Top 10 Junior Recruiters’ Mistakes You Can Avoid

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If you are here to learn the ultimate formula of successful recruiting, you won’t find it here… As well as in other places. There is no universal recipe for success, no matter how much we would like to find this philosopher’s stone. Still, we can distinguish potential problems on your way to searching and recruiting the most suitable candidates. Once you learn all of them in theory, you won’t be caught off guard in real life and will be able to fend off all uncomfortable situations.

Before we start, we’d like to repeat once more that knowledge and experience won’t emerge from anywhere. No matter whether you’ve just come to recruiting or have been here for a long time, enhancing your skills is essential!

So, what should you do first?

Learning is never enough, especially this is fair for the IT sector. Ask any developer, they will confess that half of their working time they continue learning. Technology is changing so fast that once you miss one minor thing, it is followed by the next huge gap in skills and knowledge.

• Never be shy to ask professionals for help, if you need clarification on technical questions.
• Attend courses (offline or online, as you wish) to update your knowledge about the industry trends.
• Learn from blogs and professional YouTube channels. In most cases, it’s free! 
• Find a mentor in recruiting who has been honing skills in IT for years. Get their books, learn from experts. 

Keep in mind that competent recruiters are the secret weapon of successful companies. Thanks to them, the strongest technical experts join the teams. And you can’t just fail this important mission! ?

Mistake #1. Incompetent and Inaccurate Job Descriptions

Your job description is the face of the company. Treat it as an advertisement. If you want to glue the attention of your target audience, the description should be relevant to what they are looking for. Include:

• The role of your future employee within the company and the team.
• The list of their duties. 
• Key areas of responsibility.
• Benefits of employment in the company.
• Organizational moments.

All in all, a job description should be attractive enough for candidates to reply with their resumes. Also, it should be informative enough for them to have a distinct impression of the company. They might discover what unique perks do you offer, otherwise, professionals would choose companies with more convenient conditions.

But what to do with technical descriptions? Sure, every recruiter should know that Java and JavaScript differ as much as a car and a carpet. Even if you address a technical team leader to manage all your development positions, you need to know the basics. Otherwise, candidates will have the impression they speak to an amateur. This is a great issue for IT companies, as they need to attract and keep specialists who might be scared away by the recruiter’s unprofessionalism.

Anyway, while creating a juicy job description, you should balance between a selling text (you’re actually selling your vacancy to someone) and a brief expert description of the role.

Mistake #2. The Wrong Approach to Interviews

This is a double-edged sword. Recruiters can either rely only on the interview or neglect its importance. Your goal is finding the middle ground, so:

• Treat interviews as an essential piece of the puzzle in the whole process. It should go in a row with the resume, test task, and other steps of recruiting.
• During the interview, give the floor to the technical specialist or manager (CTO, CEO, etc.). Still, be attentive to the way the candidate talks, answers questions, solves test problems, and so on.
• Ask future employees questions on their soft skills and find out which kind of team players they are. For some specialties, these skills are very important. 
• To check the ability to act in terms of strict deadlines, you can offer a candidate to solve a test problem. This will show their real skills (without Google’s help ;).

Keep in mind that you should have an impartial attitude towards everyone who comes to a job interview. Leave your impressions made by their resumes far behind, as the first impression can be wrong. Recruiting decisions should be based not on intuition but professionalism!

In any case, recruiters must visit all interviews to watch the behavior of candidates and make conclusions on their soft skills. What’s more, your presence at the interview will comfort guests, who previously communicated only with you (a recruiter).

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Mistake #3. Being Too Biased

Anyone in this world has biases. The point is leaving them behind the door leading to a meeting room. What’s more, unconscious biases are the most dangerous enemies of recruiters, as they affect decisions in a somehow hidden way. For example, anyone will give a favor to people who share their own background, gender, age, ethnicity, and so on.

Also, if you see that a person is a bit overqualified for the position but great at work, don’t hurry up to reject them. Of course, you might consider that they will become bored with too simple and low-level tasks. Still, ask the company leadership whether they can change the vacancy for this talented person. In the end, the company will benefit from this.

To avoid these biases, try to focus just on candidates’ talents and professional background. Compare their resumes and test tasks without even looking at the names. This will drive the clearest results while choosing the ‘winner’.

Mistake #4. Rushing the Hire or Waiting Too Long

Both extremes won’t help your success as a recruiter. You should not send offers to anyone who will hardly cope with the half of responsibilities, as well as you shouldn’t wait months for the ideal candidate. 

What’s wrong with both approaches?

• Let’s consider waiting for the perfect candidate for ages. You’re looking for a ‘purple squirrel’ that might not exist at all! So, you will spend time and effort in vain. Even more, the team will lack its important member, which might discourage everyone. 
• Don’t ever rush to hire people that are least suitable just cause they have a couple of necessary skills and promise to learn everything in two-three evenings. Calculate how much their training will cost in terms of time and money. If the costs are not reasonable, look for another candidate.

The way out:

• Try hiring someone who meets almost all requirements (not obligatory all of them). At least, you will recommend them passing online courses to hone the necessary skills. After a couple of months, you will find out that they have become those perfect candidates you were looking for!
• Spend a bit more time looking for a more relevant person, if no one fits the position. Don’t panic, and even the company leaders will ask you how long the process will take, justify your fears about unsuitable candidates in numbers and get more time!

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Key Takeaways

It’s time to draw conclusions, and we hope you’re ready to take new challenges, be it learning technical staff or changing your approach!

What you should keep in mind to bring your recruiting to the next level:

• Don’t stop learning and enhancing your skills. Recruiting is not the only sphere that requires constant development. It’s life and it’s natural! So, find a fascinating course or an experienced mentor, and discover new things together. This will help you be more productive.
  Yes, learning can be exhausting, especially if you’ve just forgotten university homework. Still, if you won’t do that, someone else will. And they will take your job, so be cautious! ?
• Learn from mistakes and don’t be afraid of them. Everyone makes mistakes. If you slipped up, draw conclusions from the situation and go on. Anyway, you will definitely know what to do the next time.

So, stay motivated and inspired, learn from the best, and enjoy fruitful recruiting results! ?