Striking out on the job boards looking for the perfect candidate? It might be time to supplement your traditional recruiting efforts with social recruiting. In today’s marketplace, the social-savvy company has to find the candidates where they’re at, not wait for the perfect candidate to apply or even post their resume on a job board.
GitHub
GitHub isn’t just a great place to find exceptional IT talent, it’s also a fantastic way to screen talent. GitHub is the world’s largest open source community where developers go to collaborate. What better way to figure out if that potential hire is as good at PHP as they say they are than to look at their GitHub profile and see actual samples of their code?
Stack Overflow
Where do programmers go when they don’t have the answer? Stack Overflow. Stack Overflow a Q+A site just for programmers. What better way to find that Python expert you’re dreaming of than to look in a place where the pros hang out? Stack Overflow is also a great resource when it comes screening talent for your next role – their answers to questions on Stack Overflow can be a big indicator of their expertise.
SourceForge
SourceForge is an open source software publishing platform. You can search for project or software that might be in a vertical industry and connect with their creators.
Meetup
Meetup is a great place for people of similar interests to meet. By hosting or joining a meetup focused on a skill you’re looking for, you’ll have a face-to-face connection instead of a virtual one.
Blogger or Personal Websites
Chances are someone can write in-depth blogs about coding, they likely know their stuff. Blogger or personal blog sites like WordPress can be a great way to find that tech pro you’ve been searching for.
People tweet about their lives so it makes sense that if someone is a tech professional, they’d tweet occasionally about tech or participate in relevant twitter chats. Polite intro tweets get replied to more often than not, even if the reply is a “thanks but no thanks”.
Quora
Like Stack Overflow but much more generic. Connect and message with experts in their field and possible connect with your next SME.
Kaggle
This is a data scientists’ heaven. Companies and researchers post their data and data experts compete for cash to produce the best models. If you’re looking for a data scientist, this might be an excellent place to start.
Grokbase
Grokbase is a mailing list archive that presents mailing lists in an easy to use format. Tech pros in many different fields come here to learn and to share their expertise. Although you can’t directly reach members, most people on Grokbase use their real name and photo so you can find them on a site like LinkedIn to message.
Reddit has a subreddit for both job posters and job seekers. By posting your open roles or searching through job seeker posts, you might just stumble upon exactly the right person.
YouTube/Vimeo
Those programming tutorial videos aren’t just a great way for your team to learn – it’s also a great way to discover talented programmers with leadership potential.
Server Fault
Server Fault is a Q+A site for system and network administrators. It’s a great place to look up an applicant as their activity on this site can really speak to their skills, especially if they get a lot of helpful flags.
Social Recruiting can produce great results but it’s also very time consuming and requires an individualized, non-intrusive candidate approach. Our expertise at Social Recruiting is one of the many ways PROTECH is able to provide value to your current sourcing efforts.
Contact us for more information.
