Bull sessions with Tech Recruiters. Kasia Borowicz
A series of articles by Tech Recruiters for Tech Recruiters.
Please welcome our next interviewee Kasia Borowicz and her recruiting hacks.
1. Short Bio
My name’s Kasia Borowicz. I live in Kraków and London and spend a lot of my days online. I blog, I run a community for recruiters, I train recruiters and HR teams, but mostly I learn a lot — and if there’s any spare time, I read sci-fi. I’m passionate about culture and languages — currently learning Spanish and German.
2. Your way to tech recruiting. How did you get into this field?
I didn’t get that involved in tech recruitment back when I was a full time recruiter. As a trainer though it became one of the main industries I focus on quite quickly because of how different it is in terms of sourcing. It’s not more difficult (which is a common misconception) but just presents very specific challenges that recruiters often feel they need help with — and that’s how I got involved :)
3. What are the best websites/blogs to stay tuned in to?
In Poland, we have a couple of interesting IT blogs and my favourite one is devstyle as it covers all kinds of topics, not just very technical ones. That way there’s a lot in there I can understand without having to read up too much on the technical aspects. It also allows me to understand what’s important for people who work in tech. As for more recruitment related sources of information, I don’t think there’s anything like that in Poland… I tend to read Hung Lee’s newsletter to find interesting content on tech recruitment.
4. Tools you use to facilitate the hiring/sourcing process
I’m a big fan of Calendly and it’s the #1 tool I recommend to recruiters. It frees up the time they spend scheduling conversations so they can research candidates better. I also use Hello Talent which is a kind of sourcing CRM as it’s easy to save links from any profile online, not just LinkedIn, which is particularly important in tech recruitment. I also used Workshape.io back when I was personally involved in recruiting a developer and I was amazed by how well it worked — I remember we hired a new team member really quickly and they were an incredible addition to the team!
5. Do you keep in touch with your ex-candidates?
Yes, I do. Although I’d be exaggerating if I said I keep in touch with all of them. It really depends on the candidate and whether they want to. Sometimes they message me when they start looking for the next move, some of them I’m friends with on Facebook, others follow me on Twitter or I follow them on LinkedIn… there are so many ways to connect with your ex-candidates these days! I think it’s important to keep a short list of people that you speak to more regularly and figure out ways to at least be available to all of the other ex-candidates easily if they want to reconnect.
6. Is it a must to separate your business and personal social accounts?
I’ve never separated the two. I think you just have to find an approach that works for you, so I’d never force people to use their personal accounts for work. It always came rather naturally to me though… Ironically I’m a very private person, but as one of my co-workers once said “if I consider something really private, I just keep it offline” :)
7. What are your favorite candidate sourcing channels? Why?
My favourite approach is to vary sourcing channels and always research them before I even start sourcing. That’s why I’d start a sourcing process in Google — just to see if there are any new or niche platforms I can use for my search. I guess though I have really enjoyed using Meetup in Poland, as there’s a lot of events here that you can find on there — along with the lists of attendees of course!
8. What makes a recruiter technical?
I would like to see recruiters get involved in the industry they recruit for, no matter what that is. We’ve recently started seeing “IT for recruiter” classes appear in Poland and I do think there’s a big need for recruiters to understand the tech world a little bit if they’re going to do a good job.
9. What challenges do you see in the modern tech recruitment world?
I guess it’s difficult for recruiters to understand which trends to follow, what will become important and what’s just a fad in tech. That’s why it’s such a challenge for them to prepare for the future and without that, it’s really difficult to be a successful recruiter. But obviously there are ways to do it, especially if you’re willing to spend your time to learn more about tech in general.
10. Your piece of advice for young/future IT hunters
Don’t rely on technology too much but don’t be afraid to use more of it either. There’s this one amazing tool that will help you decide what can work and what’s just a buzzword in recruitment and that tool is your own brain. Critical thinking is key to long-term success.
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