Nearly 40% of developers say they’re looking to change roles in the next 12 months. That means there’s plenty of talent available in the market. But, without the right hiring strategies in place, it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be able to bring top candidates on board.
We sat down with OfferZen Co-founder Brett Jones and Embedded Talent Partner Shara Chernel to chat about three common recruitment mistakes that could be making you suck at hiring – and how you can avoid them.
1. Posting and praying
Great talent isn’t hanging around job boards waiting for the right dev to pop up. Usually, the best developers are actively recruited by the teams that want them. That means relying only on inbound applications doesn’t just put you behind in the hiring game, it might make you completely invisible to the candidates you’re after.
“If you want really good people, you have to be in control of your hiring process,” said Brett. “You have to take control. You need to go out and find the people you want with strategies that are more proactive than just posting a job description and hoping that someone’s going to apply.
“It doesn’t make sense to just put the information about an open role out and then pray that the right person will see it and be excited enough to apply. It is possible that that could happen, but that would really just be lucky and relying on luck is not a strategy.”.
Shara pointed out that, rather than doing things the same old way to maintain the status quo, you’ll need to shake things up and be more proactive.
“When you’re only posting on job boards, you’re giving away your control in the recruitment process. You don’t have any much say in the quality of applications that will come in. It’s better to take a little time to build a roadmap of the hires you need to make over a certain period and then work on building a community within and around your company.
“Things like hosting events and networking with the people you want to work with will help to show developers who you are as a company and can get them excited about what you do, which will make them more likely to want to work with you,” she said.
“That said, if I needed quick results, I would come to a place like OfferZen that’s already built a community and built the trust that goes with that, and I’d leverage those efforts to find the right person.”
2. Writing job descriptions, not job ads
The information that you put out there about your company and the role that you’re hiring for should sell, not repel.
“You need to be writing a job advert more than a job description. What you’re trying to do with recruitment is get someone to come and spend a significant amount of their life with you at your company, to move it closer to accomplishing its mission. To do that, you need to get them interested in what you’re doing,” explained Brett.
“We see quite often that companies set up a job description and use that to sell the role externally and evaluate candidates internally. That’s a bit of a problem. Your job advert is a sales document. It needs to have that human touch to get people interested,” Shara added.
Rather than creating a long document filled with boilerplate text, both Brett and Shara agree that you need to get really clear on exactly what you want. Having said that, though, they cautioned against being too prescriptive when you’re creating the description.
“The job ad is just the starting point of your recruitment process. It sets the tone and gets people in the room. You want to get a holistic view of what you need a candidate to be able to do, but also to allow for some wiggle room so that you don’t miss out on any potentially great applicants,” Shara said.
3. Taking too much time
While it’s a good idea to be discerning when you’re recruiting a developer, it’s a mistake to take too long to make a decision about who you’re going to hire.
“You’re making quite a big decision by hiring someone, so there definitely needs to be a certain level of thought that goes into every hire that’s made. But, taking more time that you need won’t serve you and it could mean that you miss out on a really great candidate,” Shara said.
Here, it’s important to take a good look at your hiring process and timelines, and consider whether there’s any way you can simplify your approach to save both you and candidates time.
“Little tweaks to your process can make a big difference. If you’re not seeing results, you need to ask yourself if you’re doing the basics right or if you’re maybe overcomplicating it. Doing just one step a little differently can have a ripple effect,” Shara added.
“For example, if I were hiring senior talent, I wouldn’t batch candidates. In other words, I wouldn’t wait to interview someone I’m excited about because I didn’t have the expected number of applications come through. I would move forward with them because we know that they’re not going to wait around – especially if they’re top tech talent.”
Brett seconded this idea, noting that hiring managers and recruiters should keep in mind that they’re responsible for keeping potential hires on the hook.
“A big part of why candidates drop out of the hiring process is because it takes a long time and because they aren’t aware exactly what the process looks like.
“You need to be pulling candidates through the process. If you request an interview with someone, send them a reminder email or a quick WhatsApp beforehand to confirm that they’re still going to do the interview. The onus is on us as employers to pull people through the funnel rather than just hoping that candidates will follow the process,” said Brett.
Brett and Shara’s tips to help you not suck at hiring
Great talent doesn’t wait. You need to move fast enough to make the right hire, but not so fast that you harm the candidate experience. Here are a few things Brett and Shara encourage recruitment teams and hiring managers to keep in mind when they’re building out their teams –
- Make hiring a core competency: Recruiting is one of the most important things you can do as a company. You need to build out your processes that make it easier to make good decisions, fast.
- Be nice: How you treat people during the interview process is a reflection of how you will treat them as an employee. If you don’t get that right, it can dissuade candidates from joining.
- Add a human touch: Get hiring managers and other team members involved in the recruitment process. When you have developers talking to developers, it feels more personal than just another HR or recruiter looking to fill a role.
If you really don’t want to suck at hiring in 2025, why not partner with OfferZen Embedded? It gives you a dedicated talent partner to handle everything from sourcing to screening to background checks, with the speed and expertise we're known for. It’s flexible, it’s fast and it’s great for busy teams that need hands-on support in finding and hiring the top tech talent.