The future of tech hiring is about trust ❤️. We live in a world of infinite options. There’s too much noise and too many choices. A top candidate is approached by 10 companies at the same time. If we don't have candidates' attention, if we can't break through the noise and make them trust us, we are not hiring and building a winning team.
Understanding tech jargon and using them right is a lesser known secret to not only gain a candidate's trust but also exponentially improving your hiring process. Let's break this down into
- How tech jargon is tied into different steps of a hiring funnel and
- How to use nifty Adaface tools to stay on top of the tech hiring game
Tech jargon is present in all steps of hiring
1️⃣ Understanding what candidate persona we want to hire is the first step of the hiring process. It is also the most nuanced step since the hiring requirement comes from technical hiring managers who speak tech jargon.
2️⃣ Creating job descriptions that convey the skills and responsibilities clearly in a language that candidates understand is essential to remove the noise at the top of the funnel.
3️⃣ When you speak with a candidate during a phone-screening session, the candidate is evaluating you as a recruiter as much as you are evaluating the candidate. The more you are comfortable with understanding and reacting to the technical terminology, the more you have the candidate's attention and their trust. Remember: it is also the first touch point for the candidates with your company. You are competing with 10 other recruiters who are calling the candidate. This is the time to differentiate yourself and connect with the candidate in a language they are comfortable with.
4️⃣ Resumes are nothing but a bag of technical words (at scale). If you understand the words that candidates use in their resume, you improve your resume shortlisting success ratio.
5️⃣ Choosing the right screening tests is all about understanding if the topics being tested are relevant for the role. If we don't understand the specifics, we end up choosing a broader test that shortlists the wrong candidates.
6️⃣ Understanding why candidates are failing in interview stages is very important to improve conversion rates in every step of hiring funnel. When you discuss with a hiring manager, it's important to understand why a candidate is rejected in technical terms.
Talk the talk with Adaface Tech Glossary tool
Know that understanding tech jargon is a continuous process. Especially since tech is a fast moving industry with new frameworks and languages being added every week. But here's the process to get started:
1️⃣ Pick up all the tech keywords (skills/topics/projects) from your job descriptions and read 2-3 lines about them.
2️⃣ Use Adaface Tech Glossary tool (and bookmark it!) to quickly know what popular tech words mean.
Let's say you are on a call with a candidate for a React.js role and they mentioned that they have been using "Vuex" recently. To know what it means, all you have to do it type "Vuex" in Adaface Tech Glossary tool. Nifty right? 😃
Know what words are in similar families
Let's be honest. It will take time for us to read/ understand/ remember all the popular tech words. But here's a quick hack to benefit from Adaface Tech Glossary tool today.
Word associations are quicker to form in our minds and also aid in remembering individual words. Here's how top recruiters use word association when vetting candidates or creating best job descriptions. Let's say your hiring managers mentioned that they want a candidate with "Chai" skill.
Quick search in Adaface Tech Glossary Tool will tell you that Chai is a JavaScript testing tool and that "Mocha, Jasmine..." are other popular JavaScript testing tools. Creating job descriptions accordingly will cast a wider net and helps you find your next star hire faster.
Avoid common recruiting mistakes with Adaface Skills-Experience tool
Understanding tech jargon helps you avoid mistakes that make you lose the candidate's trust. One such common mistake is this:
Even though "fast" is relatively new, the recruiter posted for 4 years experience in their job descriptions. This is a recurring theme when a new skill starts becoming popular. Fix for this?
Use Adaface "How old is a tech skill" tool (bookmark it!) to find out the age of any tech skill so that you don't run into this mistake again. How to use it? Just type any skill in the search bar (or simply use Ctrl-F).
Leaving notes
Understanding tech jargon will take some time and is a continuous process but since it is part of every step of our hiring process, its mandatory for every tech recruiter to upskill to build stronger tech teams.
