ton of hidden talent showcasing their work across the internet.

Something you can look out for is the open-source contributions of potential candidates. Have they published code online that you can review? Likewise, have they published any code publicly that hasn’t been accepted?

Scouring through platforms like GitHub is a great way to discover engineering talent that aligns with your company’s needs.

Findem consolidates and analyzes data from 100,000 data sources including Github, so you can search for titles on LinkedIn and contributed code on Github in a single search.

Strong communication skills

In today’s world, few skills are more important than communication. The best candidates are clear and effective communicators and will have a track record to show for it.

Perhaps they’ve published content on a personal or professional blog, spoken at a tech conference, released a webinar online, or even published PRs on their open-source code. Regardless of what you find, getting a sense that the candidate is an effective communicator – both written and oral – is incredibly important.

Review their past experience more closely

In hiring, you need to think about the culture that you want to build at your company. That’s the only way to hire the right people for your growing team.

Once you’re clear on your company vision, look at your candidates’ work history. Have they worked at companies that grew on a similar trajectory to yours?

This is a great barometer for how integral the new hire can be in creating the company culture that can scale. Past companies will have an impact on a person’s skills, experience, and approach to the job. If they have experience growing a successful company with a similar approach, it’s likely they’d be a great addition to your team as well.

The secret to recruiting tech talent

Thinking outside the box in your search will help your company stand out from the competition and attract more top-tier and diverse talent. It’ll also expose you to a wider pool of potential candidates, giving you the best opportunity to grow your business exactly how you envision it.

Bringing in the right people makes all the difference.