If you’re paying close enough attention in the tech crowds, you’ll hear a lot of recruiter-hate to be found in the industry these days. In this well-connected atmosphere that we’re all operating in today, bad business practices have little place to hide. And as recruiting horror stories stack up as they find their way to the surface, trust in the tech recruitment industry has taken a hit. You can sense it when you start to see that even influential recruiters and thought leaders have begun to bash their own industry to try to put distance between themselves and the fractured landscape they live in, as if to say on repeat, “Listen, I know it’s ugly out here, but I’m not like them. I’m different.” Suddenly, that is the best sales pitch we seem to be able to muster. Suddenly, everybody’s pitch is “we are different.” And if everybody is different, then maybe this general aura of distrust was all based on an illusion. Look, technology is a great industry. It is an industry driven by a smart, adaptable, community that calls it like they see it. And talk is cheap. If our big pitch is that we’re not as bad as the other guy, then we learned nothing from the trauma that was the most recent Presidential election season. At MatchSource, we don’t want to persuade you that we’re the first of our kind in this industry. We’re happy just to do great work. We’re not great because of who we’re not; we kind of like who we are. Our clients do, too. Always have. Our consistency would be boring if it wasn’t rare. So who are we? Firstly, we’re listeners. We’re good at what we do because we care. We listen to your vision for a role, to your pain points so far in filling it, to the type of people that are successful in your environment, to the types of skills you need to get the job done, to the atmosphere, culture, and team you’re trying to build, the problem you’re trying to solve, and so on. Then, we ask questions. We don’t throw things at the wall to see what sticks, we learn from you. When you pass on a candidate we liked, we’ll ask you why. And we’ll adapt. We’re not trying to make a placement, we’re trying to find the person you can’t live without. And to do this, we need to be able to sell you. We care about your brand, and consider ourselves an extension of it. We only work with companies we can be sincerely excited to recruit for. And can we just be honest? We know you don’t care where we find your dream hire. Our pitch isn’t that we have access to a special tool or secret community of people nobody else knows about. Our pitch is that wherever your perfect candidates are to be found, that’s where we’ll find them. We’re tenacious like that. None of this to mention that we’re awesome communicators and easy to reach. We like to say we’re “Big enough to deliver, and small enough to care.” We thought it was catchy, but mostly because it’s true. Give us a call. Like we said, we’d prefer to show you than tell you. By Adam Vega

Recruiters are a job-seeker’s best friend and will advocate for you to your future employer, and work with you to prepare you to land the job. But once you’re in the interview, it’s on you to do your thing. Don’t forget these 5 tips for nailing the interview. Prep! Prep! Prep! Your nerves alone can dive-bomb your chances of looking like a good recruit for the interviewer. Preparation is the antidote! This means learning about the company, the employer, and the position. You certainly don’t want one tough question to make you appear unprepared; so take the time to find the answers before the questions are given. 2) Turn the Interview around! You must ask questions, for the purpose of 1) Learning more about the position, 2) Being engaged in your own hiring process, and 3) Demonstrating your ability to communicate and work with someone – after all, you are there to see if you are a fit, and communication is the key to any relationship. But don’t overdo it. Ask some direct questions that demonstrate that you are already thinking ahead to working for the company. 3) Be Respectful A good impression is made simply by being respectful. Being on time, being presentable, being friendly, and being conversational are key ingredients. Your interviewer is reading you and trying to envision how you will fit in with his or her team. Show your best. 4) Be Honest You will be asked tough questions regarding your qualifications and experience. If there is something that disqualifies you from the position, make sure you answer honestly and optimistically. A good interviewer can spot fluff in your resume. Simply because you have not done something before doesn’t mean you cannot learn it if you are a quick learner, a team player, and the like. There is no need to lie about where you have been if you show that you are eager to work and to learn. Give a concrete example of a similar, transferable experience, and speak to your eagerness to grow in these areas. 5) Be Proactive If you don’t land the job, reach out to the interviewer or your recruiter and ask what went wrong. Keep notes and adjust for your next interview! By Adam Vega

It’s no secret that the tech scene is booming across the nation, and if you’re feeling the heat to get the best tech pros on your team, you’re not alone. Businesses everywhere are confronted with rising trends in digitalization, globalization, changing consumer habits, and generational shifts, and at the heart of these changes lays technology. But the biggest challenge of all is finding and recruiting the people you need to address your technology needs and initiatives. We see it every day and in every industry. Below, we explore the reasons behind this challenge. Soaring Demand for IT Professionals The national tech unemployment rate has been hovering at just 2.0% for several months, while the average number of days to fill the typical IT position is at a massive 26.7 days. We can infer from this data that the supply of readily available tech talent is in low reserve, far below the soaring demand. And that demand, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is projected to increase a huge 12% over the next decade. This is due in particular to occupations in Cloud technologies, Big Data, the Internet of Things, and mobile computing. The booming need for top IT talent is likely to continue well into the future; in fact, the BLS also predicts that over 1 million STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs will go unfilled over the next decade due to decreasing numbers of people entering these fields. Hard to Find Technical Skills One of the big reasons it’s hard to find the talent to meet the demand is the simple fact that technology moves so rapidly. This causes two main problems. First, there’s a handful of technologies that are now considered “outdated,” which fewer people are proficient in. These legacy technologies are used in industries such as banking, computer science, weather prediction, and more, and range from C and COBOL to Fortran and Mainframes. As increasing numbers of professionals move their careers in favor of newer, cutting-edge technologies, these legacy technologies are left in the dust, with a smaller talent pool to maintain the environments that use them. On the other hand, companies that are quick to adopt newer technologies often find that the supply of professionals who can use them has yet to catch up to the demand. Think Cloudera, Puppet, Cassandra, Groovy, Hadoop, Swift, and more. Many of these hot new languages and platforms are also some of the highest-paying technologies, which ups the ante for any company trying to recruit these professionals. Rises in IT Salaries Hot new technologies are not the only place salaries are seeing major spikes. Tech compensations are getting higher across the board. In fact, last year saw a 7.7% year-over-year jump in tech wages. That’s the largest ever increase, and over $20,000 higher than the average tech salary from 10 years ago. Bonuses also saw a 7% increase. What does that mean for employers? A major squeeze on IT and departmental budgets. While the best tech professionals are motivated by more than just money, a handsome paycheck definitely doesn’t hurt. In fact, it could mean the difference between accepting your job offer versus your competitor’s job offer. A Candidate-Driven Market The abundance of tech jobs combined with rising salaries and evolving technologies culminate to produce a candidate-driven market. For employers, this primarily means that candidates have more freedom and control in what jobs they apply for and accept. It also results in increasing numbers of passive candidates rather than active job seekers. A recent survey reports that more than 60% of developers are open to new job opportunities but aren’t actively looking. And only 15% of respondents were actually actively seeking. The implication is that companies are unlikely to find their next employee on a job board. In fact, 1 in 3 survey respondents found their current jobs through a referral. Furthermore, some industry leaders believe that less than 10% of people respond to job ads at all, with 95% moving into a new position either through networking or internal promotion. These statistics are powerful because they show that candidates are entering the job market with a very different perspective than they were just a few years ago. And employers need to adapt their recruitment strategies accordingly. It’s this adaptive recruitment process that many companies are struggling with as they seek top IT talent for their open positions. If that’s a challenge that sounds familiar, we’d love to share more of our insights into recruiting the best of the best. Just reach out today and tell us more about your hiring challenges.