6 Rules To Really Finding (Philly) Tech Talent

Here’s what really grinds the gears of tech people, and most recruiters don’t seem to be aware of it. 

This article about sourcing talent has left a lot of folks unhappy. I groaned, being a consultant in the Philly area for mobile and iOS work. The majority of cold contacts I get using these methods are uniformly horrible.

It’s less about the Philly tech scene and more about the divide between recruiter and developer perceptions. Using this kind of keyword lookup is only a starting point to your pool of available people, not an invitation to contact every single match. The majority of recruiters will in fact follow this list and contact every single available match in hopes that they get a hit.

1. Learn the sites you’re pulling data from. Don’t blindly pull information out and send messages off. You will get a terrible match rate following these steps with no knowledge of what you are actually finding, or even how these sites function!
2. Don’t cold call us. Why? Because interruptions are toxic. Unknowingly calling in the middle of a heads-down work session is a wonderful way to start the relationship off on unpleasant footing.
3. Don’t spam us. Cut and pasting the same form letter to each hit is obvious, especially when it’s related to a technology that was last mentioned 10 years ago on the resume/LinkedIn. We are brutal with adding to the spam list, even on a company-wide basis. Yes, that means that everyone at the company you represent will never reach your target.
4. Let us know you’ve actually read our profile. Even if it’s a question about what the current project involves tech-wise, that’s miles better than the canned message. It’s a good bet that if the technology was last mentioned 5 years ago, they’ve moved on to something else.
5. Tell us something about the job that we can’t find ourselves. Sending us the job description or even just the title is not a way to get us interested. Withholding information is a net negative, not a positive. In particular, not mentioning the company offers you little protection from the fear we will contact them directly. It is typically trivial to find what place you are recruiting for.
6. Social media is your friend. For example, a quick look at my Twitter timeline will reveal the kinds of things I’m interested in lately. The latest GitHub commits will show what tech is actively being used. If the job doesn’t overlap with any of these things, move on. However, this isn’t an invitation to start spamming us via alternative channels.

TL;DR - Respect our time, do your homework.