Myth about programmers #1

SOFTWARE ENGINEERS ARE ARROGANT

How else could it be? They only know their worth and as such they allow themselves to be arrogant. That's how they are, arrogant! You can't get to their attention, and you would have to try the impossible for that!

Nothing more false! Experience has shown me that arrogance has little to do with what they choose to be. The fact that they have wage claims may or may not be generated by a recruitment industry that relates to them in a broken way, by inflating some offers without a real basis from the hiring companies. Basically, recruiters often choose to turn into brokers of generous offers.

How do I know they're not actually arrogant? I'll tell you: by understanding that the need for learning is permanent and you can rarely meet programmers who tell you that they have nothing left to learn.

Once again, how do I know they're not really arrogant? By having them often sincerely apologizing for the delays with which they respond me, by asking for feedback and thanking you every time they receive it, by wanting to know from you as a recruiter what they need to improve in their way of behaving.

How did it come to this myth? I say, quite simple: most recruiters do not know the technologies with which programmers work and do sourcing on Linkedin only based keywords that are next to magical incantations to them.

Let's say you're looking for a Senior .NET Developer. As a novice recruiter, you start and look for all the candidates who have the skills written at the end of their profile, .NET framework...And that would mean approaching all psychology graduates for a job of... psychologist in school! Why is that? Because he wrote all the the courses he went to in school or later on.

One of the most general mistakes in IT recruiting is sourcing and contacting only on the basis of keywords without really understanding the meaning of them.

Now, imagine that you're starting to explain that you're not in the field of clinical psychology, and that you are a recruiter, or that you're targeting a HR manager position... but the one who will propose the job of psychologist in a hospital or school, does not make a difference. What does that mean in recruiting programmers? It means not knowing the technologies even when you are reminded in the discussion about missing knowledge! What happens then is that the dialogue is fractured for the simple reason that the recruiter is no longer perceived as a real dialogue partner, and the lack of response on the part of the programmer is interpreted as arrogant... which far a way as possible, from the truth!

The solution for busting this myth?

Continuous learning, understanding technologies in a real and useful way (there is no need for a recruiter to write Java codes but he or she needs to know what is talking about, what is similar to other technologies, what differentiates one technology from other technologies, how does them help the programmer’s work, how technologies in JD relate to those within the candidate profile.

Do this, and become respected dialogue partners in discussions with programmers! What will happen? Wonders on your response rate and maybe, some endorsement on Linkedin from your software engineers candidates ;-)