Knowledge is power in the IT skills market

It’s hardly surprising that demand for IT security professionals is soaring. Last year alone saw some of the biggest hacks into household names, including children’s technology manufacturer VTech, which left thousands of photos of adults and kids vulnerable, and a huge breach at the US government’s Office of Personnel Management that led to the theft of data of 22 million current and former federal employees. Most famous of all was the hack on dating site Ashley Madison, which threatened to expose the names and credit card details of people who were using the site to cheat on their spouses.

But a new study from the popular developer network Stack Overflow suggests that the recruitment process may be putting some top talent off moving roles not just in security, but in tech development in general. It found that 51% of UK developers thought recruiters were the most annoying part of the job search process, pointing to their lack of knowledge about the industry. Other bugbears included getting time off work to attend interviews.

So as well as learning more about what employers are really looking for, and acquiring knowledge about the different and quite specific skills that developers have to offer, what else can recruiters do to support developers into all of those new roles? They could arm themselves with knowledge about what candidates look for when comparing roles. Stack Overflow found that 63% of developers thought salary was most important, although over half (53%) prioritised work-life balance. A good portion, 43%, said that company culture was a key factor in them choosing an employer. Location was also important for 40% of candidates, the survey found.

The recruitment industry could also arguably do more to rebalance the gender spread in IT – the sector is still dominated by men, with only 5.5% of respondents to the survey female. However, many are just at the start of their careers: almost a quarter of female respondents had less than two years’ IT/programming experience, compared to just 12 percent of male respondents.

What all this does show is that knowledge is power in this fast-moving recruitment market. Know who your candidates are, know exactly what their skills are and why they are needed, and know about the female talent coming through the pipeline. That’s the only way to overcome the tech talent skills shortage.