This Masterclass in Tech Recruiting is Helping Companies Hire Better Talent

The battle for top tech talent is heating up, especially as more companies become remote-flexible. Local employers are now competing with the likes of Google, Amazon, Airbnb and more. 

Where can they go to find the resources they need to successfully secure the perfect candidates for their company? Not the ones that bite at the next high salary, but the candidates  that resonate with the company’s values and culture, and stick around for the long haul.

Recruiters often get a bad reputation for ghosting candidates or not communicating well. But these things happen to recruiters too. Candidates have their pick of jobs and 85% of the time don’t respond to recruiter messages. 

So how can recruiters discover how to pitch the right messages to the right candidates whether they're a designer, developer or product manager?

There’s a new bootcamp designed to help recruiters do just that.

This year, Jeremy Evans-Smith launched Full Cycle, a recruiting bootcamp focused on helping people become better technical recruiters. 

“Getting recruited should be a magical experience, like Disneyland for adults,” Jeremy said. “Someone is inviting you in, complimenting you by recognizing your value. You should feel great about the opportunity and the mission.”

But more often than not, it’s an unpredictable and disappointing experience for candidates. And it plays a huge role in the current state of the labor market. 

“Many recruiters have a responsibility for the Great Resignation,” Jeremy said. “When they’re incentivized to fill a seat, they put in the first person they can find as fast as possible at the highest salary, without acknowledging alignment in value and culture. These recruiters are responsible for diminished candidate experience and misaligned purpose that causes talented folks to leave a company.”

And there's no doubt that companies need talented people. Despite the current layoffs happening at startups and tech companies like Netflix, Klarna, and Carvana, there are still companies out there looking to hire top talent. The current market has only increased the need for technical recruiters to reach out to this new pool of talented folks now on the job market.

As companies scramble to get connected with these high-quality candidates, the talent acquisition strategies of the past aren’t cutting it anymore. 

What companies need are strong technical recruiters who can authentically reach out to candidates and get them on board. 

But how can technical recruiters develop that authentic voice to resonate with today’s talent?

A Masterclass In Recruiting

You can study engineering, computer science, marketing, or accounting. But there isn’t a degree for recruiting, let alone technical recruiting.  It’s often a journey that people fall into, just as Jeremy did. 

“Most recruiters aren’t technical and can’t tell you the difference between Java and JavaScript,” Jeremy said. “They send ‘spray and pray’ messages to engineers with an average response rate of 15%. That means about eight out of ten times they’re missing the mark.”

That’s why Full Cycle is helping companies bring their recruiters up to speed to tackle the modern challenges and needs of recruiting top tech talent. And they do this through a Masterclass approach to training. 

Full Cycle cohort

Participants are a part of a diverse cohort that has access to on-demand content, live discussions and learning experiences from top experts, and a career community. Instead of tackling the classes by yourself at your own pace, the cohort is set up to help participants go at the appropriate pace, stay on track, and have a higher chance of actually completing the course. Having a community of fellow trainees also holds people more accountable and helps them feel supported.

In the program, trainees learn about creating a smooth and consistent experience, how to align candidates’ culture and values with those of the company, and how to understand the nuances of a candidate’s skills. 

It’s all about taking a human approach to recruiting, inviting people in and aligning them correctly: right skills, right timing, right industry, right culture, team, etc. It’s more than just about getting butts in seats — because we clearly see that strategy no longer holds up in today’s market. 

And Jeremy’s students have seen success. One Full Cycle grad, Micaela Bumanglag, was promoted during the cohort from Recruiting Coordinator to Technical Recruiter at Talend. Another, Kristen Ben, was hired during the cohort as the first Human Resources and Recruiting hire at Out and Equal.

Jeremy has also been working directly with a VC fund out in Silicon Valley to train recruiters to help their portfolio companies hire top talent. 

Of course, the market is shifting and many companies are scaling down their teams or pausing hiring, which can greatly impact recruiters. 

“What that means is that recruiters need support now more than ever,” Jeremy said. “Teams are still hiring, but they are trying to reduce expenses and costs more than ever. When recruiters get cut, the ones still there need support. They’re not stopping all hiring, but figuring out how to hire more efficiently. That’s where Full Cycle comes in.”

Plus, Jeremy added, if Full Cycle can help recruiters find success in a new job, that’s a huge win.

“Full Cycle makes people confident in their hiring. That’s what I’m most excited about,” said Jeremy, who has been in recruiting roles where he himself didn’t feel confident.

It’s about reducing imposter syndrome, stress, and anxiety. Helping recruiters know where to go for diverse talent, how to communicate better, and run effective interviews.

“I’m so excited to bring into the world an entire segment of recruiters who feel confident about the work they’re doing, the strategies that they build and facilitate, and the people they invite into their company. They can be confident that their next hire is the right hire, the person who will help make that company vision a reality.”

If you’re looking to help your team become game-changing technical recruiters and hire top tech talent, learn how set your team up for hiring success with Full Cycle.