How to excel at tech recruiting: tips for HR in SaaS companies

Having a qualified HR team is extremely important to excel at tech recruiting. You save time by having people who know what they’re talking about and know how to verify candidates’ skill levels. This way your company will find better candidates in a quicker way without giving up quality. Aline Araujo, one of our recruiters, shares how we do things.

Where to source to excel at tech recruiting

It’s important to know where possible candidates hang out digitally to know where to find them. Take GitHub, for example, which is a good place to find skilled pros. To excel at tech recruiting here at Ubiminds, we use our own network as well as LinkedIn Recruiter (with a lot of filters to get better results) to find qualified developers in a certain field (front-end, back-end, full-stack, etc.).

Selling the position

After sourcing, you still have a long way to go. You need to get to know each candidate to understand if this opportunity makes sense for them. After having a list of possible candidates, we do this by sending them a personalized message via e-mail to have a chat. If they’re interested, they schedule an interview with our recruiters via Calendly.

“If they don’t respond to our e-mail, we get in touch via LinkedIn InMail or some other way. We always do a follow-up and try to get through to the potential candidate.”

Screening and interviewing for cultural fit

This is where our sourcer passes the baton to our recruiters. During the interview process, we split it into three parts. First, we talk about our company and the client, which means remote work, flexibility, global teams, performance, and delivery, in our case.

By the time we’re done introducing the client, they’re usually already hooked. Second, we ask questions to check their background in tech. Third, we ask if they have questions about anything. As for cultural fit, we look for problem-solvers, leaders, and people that work well with teams. We have a set of situation-based questions to check these.

Learn about tech skills to excel at tech recruiting

Verifying tech skills is no different from the previous part of the process. During the same interview, we steer the conversation into experience levels and past projects. This is when you should showcase that you know what you’re talking about for them to realize lying is not an option. 

“It’s important for recruiters to have technical knowledge so they can speak the same language as who they’re interviewing.” 

You can ask in-depth questions to check if they really know how to get out of a given situation, or if they still need some time to improve. “Ask which framework they used; why they used it,” says Aline. You have to look closely at the details to excel at tech recruiting.

Who to submit

We have a high bar, and we don’t settle – that’s the key to excel at tech recruiting. We only submit candidates who are fluent in English, have great tech skills, a good cultural fit, and behave a certain way. The companies we work with look for someone with a teamwork mindset. Clean code, good code quality, and who think of the process as a whole and not just the sum of its parts. When we’re ready to submit we write down a short paragraph about each candidate and attach their resumés on an email, Slack or do a video call to talk about them.

Making an offer

Our offers don’t follow a standard: they’re tailored for each candidate. We take into consideration their current moment and which benefits are essential. We have a moment of negotiation to get on the same page about payment. And, again: the whole process is customized.

Why help matters

What makes us excel at tech recruiting is the fact that our company is completely dedicated to hiring. Simply put, we’re experts in what we do. We work with specific job positions that are hard to fill. If you still have any doubts, you can hear for yourself what our partners have to say. 

You don’t have to do it all alone. Find a staffing firm that supports you in hiring for tech positions.

Scheila Farias Silveira

International Marketing Leader, specialized in tech. Proud to have built marketing and business generation structures for some of the fastest-growing SaaS companies on both sides of the Atlantic (UK, DACH, Iberia, LatAm, and NorthAm). Big fan of motherhood, world music, marketing, and backpacking. A little bit nerdy too!