So you’ve decided to get serious about recruiting. No more random emails or chance encounters at events. You are going to build your own recruiting team, the
hire that keeps on hiring.
What you will see is that there are 3 different major personality types needed to run an effective recruiting organization. Here is who they are and what you need to look for:
The Sourcer
She scours every corner of the Internets to find that dormant candidate with amazing talent, and then lobs over the most perfect, relevant, and inspiring email just at the right time. And then she does it again and again. She is your Sourcer. The first line of attack and filler of your pipeline.
Passionate about the tech: this is the biggest prerequisite. A sourcer needs to be genuinely curious about the tech challenges at your company. The first piece of communication that a developer candidate will receive will be from her, so she can’t sound like an amateur. The good news is that the bar is extremely low on tech savvy recruiting emails.
Clever Searcher: having superior tech knowledge will allow the sourcer to look for clever alternate channels for finding candidates. She will go beyond dumb keyword matching that plagues most recruiters. She will be a master of boolean search. With the help of good tools, she’ll uncover hidden candidates and untapped talent.
Tweaker and Optimizer: Your sourcer never forgets that recruiting is a numbers game, and tests accordingly. She’ll always know what her CRR is, or what channel brings in the most 1st round interviews. Like a good direct marketer, she is continuously tweaking: the pitch, the channel, the length of the email, etc.
In terms of personality types, I’ve seen a nice overlap between sourcers and user acquisition folks. Both are relentless testers, generally geeky, and usually approach a problem from a hacker’s standpoint.
The Dealmaker
Let’s say you’ve brought your candidate in for a 1st round, and things seem positive: the tech screen went well, your team gave the thumbs up, and momentum is beginning to build. Enter the Dealmaker, the guy or gal who will take all that goodness and turn it into a real life employee ass in a seat. Easier said than done!
Affable: “People will never forget how you made them feel” is an oft used sales quote that continues to ring true. The Dealmaker needs to make people feel good. A likeable person is more likely to sell you something, especially when they are paying with their livelihood.
High EQ: Thanks to such tomes as “What Color is Your Parachute” and “Escape from Cubicle Nation”, switching jobs now involves deep introspection and emotional life decisions. A recruiter who understands that and who gets emotionally involved will close at a much much higher ratio than a recruiter who works off logic only. The Dealmaker needs to be able to get the deeper needs of a candidate, and her aspirations.
Closer: straightforward but of utmost importance. Go watch Alec Baldwin’s speech in Glengarry Glenross for a refresher.
The Dealmaker obviously needs to have some level of tech knowledge, but much less so than the Sourcer. At the later stage of a hire, the questions that arise are much deeper and emotional: questions such as “does this job help me achieve my long term goals?”, “will I be able to support my family with this salary?”, and “what will my friends say?”.
The Coordinator
One of the things people often forget about in recruiting is that the process is pretty damn complicated! If recruiting is everybody’s job, then that means a lot of calendars get filled up. This is especially difficult for engineers who are used to working long stretches without interruption. Orchestrating the whole thing is the Coordinator, who makes sure the wheels stay greased.
Organized: this is a no brainer. Your coordinator will be juggling 5 different schedules on a daily basis, and so organization is key or the whole process will fall apart.
Proactive: coordinating is not just making sure calendars are compatible. A good coordinator will also keep their eyes on the prize try to get a candidate through the system as fast as possible.
Able to negotiate within the office: your engineering team will groan when they learn that they have to stop their coding sprint to meet yet ANOTHER candidate. Your coordinator won’t let herself get trampled by this – she’ll negotiate internally on behalf of the interviewee, making sure interviews happen, and feedback is given promptly.
Many people dismiss the Coordinator role as a junior, paper pushing type of job that “somebody has to do”. That is a mistake! A good coordinator can shave days off a hiring process and win you that candidate. A good ATS can help too.
Can you combine all 3 in 1?
You can, of course. But just like Suave Shampoo + Conditioner, the job won’t be done quite as well. In my experience, people fit into one particular type. The exception here is the Coordinator, which is a role that could be handled by anybody on the team who is diligent and organized. When you are small, you might want to take on one of the roles yourself. For instance, a charismatic CEO can be a great Dealmaker.
To recap, a well-rounded recruiting team includes a diligent sourcer, an efficient coordinator, and a likable dealmaker who can sell the candidate on your company. Putting these personalities in place will result in better candidates, a smoother interview process, and a low drop rate of qualified candidates.
Happy Hunting!
Georges Janin is an experienced talent acquisition pro with a history of managing full recruiting teams as well as driving recruitment through hyper-growth stages. Georges’ specialty lies in tech recruiting, but he has also nabbed executives and built entire marketing teams. For more of Georges’ work, check out his recruiting blog, Tech Talent Digest, or follow him on twitter.
