Our best tips for hiring technical talent in 2024
AvantGarde Search have had the opportunity to recruit senior leadership positions for some of Norway’s fastest growing technology companies. This includes C-suit / Director positions for companies such as Airthings, Xplora, Allente, Working Group Two (now Cisco), Kahoot, Skyfri Technologies, RiftLabs, Miros, No Isolation, Minuendo, Cognite, Stack.by.me, D-Fetch, Nofence, Plateful, DavidHorn, Skeiv Ungdom and many more.
As with Management and Commercial Recruitment, AvantGarde Search has had the opportunity to recruit technical talent to so many exciting technology companies. To name a few; Airthings, Oda, Firi, Saga Robotics, Nofence, Disruptive Technologies, wheel.me, Element Logic, Mer Eco, Biosort, Autostore, ECO-Stor, Photoncycle and 50+ more. And when we say technical talent, this ranges from Mechanical and HW to embedded, backend, front-end and cloud, as well as more operative IT positions.
During the last five years we have experienced significant changes in relation to how companies recruit the best technical talent and although the demand for such talent has decreased in the last 2-3 years, it is still very much a candidate-led market (more jobs than candidates).
Some of our leading recruiters within the Technical Field, Amanda Worne and Tim Bergqvist, share some of their best tips below, with some additional comments from co-founder, Erik Falk Hansen
Ensure a mutual match. Some companies think that as long as the candidate ticks all the right boxes they are a good hire. Amanda points out (strongly) that the company also needs to tick all the boxes that the candidate requires.
Go deep into the position and ensure all people involved in the hire understand all aspects of the position from technical skills and soft skills to how the position fits in with the overall goals of the team and the company.
“Show-off” all tools and technologies used as early as in the job advert and job spec. This can be a indirect way of selling the position, but can also avoid lots of wasted time in speaking to candidates without the relevant competencies.
Make sure the people doing the search/recruiting thoroughly understand the tech and technologies. If this is not the case, you may risk losing out on candidate profiles on for example LinkedIn, in particular those candidates who do not have a very detailed LinkedIn profile.
As with all recruitment, make sure it is a positive candidate experience. Respect the candidates’ time and efforts and be polite and inclusive.
As mentioned in the blog for leadership recruitment, make a prospect for technical positions too. Perhaps even more important when competing for the best technical talent, and make sure it includes; company culture, values, social activities, company impact, growth plans and growth opportunities
Written by Erik Falk Hansen, Amanda Worne and Tim Bergqvist
If you would like to learn more about how we work and how we can support your business with recruitment, please feel free to reach out to Erik on efh@avantgardesearch.no / +47 40 43 54 93. We have offices in both Oslo and Copenhagen.