The IT recruitment sector has become extremely competitive as the tech skills gap continues to grow.
Recruiting the best talent for any industry requires a certain skillset, and each industry is different. Recruiting IT talent is particularly difficult in the current climate.
The demand for tech talent is growing rapidly and it’s not strictly the tech industry that is looking for IT professionals, putting pressure on recruiters.
With our eyes on Boston this month, we spoke to Marina Giliver, the director of asset management platform development at Linedata, about IT recruitment and how it differs from recruitment in other industries.
As the head of her team in Boston, Giliver recruits and manages some of the top IT talent in the fintech industry. She said that constant learning is a daily reality for a technologist as the landscape evolves and changes at lightning speed. “It is essential for anyone working in the technology field, including technology recruiters, to stay current and up to date to be relevant.”
Giliver added that IT is no longer merely a support function for businesses. “A lot of businesses are in desperate need of undergoing digital transformation to stay viable. As a result of this shifting landscape, the IT talent market is severely undersupplied.”
IT talent in Boston
Throughout the month of September, we’ve taken a closer look at Boston and found that it has a lot of industries, including financial services, health sciences, and high-tech industries such as AI and cybersecurity.
Giliver said a lot of big-name companies – such as Microsoft, Google and Apple – have a presence in Boston while others such as General Electric are in the process of relocating their headquarters to Massachusetts. “The main driver behind this is the breadth and depth of the technical talent pool constantly replenished by a supply of new graduates coming out of 35 colleges and universities that reside in Boston – more than 100 in Massachusetts,” she said.
She said that the most in-demand skills for the Boston IT sector right now are in cybersecurity, AI, machine learning, big data, IoT, cloud and DevOps domains.
IT recruitment challenges
Because the IT talent market will continue to be very tight in the foreseeable future, this will bring many challenges to IT recruiters.
“Companies will concentrate their efforts on retaining top talent, which will reduce the pool even further,” she said, adding that the IT recruitment field is “very crowded and highly competitive”.
This is where IT recruiters need to be different from traditional recruitment in order to survive in this extremely competitive market. To stay ahead, they will need to find innovative ways of engaging with and advertising to IT talent.
Not only do they need to build solid, long-lasting relationships with corporate clients, but they also need to nurture relationships with IT specialists to guarantee repeat business.
“Top IT professionals are being sought after and are likely to receive multiple offers when on the market,” she said. “As such, IT recruiters need to streamline their processes to be able to secure placements in a timely fashion.”
