Technology Recruitment in 2020

04 Apr, 20235 Mins

In this blog:

Jack Such our Senior Technology Recruitment Consultant shares his observations and learnings on Technology Recruitment patterns through 2020 and the pandemic.

Technology Recruitment – A Reflection On The Past Few Months

Before I get started - don’t worry, this certainly isn’t going to be one of those typical ‘in these unprecedented times’ blogs which drive you as crazy as they drive me… All day I speak to candidates & clients to discuss their search for the best talent or the best opportunities. Despite the expertise across the industry, many still don’t fully understand the extent to which the Technology Recruitment market had been affected. Waves of LinkedIn posts on the matter of recruitment has created an even more shrouded understanding of what it’s like to search for a new job at this time. With this in mind, I thought it important to identify a number of key pointers around the Technology Recruitment market over the past few months.

Tech Talent In Demand As Ever (If Not More)

Although we’ve witnesses the end of several markets, we’ve seen the growth of numerous industries which are beginning to thrive. Despite the increase in coding academies and self-taught developers, there is still more businesses who are needing the expertise of Tech talent than there is emerging talent on the market. The result of this, the comfort and peace of mind for candidates across the Tech community that there is numerous of opportunities out there. We’re recruiting for exciting projects in Manchester which have global plans to disrupt industries, revolutionise software and build leading businesses. Projects such as these are constantly searching for the best talent to help achieve their goals.

COVID Is No Reason For Under Offering

Yes, you would be correct in thinking several big employers have been hit by Covid; and yes you’d be equally in correct saying there were (and continues to be) redundancies across the Tech community… This being said, there has never been a greater demand for the likes of Software Developers, Web Devs (with particular specialisms in languages or frameworks such as C#, .Net, React & more), Architects and DevOps Engineers to join businesses. It’s particularly worth noting that the amount of businesses searching for tech talent far outweighs the number of candidates on the market. Therefore, those businesses who have approached talent acquisition under the ideology of under-offering are finding that not only are they failing to secure the best talent, they’re also significantly damaging their employer branding.

Over the past few months, LinkedIn has been a platform of support and unity. In line with these morals, we’ve seen several businesses’ reputation damaged by their poor attitudes towards recruitment in the pandemic. Attempts to capitalise on unemployment by under offering candidates has often resulted in mass disappointment from the community. This may not be an immediate source of upset for all businesses, but is highly likely to damage organisation’s abilities to recruit the best talent in the future…

Not only does utilising the pandemic as a way to reduce overheads reduce your ability to attract and retain the best talent, it is highly likely to significantly damage your employer branding.

Entry & Graduate Roles On The Decline

One of the toughest impacts the market has seen over the past few months is the lack of Entry & Graduate roles across the Technology market. On the daily I have candidates reach out to me who have either just graduated from university, completed a coding course or are trying to find their first role into the industry. In my entire recruitment career, I’ve never endured such a tough market for juniors to find their path. Given the working conditions of many businesses, the practicalities of recruiting Junior members of the team holds several issues. The main issues revolving around throwing candidates too far into the deep, forcing them to immediately work remotely with less support from their team and not offering the true experience to grow within the business.

As tough as this few months have been for candidates who fall into the above, the good news for candidates I’ve just described is the continued growth within sectors such as eCommerce & fashion. As these industries pave the way for other industries to adapt to an ever changing digital landscape, we will see businesses begin to recruit entry/graduate/junior talent at a higher rate to support their continued increase in technology requirements. The only advise I can give for those affected is to continue to network and continue to work on your personal development. Stay patient and we will see the return of Junior roles.

Tech First Businesses Making Paces

The term ‘Tech First’ has been bandied around from organisations for a long time. Digging through the marketing and often you find that; yes, businesses are making steps towards being ‘Tech First’, but only few are able to fully tick the boxes to be ‘Tech First’. The environment change to revolve around remote working, digital communications and integration of SAAS solutions for daily operations has rapidly sped the transformation towards ‘Tech First’. Nowadays, we’re observing businesses who are thriving under Tech First processes as opposed to old-fashioned methodologies. As Recruitment Consultants, a large proportion of our roles is to do as the title suggests; Consult.

We are getting briefed on new Technology opportunities daily so if you are in search of a new role in Tech drop us your CV here!

drop us your CV here!

If you are looking to recruit some tech talent for your business, get in touch! Call 0161 833 1044 or email [email protected]

[email protected]

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