Recruiting: A Targeted Search
Casting a wide net with targeted intent is our approach when tasked with finding a specialized skillsetThe Challenge
One of Looi Consulting’s clients had a difficult position to fill, a Senior VoIP Engineer. The company is based on the West Coast, but has workers throughout the Americas, so it wanted to maintain time zone proximity. That meant nearshore. Naturally, they came to Looi Consulting for its experience and expertise in finding specialized talent in a vast geography, stretching from Central America to Patagonia.
The role entailed building Cloud fax solutions, rather than voice telephony. Job responsibilities included:
- Develop eFax applications and maintain existing applications.
- Create utilities to aid testing & diagnosing issues.
- Keep abreast of the latest security vulnerabilities, and develop with security top of mind.
Skills needed were:
- Knowledge of voice protocols including SIP, RTP.
- Experience with RTC open source projects (e.g. FreeSWITCH, Kamailio, Asterisk, Janus, openSIPs, etc).
- 5+ years with NodeJS, JavaScript, Java or similar.
- 3+ AWS experience building and deploying apps.
- Fluent in Git and modern development methods.
Having worked with Looi Consulting for many years, the company immediately came to us for help in filling the position, which had thwarted earlier efforts.
The Approach
Looi Consulting analyzed the requirements, interviewed the hiring manager, and proposed a detailed job description, tailored to the needs of the role. We added or edited requirements that were not important or likely to rule out qualified applicants. As candidates were sourced and we received feedback from both candidates and interviewers, we would revise and propose changes to the job requirements or clarifications on the responsibilities. These modifications often helped the company understand its needs better and accelerated the search.
Collaboration requirements pointed to a nearshore location, in Latin America. The most developed markets for software talent are Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and to a lesser extent Central America. Since most development teams favor Agile-like development methodologies, online meetings are frequent and serve as a main source for communicating project requirements, status, and resolving issues. So proficiency in business English, both written and spoken, is essential.
Looi Consulting’s recruiters used a mix of passive and active methods to find candidates. Within a few weeks, our team of seasoned recruiters:
- Considered 1066 prospects
- Rejected 1144
- Reached out to 512
- Engaged 158
- Reviewed 50
- Presented to client 0
Despite hundreds of hours of effort, no candidates emerged.
The Solution
Looi Consulting reexamined the requirements and dove deeper into its pool of candidates. We increased our engagement with the initial candidates and developed further leads from them. For example, some prospects might not be interested in a new role at the time of contact, but had friends or colleagues who might. Also, once a particular organization was known to do a certain type of engineering, we could target other staff in it for interest in an exciting new opportunity.
We build on the relationship and keep track of their skills, experience, interests for future reference. We view recruiting as a long term process that requires patience, a very deep and wide pipeline, and constant active listening to clients and workers. We also received critical feedback from hiring managers and were able to adjust our search criteria to yield more promising candidates.
Timeline
Over another few weeks, we found several engineers who were a better fit for the role, screened them carefully for technical skills and team work, then prepared them for the interview with the client. Candidate preparation is important since most technical staff rarely look for new jobs and are often unable to articulate their own capabilities without some help, especially in a foreign language. We help them showcase their true talents to assist in making the match!
Candidates Considered
Rejected
Reached Out
Engaged
Tracked and Screened
Presented to Client
Hired!
Senior VoIP Engineer Hired
A talented VoIP engineer who met the requirements and even exceed some was successfully found.
Onboarded In 3 Weeks
We were conducted the due diligence process consisting of employment verification, security background checks, and other activities, without difficulty.
Results Were Remarkable
The company had a tough role to fill, limited budget, and short timeline: how could they find a VoIP engineer in a vast continent where they had no recruiting assets, had no network, and didn’t speak the main languages? Looi Consulting stepped up to the task and over a period of 6 weeks presented several strong options for the company. The company selected one and is now on the way to building its staff with more nearshore engineers.
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