Advice from recruiters who know what actually works!
Trying to hire great IT talent right now can feel like trying to buy a ticket to a concert that sold out before you even heard about it.
Skilled developers, cloud engineers, and data pros aren’t browsing job boards. They’re working. They’re being messaged constantly. They have options. So, if your job description reads like a legal document, or if your hiring process takes three weeks and five interviews to make a decision, you’ve already lost them.
Here’s how to stay in the game—and actually win—according to recruiters who spend their days talking to (and hearing from) the talent you’re trying to reach.
1. Cut the Fluff. Say What You Really Want.
Amy Miller, a technical recruiter with years inside companies like Microsoft and Amazon, says too many job postings try to be everything to everyone. “Don’t list every tool under the sun,” she advises. “Focus on what your new hire will actually do.”
Candidates want clarity, not a bunch of buzzwords. Be specific about the stack, the problems they’ll solve, and how success is measured. Cut the “rock star/ninja” nonsense. Replace it with:
- What you need them to build or fix
- What tools and environments they’ll be working in
- How their work will matter
2. Stop Ghosting Candidates
Bonnie Dilber, a recruiter known for her ultra-transparent career advice on LinkedIn, regularly calls out hiring teams that lose top candidates because they’re “still waiting on feedback” or “revisiting the budget.” If you’re serious about hiring, act like it.
That means:
- Responding to applicants within a few days
- Keeping interviews timely and relevant
- Giving updates—even if the update is “there’s no update yet”
Radio silence is how you lose great candidates to a faster-moving competitor.
3. Make the Interview Useful for Both Sides
IT pros are tired of arbitrary whiteboard exercises and vague “culture fit” questions. Instead, give them real-world problems to solve or code samples to review. Let them showcase how they think, not just whether they memorized algorithm trivia.
Better yet? Let them talk to the people they’d actually be working with. Not just the hiring manager—the team. That gives them context, and gives you a clearer read on how they’ll fit in technically and interpersonally.
4. Flexibility > Foosball
Remote or hybrid flexibility isn’t a perk anymore—it’s the baseline. If your company insists on five days in-office “for collaboration,” expect to explain what that collaboration actually looks like.
Want to stand out? Offer:
- Remote-first policies
- Async-friendly work environments
- Clear expectations around availability and autonomy
Developers, engineers, and IT professionals care about solving problems, not sitting in traffic.
5. Retain Like You Mean It
Getting them in the door is only half the game. Retention starts on day one.
If you want to keep your IT team:
- Pay market (or above-market) rates
- Offer learning and growth opportunities
- Give them real problems to solve, not constant firefighting
And listen. Regular 1:1s. Feedback loops. Career path conversations. The IT talent you worked so hard to find and hire won’t stay if they feel stagnant, ignored, or micromanaged.
6. Build a Reputation Worth Responding To
If candidates aren’t responding to your outreach, maybe it’s not them. Maybe it’s you.
Look at your company’s online presence through a job seeker’s eyes. Is your engineering team visible? Do they blog, speak at meetups, or share open-source work? Does your career page highlight actual people doing interesting things, or is it just corporate stock photos and generic platitudes?
Recruiters like Amy and Bonnie will tell you: your brand matters. Make your team’s work discoverable and your culture believable.
Final Thought
You don’t need to outspend the competition. But you do need to out-think them.
Be clear. Be fast. Be human. Offer real flexibility. Let your team and your mission speak for themselves and ditch the old-school hiring playbook.
In a market this competitive, hiring isn’t about filling a seat. It’s about creating an environment that smart people want to be a part of.
Want help finding in-demand tech pros? Let’s talk—we know how to connect you with people who build what matters.
