10 x Tips for Improving Your Outreach to Software Developers w/ Erin Mathew

We broke the registration and live viewer count record with this show, so ‘How to Message Software Developers’ was a topic which spoke to our global audience of recruiters.

I was joined by Erin Mathew, tech recruiter at Maxar Technologies, Mark Deubel and Janko Strassburg from Elastic and Anton Boner from Stack Overflow. 

Here are the 10 x tips our experts came up with during the show.

1. Improve Recruiter's Technical Literacy

Recruiters do not have to be 'domain expert', but perhaps we do have to be 'domain fluent'. This challenge is more acute in tech recruitment than other industry segments, so recruiters need to invest relatively more time in deepening their domain knowledge. Erin had some amazing insight on a learning technique - think like an entry level engineer and watch course material on online platforms like Udemy or Coursera and even Youtube. You might even wish to enrol on a course and try your hand at some practical, entry level coding - not so much to become a professional but to become fluent with the technology, tools and terminology of the demographic that you are planning to recruit from. Also don't forget awesome chrome extensions like GlossaryTech - a free learning tool which expands upon technical terms found on tech candidate profiles.

2. Stronger QA on who becomes a Tech Tecruiter

Effective learning usually requires some degree of passion and commitment to the job. One problem identified by Erin was that we probably are a little too loose in the entry criteria to the profession of tech recruiter. We don't need domain experts or even domain fluent recruiters from Day 1, but we do perhaps need to do a better job of assessing for passion for the field and desire to learn about technology.

3. Concise Written Messaging

Everyone is overwhelmed by 'too much information' on the Internet, especially the highly skilled, in demand candidates like Software Engineers. Writing in a concise way respects the time of busy people, and lowers the cognitive load for the recipient of that message. Erin’s tip – think and communicate in tweets - is a brilliant illustration of the change required in written messaging in the current era. Recruiters only have a short amount of time to make an impact so be concise with your message.

4. Text First, Phone Call Second

The days of cold calling highly skilled, in demand candidates is over. People are in work, and busy with things at work and will almost never be in a position to take a call. Erin’s rule was never to call in work hours and in fact, text first to set up a phone call later. Use of SMS is likely to be under utilised in our industry compared to email and phone call but as a short, asynchronous and confidential medium, it's the ideal channel for first contact.

5. Creative, Personalised, Rich Media Messaging

One of the biggest complaints potential candidates have is that the recruiter didn’t even look at their profile. No likes to feel that they are simply on a 'list to contact'. Erin introduced some superb creative thinking, especially in the use of video, including cameo's from other software engineers and even doing short comedy sketches, where her past as a performance artist undoubted helped ;-).

The main message of creative messaging is this though: it is deep and real personalisation, representing an investment of energy by the recruiter to the candidate. A quick tip to underline this is Think about you versus me messaging. Even a simple trick such as a holding up a piece of white card or paper with the person’s name on is enough to grab their attention.

6. Never Ask For A Referral

Mark was very clear on what not to do - ask for a referral from a candidate who is not interested in your role. This is a routine technique taught to recruiters, but Mark believes that this is akin to asking for details of someone's ex! It demonstrates that you were never genuinely interested in person in front of you, and providing further evidence of the transactional nature of recruiter / candidate relationships. It also never works, says Mark!

7. Never Send The Job Description

Super interesting observation by Mark was never to send the job description. There was vehement agreement with viewing in the chat bar. Sending a job description is almost the last thing you do. Opening with it is asking the recipient to do the legwork. It’s a lazy opening and rather than being a useless marketing tool, it can actually do more harm than good if you lead with it.

8. Sell the Company, Sell the Projects but NOT the Job

Mark was clear that the core of the 'sales pitch' needed to be moved from 'the job' to the company or the problem that needed to be solved. This is related to the trend for purpose based employer branding - it is more compelling and interesting - and probably more valuable to the candidate - to talk about the company, the mission and the challenges to be solved, rather than a job role which is likely to change in time in any case

9. Reframe The Recruiter Role

Recognition that recruiters unfortunately don’t have the best reputation, can inform your messaging strategy on first contact. Reframing the role from 'I'm a recruiter' to being the person who 'organises hiring for [insert company] can open the door for a conversation to occur. This was a brilliant tip from Mark, and particularly effective if the employer has a strong brand in the technology space. 

10. 3 x Pieces of Personalisation

Anton Boner, Regional Sales Manager from Stack Overflow brought in extensive research from the platform on what type of messaging is most effective. His best tip was to aim for 3 pieces of personalisation in your message. Don’t take the easy route and go for name and company name because we all know this can be automated. Go for specific personalisation that shows you’ve taken the time to read their profile and get to know the person behind the words - the 3 x pieces is proof that you care

It was an busy, lively session on Brainfood Live and our panel could have easily talked for longer about messaging developers. If you missed the full live show – you can watch again here. 

Remember to sign up for the next live show on How to Assess Coders and the Recruiting Brainfood Newsletter.

Hung Lee is the curator of Recruiting Brainfood, the weekly newsletter for the recruiting industry. Trusted by 19,000+ recruiters & HR professionals worldwide. Make sure to sign up to award winning newsletter here and register for the next Brainfood Live on  Friday 31st January 3PM GMT / 10AM EST: Assessing Coders: A How To With Amy Miller

Show notes produced in association with Green Umbrella Marketing.