Technical Recruiting as a Profession

Locating qualified employees for job openings is carried out by recruiters, through interviews and by testing applicants' abilities. Promising students attending colleges and universities are interviewed by the recruiters, also known as employment placement specialists and recruiters. Applicants are shortlisted and asked to appear for interviews based on their cover letters and resumes.

With business becoming more and more dependent on computers, recruiters with the designation “technical” became more prominent. A technical recruiter is one who finds employees having technical capabilities, like software programmers, Internet gurus and engineers. As independent contractors, technical recruiters work for corporations or for technical recruiting firms.

The work activities of a technical recruiter include the following:

• Locating potential job candidates
• Assessing the candidates
• Interviewing the potential candidates
• Assessing the technical capabilities of a job applicant

Participation of HR professionals and hiring managers and technology experts is are in demand by technically oriented companies. There are many types of recruiters required such as Executive Recruiter, IT Recruiter, Finance-Executive Recruiter, Technical Recruiter, Software Recruiter and Healthcare Recruiter. Recruiting is done by corporations or technical recruiting firms.

The responsibility of locating, assessing and interviewing potential job candidates is performed by the technical recruiter. The technical recruiter should be well acquainted with jargon so as to understand the technical capabilities of an applicant. He or she should first understand how important technical aspects are, what is required, what can be done without training and what can be trained. The person should meet the department heads and learn their requirements before recruiting. He or she must perform the initial reviews of resumes received and screen the candidates for defined skill sets. Investigating the technical abilities of candidates helps to determine actual accomplishments. A thorough evaluation of the technical recruiting process should be carried out that characterizes a quality hire.

A technical recruiter should have the following skills:

• A basic understanding of the particular industry
• Should be well acquainted with technical terms
• Should be able to adapt to most of the technologies of the market
• Should be skilled to understand the market, the business cycles, etc
• Effective verbal and communication skills
• A spirit of team work
• Should be able to handle short and long term consulting positions

A Bachelor's degree is required. Management courses, industrial relations courses, organizational behavior courses, and courses in public relations will help in this field. In some cases, a master's degree in business administration may also be helpful and required.

A superb command over written and verbal communication is a must. Acquaintance with email/internet is also required. Employment recruiting is available in many colleges and universities.

The average pay scale of a technical recruiter varies anywhere between $46,574 and $56,000. The salary will vary based on educational background, experience, location and performance and the industry they are recruiting for.

Whether working for a technical recruiting firm or corporation, technical recruiters should be able to comprehend complex job requirements. Since many technical employees are selected form different parts of the world, technical recruiters must be able to understand immigration issues. The recruiter should be able to understand and implement the government's guidelines on discrimination. A technical recruiter should be fully aware of their company's needs, benefits, management structure, programs and advancement policies. Hands-on experience in the field for which they recruit is important to be the best technical recruiter.