Tech Recruiters: 3 Reasons Why Developers Do Not Reply to You
A recent research showed that over 35% of Dutch startups are hiring developers. While developers are at the luxury position to receive loads of job invitations from companies, tech recruiters are trying every way possible to reach developers but still struggle to get them on board.
One of the frustrations we often heard from tech recruiters is -
Why don’t they even reply me?
Be it a voice mail, an email, a SMS, a Linkedin or Whatsapp message, developers just do not reply.
To solve this mystery, we have spoken to some developers to find out why. If they suspect you of the followings, they will not reply to you.
1. You are trying to sell them
“You are the best fit for this newest Fortran position!” — although not literally written that way, a lot of emails from recruiters sound like that, says a female Software Engineer. That tone is a huge turn-off for her.
From the seas of emails from recruiters she received, the one she chose to respond to was from a company that approached her again after she ignored their first message.
So why did the second one stand out?
It was written with a neutral tone,” she recalls. “It also covered a few accomplishments of the company and details on the technologies they use”. It actually triggered her to look up the company and people who are currently working there. Once she gained interest, everything else naturally followed.
2. You seem non-tech
We all know that recruiters may not always have a technical background. Yet that is exactly where the problem lies — people who do not understand tech well enough are reaching out to techies.
In this case, developers have a feeling that they can easily and mistakenly be disqualified by non-technical recruiters.
“They do not look at my technical side before approaching me,” Eduardo Lavaque, currently a developer at Yippie said. “And then they send me a programming aptitude test. Even though they said they were interested in me, they actually only check whether they are really interested after I complete the test.”
3. You are lying
Gawin Dapper, CTO of Teamily, is receiving up to 30 job invitations every week. “Recruiters are often lying about the job descriptions and culture of the companies,” Gawin explained. “Exaggerating the reality in a too positive way destroys the trust between the recruiter and their clients. This behavior has negatively affected the trust talents and companies have in the recruiting industry.”
Instead of focusing on finding the right match, some recruiters set their eyes on reaching their end-of-the-month bonus, which further reduces his trust on recruiters.
Tips from Developers to Tech Recruiters
Recruiting tech talents is undoubtedly a tough job. Here are some recommendations from developers to recruiters:
- Be honest, talents will notice it if you are twisting the truth too much.
- Show your understanding in tech, know the difference between Java and JavaScript
- Be neutral, giving a sales pitch is not part of your job
- Be personal, do your research well and read about the person you are reaching out to
- Bring out the values why the role you are offering is better than their current role
It is actually kind of like how you, as a recruiter, expect candidates to approach them, right?
Developers and tech talents are active on Cocoon, a job matching app where both companies and talents are both actively finding their best matches. Get Started now and start reaching out to tech talents.
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