What makes a Good, No, a Great, Recruiter?

There was a day, not long ago, when a call from a recruiter was a welcome one to receive as a candidate. The recruiter knew your name, what you were currently doing, what you would like to do...the recruiter had taken the time "to know" you. For a company needing to hire quality talent, the same held true. You welcomed the assistance of the professional recruiting companies.

Cut to 2015...there are exponentially more recruiters. And like sharks swimming in the ocean, the recruiters are all vying for the same pieces of chum. It's like a reverse game of musical chairs, where there is a growing number of seats available with fewer and fewer candidates to fill them. For a lot of you, this has made receiving a call from a recruiter now a lot like getting a call from a telemarketer, just as impersonal and almost as pleasant.

According to Fast Company in 2014,  “The supply of tech talent cannot keep up with demand. This has been a reality in [Silicon] Valley for quite some time, as U.S. Immigration policies combined with declining rates of STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering & Math) graduates in the U.S. has left an extremely short talent supply not meeting demand.”

Now, you might be wondering, doesn't the writer work with a recruiting and staffing company? Well, yes, I do. But for me, there's a big difference in the Cazton's process and how other companies work.

The Cazton difference:

• How we find our talent:  All of our people come to Cazton through our private network, and all of our recruiters are technical and trained developers themselves. We are focused primarily on developers, architects and C-level placements, but work with other titles as well. None of our candidates are found on job boards.

• Our bench of qualified talent:  Cazton is constantly and consistently pre-screening, screening and training to meet or exceed the clients' ever changing needs.
  • As an example, in the interview process for a Salesforce developer or a Salesforce expert and to find the precisely right candidate for our client, we performed a live integration test. Any sort of developer be it .NET dev, JAVA, UI, API, NOTE.JS, PYTHON, Big Data, etc., have to go through a 1-hour coding test. About 20-30% candidates make it through this round.

• We take the time:  The key to Cazton’s success is that we take deliberate time to find the two to three people who are pre-qualified to meet and exceed the qualifications for a positions and then present them to a client via video prior to a live interview-by doing so, we saved the client time and money by doing all of the legwork and screening for them.

• Cazton is exposed to the best of the best:  Our CEO, Chander Dhall, speaks at conferences all over the world, like DevConnections.com, SDDconf.com, TechED and others. He meets all of the people who go to see and hear him speak, those who are working on the top projects and in the top technologies. Because of this, we have our thumb on the pulse of the projects that are occurring and upcoming, and the ears of the top developers with the ability to continually expand their skillsets.

• Training, education, communication, and more training: We are continually educating, upgrading and expanding the knowledge base of our talent team to insure they are up to date on all the latest and greatest technologies and languages to meet the ever-changing needs of our clients.

What truly sets Cazton apart from others is that Cazton  takes the time to know our candidates, what they are looking for in a consulting or long term position - as well as their individual strengths and goals. At the same time, Cazton takes the time to know the client, their current needs and future plans. By coordinating both our client and candidate’s needs - and by taking the time to coordinate these two paths, Cazton can find long-term success for both.

This is what makes a great recruiting company - a company who is focused on being a member of your team who brings together the best minds to create the best product for the best value. That’s what the people at Cazton will do for you.

Stephanie Shindler
Ex-Executive Director at Iasa Global