How tech recruiting used to look compared to today

tech recruiting

Tech roles and the process of filling them in with capable people looked very different decades ago. What was once a standard recruiting strategy is missing by a long-shot nowadays.

Education

Computers were quite rare in the 60s, therefore students in technology-oriented schools were having a hard time learning and practicing coding. Not to mention that there weren’t many software-concerned programs of study in which case companies in need of programmers had to fish among art or math students and train them on the spot.

The 80s brought a bit of change with learning institutions focusing on producing potential software developers.

But on came the 2000s and engineering become sought after. Students were aiming towards tech jobs and gave rise to competing grounds. Fast-forward to present days and university studies in technology fields become somewhat redundant since everyone has access to informal education and online resources. Self-taught developers are no surprise today!

The widespread effect of coding projects

Back in the 60s software production gravitates around making business easier and more productive. The demand was from companies and institutions, not so much from the common folk. Development was about transactions, data processing, time-sharing systems or digital storage ones.

Here come the 80s and the computer makes its way into people’s homes. Software engineering is now in the loop of the average citizen who wants to program their daily lives more efficiently – meetings, schedules, events, office networks and so on.

And then the WWW is born and software is an infinite source of possibilities. Now, no matter what your product is, if you own a business you need software and your need tech people.

Recruiting

Remember newspaper job posts or banners on the side of the road or flying tailed to a plane!? If your answer is no, you are too young. This was the trend in the 60s, to hunt in a basic, non-strategic manner. The recruiters didn’t even bother to sort candidates or learn about them because they simply asked around tech offices to see who’s available or interested.

The change was not consistent since the 80s were pretty much approaching the recruitment process in a similar way. Headhunters were used to look for suitable candidates and try to place them where needed.

The 2000s started shaping a niche with tech positions looking for expertise, experience, and skill. Those aiming for such positions had to work on their resume and actively seek employment. At the other end of the tunnel, the companies continued to outsource the talent hunting process. Recruiting agencies though, were in a rush to fill in jobs and get their commission and it didn’t matter much if the candidate was happy or not.

People started to promote their own interests and became pickier about jobs. The daily calls with random offers made them see that the market needs their talent. Which led to today’s recruiting scene.

Nowadays, hunters need to know where to look, how to approach potential candidates, how to make their interests and goals a part of the job appeal and juggle with requirements and benefits.