We all want to get the best value for money, for ourselves, and for our companies. Recruiting tech talent is no different. We want to be assured that we are hiring the best tech talent for our company. If I had to summarize “How to hire tech talent” in a single sentence, it would be: “Your candidates want to get the best value for themselves as well”.
Therefore, the best tech talents are mostly already employed, so recruiting them on a marketplace platform won’t work. They aren’t also interested in money nowadays. According to the 2024 Stack Overflow Survey, their main interests lie in:
- Improving the quality of code and developer environments
- Learning/using new tech
- Building environments/architecture
This is why traditional recruitment methods won’t work on them. They are outdated, take long enough, and are inefficient in a market where skilled candidates are quickly snapped up. According to a study from Deloitte, traditional recruitment often takes up to 52 days. No passive candidate has patience for this, and active candidates find it troublesome as well.
If only traditional recruitment were the problem. While writing this article, I’ve dug up some interesting data to understand more about the real challenges behind how to recruit tech talent, and I saw the bigger picture, which I will share with you right now!
Labor Shortage, Layoffs & the Trust Gap in Tech Hiring
Let’s talk about the infamous tech talent shortage. According to Qubit Labs, 96.4% of tech companies’ main challenge is finding a qualified candidate with the right skills.
IT workers aren’t buying it. They know that 5.7% of tech workers are unemployed. Tech workers see the shortage as fake news at best. At worst, they think it’s a maneuver to lower their salaries.
This shows how much distrust there is between tech workers and companies. How are you going to hire someone who distrusts you at face value?
To add salt to the wound, tech companies have a low retention rate. A Zippia’s 103K analysis shows that 45% of software developers stay around 1 to 2 years in their jobs, while a staggering 69% stay less than 2 years. It’s not like tech workers are quitting; they are being laid off, and they know it.
Big companies are reassessing priorities as they start the new year, and other companies are imitating each other’s layoffs, according to Stanford business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.
Let’s not forget about the “AI doomsday”. Recently, there was an employer who tried to lay off all his developers and use only AI to code his software. Consequently, in less than a month, everything backfired, and he had to hire developers all over again. The community’s backlash was unavoidable.
As a result, while AI won’t replace developers any time soon, it’s highly probable that Devs have to review and evaluate AI coding in the near future. AI has limitations. The more complex the code is, the more it makes AIs unreliable. As software grows, it raises complexity, therefore, it needs more Devs, not fewer, even with AI. Real Devs are the only true fix for bad AI programming.
However, this might mean more layoffs for junior and intermediate programmers. And without junior and intermediary programmers, senior devs will become more scarce in the next years.
According to Layoffs. fyi, an independent layoffs tracker, in 2024, there were more than 150,000 job cuts across 549 companies in the tech sector. Techcrunch keeps a comprehensive list of layoffs in 2025; you can check it here.
I am not here to point fingers at companies or IT workers’ complaints. Companies need highly specialized employees, and employees need safety at their jobs. I won’t choose sides. But it’s my job to tell you what is really happening, to make you understand where we are right now. This is the situation, and it affects your hiring process.
This environment demands new strategies for finding affordable, high-quality tech talent promptly. Do you have what is needed to hire the best tech talent efficiently?
Dive into the secrets of securing top-tier tech talent. We’re excited to share our proven strategies for streamlined tech talent acquisition, drawn from our extensive experience in recruiting. Uncover our best practices and tips to attract and hire the industry’s finest tech professionals effortlessly.
How to Recruit Tech Talent in 2025
Cutting straight to the chase, we’re here to guide you through the advanced strategies of a tech recruiter in securing top talent. Forget the basics, like what tech talent is and how to post your job description on job platforms; you’re beyond that.
Hiring quality improves job performance ratings by 66%, new hire satisfaction by 60%, and hiring manager satisfaction by 44%, according to a recent LinkedIn survey.
Our focus is on the art of scouting and, if necessary, headhunting elite professionals from competitive environments. Let’s delve into the tactical steps that differentiate an ordinary recruitment process from a strategic talent acquisition journey in the tech world.
1. Invest in your Employer Brand
Do you want your candidates to be top-notch? Your Employer Brand must be top-notch as well; otherwise, only the desperate will apply to your company. Your employer branding should be consistent with your company’s mission, beliefs, and culture to stand out.
Here is how you improve your brand to potential employees:
- Go to Events related to IT.
- Engage in their communities (social media, Reddit, X, etc.)
- Highlight your company culture’s positive traits.
- Take action to fix any negative traits in your company.
Is your branding unique enough? What makes your company special for recruits? Answers like “we have a solid company culture”, or “our team is agile”, or “we care a lot for our employees” say nothing to a potential candidate. Create something unique, a unique environment, a unique style.
Does your company offer a developer something of value? A big salary is not enough. You must give something else: a big challenge, career opportunities, mentorship…
2. Find them in their own environment
Stack Overflow. GitHub. Smashing Magazine. Hackerranks. GeekforGeeks. Do you know what these places have in common?
Exactly, Devs are there. In conclusion, if you want to recruit tech talent for your company, you should look for them where they dwell.
Here are other platforms where you can find your perfect match:
- Dev.to
- CodePen
- CSS-Tricks
- Medium
Do your homework and find more communities.
3. Focus on the tech talent, not only skills
It’s tempting to focus on unicorns with tons of skills in a dozen different programming languages. However, you really should make sure they have proper soft skills.
A study from HAL open science shows that lone wolves are more prone to prioritize their personal goals, experience greater stress and isolation, and are more prone to behave unethically.
Not all lone wolves, of course, are unethical. Maybe some just need a helping hand; however, they are not a good fit for a leadership position or a senior position.
4. Highlight benefits
Developers want to learn new technologies, frameworks, and programming languages. They crave companies that provide training, mentorship, and opportunities for professional development.
Does your company offer a career opportunity? Is it flexible, or are you micromanaging your employees? Do you offer interesting challenges to make developers flex their brains, or is it a boring job?
Can they grow in your company, or will they only grow tired of it?
You can’t really expect a passionate candidate to apply to your company if you don’t offer them fair compensation.
If you check the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2024, Devs want companies that offer:
- flexible work environments,
- involve them in technology decisions,
- have an open approach to technology acquisition (build and buy),
- encourage exploration and peer learning regarding new tools,
- and utilize or provide technologies (well-documented, customizable, reliable, and ideally open-source).
5. Global Hire Pool
Instead of hiring the best of your town, hire the best in the world. Prefer passive candidates who work in other countries.
Why hire just locals? They will cost you the same salary as in your country and deliver the same results; instead, look for those across the globe who will cost you less and achieve more for you.
For example, a front-end developer in the U.S. may cost around $100,000 a year. But, instead, you may hire a remote developer from another country with lower quality-of-life costs, like from Latin America. Doing so halves your expenses, and your remote employee will be happy and motivated with your $50,000 per year salary.
Imagine how it would be getting the best developers across the globe at half the cost.
6. Speak Tech Language
If you interview a tech guy without knowing their buzzwords, they will think you are just a normie trying to get the best cost-benefit developer and lose interest in the job.
To avoid it, build rapport. Learn some terms like API, Database, Library, Algorithm, and Application. Ideally, you should have a recruiter who knows tons about IT. But if you don’t have it, you may have to learn it all by yourself.
Remember that Developers are feeling distrust towards companies due to the recent layoffs; if you don’t build rapport, your future developer may escape.
Here is a glossary to help you get started.
7. Structure Hiring Process
Let’s say you are interviewing the candidate of your dreams. But you haven’t planned anything. So you ask them:
“Where do you imagine you will be five years from now?”
If it’s not obvious, that is okay, you are not from HR, but let me just tell you: Please don’t.
It shows you have no idea who you want for the job, that you will hire without a clear standard. If they believe the recruiting process is unfair, they will lose interest.
A structured hiring process is beyond the scope of this article. You may check it here to learn how to build yours from scratch.
8. Assess Practical Hard and Soft Skills
Finally, you must assess their skills. Skills come in two flavors: hard and soft.
Hard skills are technical skills. They are specific and measurable abilities, encompassing all knowledge obtained through training, education, or experience.
Soft skills are social skills. They are behavioral abilities for work and interaction with others, independent of the job. A study from Robert Half Australia discovered that 35% of all bad hiring was due to overemphasis on hard skills over soft skills.
You need a hire with both hard and soft skills. Cool, how do we assess them? You can take some inspiration from our articles about interviewing questions, like WordPress Developer Interview Questions, Android, Node.js, and Software Developer. Don’t forget about coding tests! You may wish to give them a Live Coding test or a Take-Home Challenge.
For soft skills, you can pair a Live Coding test with a Pair Programming interview. You can also ask some questions: check our article with everything about soft skills. It includes questions that reveal more about your candidate’s soft skills.
Final Thoughts on Recruiting the Best Tech Talent
To succeed in recruiting top-notch tech candidates, you need to take a strategic, well-rounded approach. Embracing modern techniques such as AI-driven tools, skills-based hiring, and specialist recruiters, while also focusing on the candidates, like understanding developer aspirations and optimizing the recruitment process for speed and efficiency, is crucial.
The balance of technology and human insight is essential in navigating the complexities of tech recruitment. In 2025 and beyond, companies that adapt to these changing dynamics, prioritize candidate experience, and leverage both global talent and advanced technologies will stand out in attracting and retaining the best tech talent. Ultimately, the goal is not just to fill positions but to build a dynamic, innovative, and committed tech team that will drive your company’s success.
If you have any lingering questions or need further clarification, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re Just a Click Away. We’ve built a reputation for matching the right tech talent with the right opportunity. We have a bank of talent looking for remote opportunities, and if we don’t have the perfect person for you? We’ll find one.
Before we send you a CV, we will have validated the technical side of an applicant’s resume, made sure they are a great fit for your company or team culture, and that they have a proven ability to work remotely. We even handle all the complex HR stuff, so you can just sit back and congratulate yourself on a decision well made. Sounds good? Book a discovery call here.
