How I try recruiting as a team lead?

In this post, I share my experience working with a recruitment colleague to look for potential candidates.

How I try recruiting as a team lead?

As a team lead, one of my job requirements is to try looking for other developers to join the team or at least help in the recruitment process such as conducting interviews. For me that's an interesting challenge as I have little experience in this process.

From the get go, I try looking in my current social circles for anyone interested to change jobs. I contact mostly my friends and acquaintances. I prefer nevertheless to avoid poaching from my previous workplaces with whom I still have a good relationship.

Web Technologies

The main obstacle, however, is that most of my friends or acquaintances do not work in the technology I am looking for. They are either working in IT Support, ERP systems or .NET/Java technologies. I am currently looking for JavaScript Web Developers - junior or senior.

LinkedIn Strategy

An effective strategy is to use LinkedIn to look for potential candidates. The way I try to proceed is by searching people who has technologies I want in their profile (as keywords) and/or as skills.

I search for candidates who've worked with Angular or NodeJS or TypeScript. So far, I have the impression that most Mauritians do not have experience in these technologies - or possibly, they don't update or regularly use their LinkedIn profiles.

With that in mind, I pair up with a colleague - working in recruitment in our spare time - to have a closer look on the profiles.

My colleague has a recruiter profile on LinkedIn, which has more options than the regular one; for instance, they have an option for downloading a person's CV.

Taxi for hire
Photo by Clem Onojeghuo / Unsplash

Criteria

We limit the list to about five professionals who look more qualify for the post based on the following criteria:

  1. Is a Mauritian or is currently working Mauritius, Malagasy (people from Madagascar)
  2. Is a Software or Web Developer
  3. Has at least two years of experience
  4. Knows either NodeJS or Angular or TypeScript

Once we confirms the list, my colleague contacts them through LinkedIn messages briefly describing the Job Post we are currently looking for and asking them if they would be interested knowing more.

Steps

For a potential candidate who suits the job description and is interested:

  1. Initial phone call for screening the potential candidate
  2. Skype call if the candidate suits the role or can learn it and if he or she is also interested
  3. Small coding test
  4. In person interview with the director, who then proceeds with an offer