What Hiring Managers Should Know About Filling IT Roles
Hiring people for a company requires more than an ability to evaluate credentials and interview applicants. Even if you hire an IT staffing firm, you will have to know what you want in an applicant. When narrowing down a list of potential coworkers, you need to have other skills, especially if you’re hiring for a role you had not held. If you are a hiring manager filling a tech position, here are things you should know.
Look At Their Online Footprint
Check the applicant’s social media profile. Look at their portfolio, website, contributions to online magazines or places like GitHub, Stack Overflow, Quora, and more. Do they give back to the industry or showcase their work? Do they write about topics relevant to the position? A person who has plenty of clips in their portfolio or is active in the community could have more to bring to the table.
Consult Your Network When Hiring
If you’re interviewing for a technical position you don’t have experience holding, make sure you consult someone who knows more about the workload and expectations. If possible, ask them to sit in during the interview and ask industry-relevant questions.
Check For Communication Skills
No matter what position you’re interviewing for, you need someone who can communicate well. For people in tech, you should look for an understanding of technology and business. Does this person keep learning new programming languages? Do they keep working on their craft? Check as well if they understand business and if they know how to balance the demands of running a company and solving a tech issue.
Assess If Their Personality Is A Match
Arguably, this is the most difficult to learn. Even if you get an excellent IT staffing firm to sift through applicants for you, in the end, you are the one who must decide which person might fit in with your company. Culture fit is different for each business. However, you can predict if a person fits in with your work culture if you strike a casual conversation with them.
The way they talk about non-work related things will tell you a lot more about the kind of worker they are. Are they curious, genuinely interested in the profession and the company, and a good learner? You won’t know for sure unless you work with them. Generally, though, people who like the industry will have more to say about it than a couple of one-liners.
See if they have extracurricular activities as well. It does not matter what kind it is; whether it’s building miniature houses or trail running, it’s great if an applicant does something outside their profession. This is especially true if the hobby or activity is something they’ve been doing for a while; it is generally a sign of commitment and a drive for mastery.
Provide A ‘Work Buddy’ Or A Mentor
Keep in mind that the hiring process does not end when someone signs onto your team. You need to ensure that your new teammate hits the ground running, but that could be tricky if you don’t know what they need to do to succeed. If you are hiring for a position you have no experience in, make sure you assign a work buddy or a mentor for your new hire. Ideally, this person would have held the new team member’s position in the past, so they can give advice on what works or not.
Conclusion
Finding someone with a specific background can be challenging, especially in today’s competitive market. Make sure you’re covering all bases when hiring for a technical position you have no experience holding. Clear expectations, assistance from more knowledgeable colleagues, and post-onboarding support will help you recruit the best people for the job.
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