Tech talent is notoriously hard to hire. Not just because tech skills are in high demand, low supply but also because it’s very difficult to accurately gauge tech ability. Here are a few of the biggest problems with hiring tech talent and how you can fix it.
The 1-10 Scale
According to Illusory Superiority, the worse you are at a task, the better you think you are at it and vice versa. In a real world example, a college student studying web development might rate themselves a 9/10 on a specific programming language whereas a programmer with 10+ years’ using that language might give themselves only a 6/10. Which would you hire?
Let’s think about this further. The programmer who has been using the language for 10+ years knows how complex a language is and that new info is released every day. Because of this, he is able to better gauge that, out of knowing 100% of the info out there, he perhaps only knows 60% (6/10). The college student on the other hand, feels he knows about 90% of everything in his textbook on the language, not realizing there is so much more that even the textbook didn’t cover that’s being added and changed daily.
Because you’ll never get accurate self-ratings, it’s better to cut the concept completely from your interviews.
Cutting Corners
The cost of good tech talent can be the first shocking surprise for a non-tech (and sometimes even tech) companies. What some companies will do is set themselves a very low budget (curious about actual cost of talent in South Florida? Check out our 2015 surveys) and will hire whomever they can for the price they’re paying. Others will hire and not bother training in a new employee (after all they, should know this stuff).
I’m all for saving time and resources, however, when it comes to your tech team, cutting corners can lead to some serious issues. These men and women handle very costly equipment and priceless data. Do you really want to cut corners by hiring whomever you can find for the price and not taking the time to train them? It’s a risky business and the money you save upfront may cost you big time in the long run.
Not Relying on an Expert
One of the biggest problems is non-tech hiring managers trying to hire members of a tech team. If you don’t have firsthand experience with the type of tech you want your new hire to be an expert in, make sure you rely on an expert, either on or off your team, to give the candidate a knowledge screening. Because the self-rating isn’t accurate, it’s crucial that you hire for real skills, not just what the candidate tells you.
As a specialized IT staffing firm, PROTECH knows tech. We use our expertise to help both tech and non tech companies find talent that has not only the right skills but also is a fit for the team dynamic. Call us today at 561-953-8800 to learn more about how partnering with us is an investment in top talent. Or, send us an email.
