Recruiters! These maybe one of the reasons why you are failing

"I need you to recruit ten people for my engineering team who are good with Java as soon as possible" said the hiring manager. So here's what we all do frantically , call the recruiters, pass them the job description to source profiles and go all guns blazing on trying to close these positions in record time. The most common method everyone follows is login to Naukri/Monster or Linkedin and type the relevant keyword and call up the candidates.

Fact is that recruiters are able to find candidates by this method easily (Look for the Java keyword in the resume and similar kind of companies the hiring manager is looking to hire from); but is that all? Someone closing ten positions in a month this way becomes 'Super Recruiter'! Really?

I have interviewed many recruiters when I was hiring for my team and atleast 80% of them didn't have an idea about what projects the candidate will be working on nor did they know about what Java was. No surprise why recruiters don't climb up the ladder fast. So what am I trying to tell?

Recruiters should follow some basics when it comes to sourcing the right talent. If the hiring manager/clients wants to hire a software developer, ask them the right questions which will give you an idea about the profile apart from the job description before starting the sourcing process. You can ask them questions such as

- What is the platform the company is working on?

- Which is the technology stack the candidate will be working on? and how he/she can add value to the company and at the same time to their career. 

Recalling an instance while I was hiring a candidate for a software developer role where I had already figured out the platform the company was working on was Python and the candidate whom I spoke was working on Microsoft technologies; It took me sometime to help him understand the pros and cons of shifting to another technology (Wouldn't have been possible if I was not aware of it myself).Valuable isn't it?

- What will be the growth path of the candidate in comparison to his previous job (Its very obvious that everyone wants to know their career path while they join a new company).

- Whom will they be working with? Everyone wants to work with best minds in the industry and maybe a word like the team will be headed by the VP/CEO helps gauge their interest better.

- What about Work life balance and benefits?  Your work place is your second home, the place where you spend maximum time after your home or sometimes more too! This becomes a critical factor for people to make a decision.