The resource all technology recruiters should be tuning into
Let’s be honest. There are so many tools floating around in the recruiting space right now that it is hard to keep up.
With new tools claiming to be, “the best new matching technology on the market,” popping up almost weekly now, the tech news can get overwhelming.
Fortunately, the tool we’re sharing with you today has been around for a while, however, it is often an untapped resource in the tech recruiting space.
Yes, today’s post is dedicated to our tech recruiters, but there is a lesson in here for everyone: Meet your talent where they spend their time. Hint: It is not on LinkedIn.
While LinkedIn is an obvious tool and resource for recruiters everywhere, most professionals do not live on LinkedIn day-to-day.
Technology talent in particular is not consistently updating their profile or checking their buddy’s LinkedIn status regularly.
They do however, spend their digital time on sites like GitHub.
So cat’s out of the bag. If you wanted to know what tool we were talking about, it is GitHub.
But if you want to know how and why to use GitHub, keep reading.
Instead of breaking down GitHub in our own creative words, we decided to look to our technology leader here at Loxo to tell us what GitHub was all about, and also why you as a recruiter should care. Check out our Q&A with Loxo CTO, Ilia, below.
Q: What is GitHub?
Ilia: GitHub is place where software developers build and exchange code. We use it to share and edit the software we are building. It is a place to collaborate, exchange ideas, clean up our code, test it, release it. You know the drill.
Q: How long has GitHub been around? How long have you used it?
Ilia: It seems like forever. GitHub has probably been around for 10 years and I have used it to build open source projects since it first started.
Q: Are all developers on GitHub?
Ilia: Most developers are on GitHub. In many companies, and in Loxo’s case, we require our developers to have a GitHub account because that is where we test and release code. Also, developers aren’t there to be recruited. They are there to eat, breathe and sleep code. This is good and bad for recruiters. Good because you can browse profiles of software engineers and really know what they are passionate about in the development space. People often post the projects they are working on and the tech stack they are using. That said, it is not a place to saturate the developers with job postings, job opportunities, etc. If you are going to connect with a developer on GitHub, you should really understand what you are looking for and make sure you know if they are a good fit before you reach out.
Q: How can recruiters use GitHub to connect with developers?
Ilia: At Loxo we build software for recruiting professionals and we are super proud of our product. Our customers are able to engage with talent better and faster just by using our tools. Even though we are not the recruiters, we often share best practices with our customers, as my co-founder and CEO, Matt Chambers, spent 18 months in the recruiter seat during our customer discovery stage, and has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.
At Loxo, we are all about authentic connections. If you are going to reach out to tech talent using GitHub, know your job req inside and out, understand your hiring manager’s needs, and make sure that as far as you can tell, that developer is a good fit. If developers start getting saturated with requests the same way they do on LinkedIn, we could see GitHub requiring industry authentication down the road.
Rant aside, Loxo Connect™ now works directly on GitHub. With one click from our Chrome extension you can add the developer to your Loxo database. Loxo automatically creates their profile, parses their information, enriches their profile with all their other social media profiles including LinkedIn — and the best part is we also automatically add in their personal email address! Check out my profile [below] as an example:
Q: Why did Loxo integrate their Chrome extension with GitHub?
Ilia: To us it was obvious. Our technology recruiting firms are looking for new and innovative ways to connect with technology talent and they were spending a lot of time sourcing from LinkedIn, Indeed, GitHub, etc. Our widget allows our customers to source talent from these three professional profile sites so that they can connect with them faster. That’s it. No data entry. Simple searching. Fast sourcing. No other recruiting software product allows their customers to immediately pull candidate information into their database as well or as fast as we do. I am biased, but we have the best recruiting tools on the market — and none of the fad products that you are seeing in the headlines even compare to what we have built and are building.
Q: How do tech recruiters start sourcing from GitHub?
Ilia: Simple. If they are Loxo customers, they can view GitHub accounts and click “Add to Loxo” for favorable candidates. If someone isn’t a Loxo customer yet but they are looking for a modern applicant tracking system (ATS), Loxo is continuing to grow because other tools don’t compare. I encourage anyone who needs a next-gen tool, to reach out to us.
Our fearless leaders, Matt Chambers and Ilia Cheishvili, have been building Loxo for five years and 2017 will bring many exciting product releases and tools that keep them 10 steps ahead of other recruiting software tools.
If you are looking for simple, clean and modern recruiting software that automates your workflow so that you can build relationships, email support@loxo.co. Happy sourcing!