Technology Recruiting: The Talent Landscape
Posted on Thu, Jul 14, 2011
By Kara Baskett
Technical companies seem to be ramping up their fleets of technical recruiters. If you’re a technical recruiter or have ever hired for a single IT position, you’ve probably heard from one of our peers regarding new employment opportunities. So why are tech companies hiring so many recruiters? We seem to be entering a battle that technology companies are all too familiar with: Finding enough quality technical talent to satisfy the demands of hiring managers. Companies are sparing no expense when it comes to going after and bringing in top talent. With companies like Google, Facebook and Zynga placing offices in technology hubs outside their Silicon Valley headquarters, what exactly is the war for technical talent going to look like this time?
How did we get here? Only two years ago we were in the middle of a recession, and now we have one of the most competitive landscapes we’ve seen – maybe ever. Are there too many technology companies in the market? Is there a lack of technical talent? Are we going to run into a situation like the .com bubble? Is the real answer shuffling talent from place to place? So many questions – I definitely can’t answer them all; however, it’s great to open the dialogue, to see how we can help one another and ensure that we’re all getting great talent for our hiring managers. Let’s step back for a moment and consider the pipeline of candidates. We’ve definitely grown into a global talent community, when it comes to technical talent. Many of the larger technology companies do not care where a candidate comes from, as long as they are the best candidate for the job. Smaller technology companies often don’t have this luxury, and some don’t have the budget to cover relocation of talent. Even with all of these companies recruiting from around the globe, recruiters are still direct sourcing into competitors. Talent seems to be on a consistent move from organization to organization.
In addition to the established players, we’ve seen the return of the start-ups. Not that they ever went away, we just seem to be hearing more about them and their hiring practices. Many of these organizations are luring top talent with promises of titles like CTO and potential stock options. Some start-ups are using developers’ desire to be part of a fun, cool, and hip culture by coming up with clever gimmicks and fun tricks. Larger companies in turn are raising salaries, offering larger bonuses, valet parking, and expanding ‘perks’.
As recruiters, there are few key methods we can use to bolster the level of talent we find for our hiring managers. In the next two posts in this series, we’ll discuss ways that we can help to win the war on technical talent.
