Do you dream of a job where you can develop your recruitment skills, but you still haven’t got long-term professional experience? Or maybe you already have experience in Recruitment, but you want to enter the IT industry like a pro?
Start your career path in Recruitment by Sourcing and become a Researcher!
For several years, the position of Researcher has been one of the most desirable in companies recruiting large numbers of candidates. Especially, in the most demanding industries, like in the Hi-Tech or IT, where most often the employers are looking for employees, not the other way round.
Who is the Researcher?
Let’s start from the beginning. We live in a very turbulent and dynamic environment. The labor market is evolving year by year, becoming more and more difficult and demanding. The time when employers dictated conditions to employees and fully responded to the shape of recruitment processes has long passed, especially in such a desirable industry as IT. Candidates are now in great demand by companies looking for talents. It also influences enormous competition and the scale of resignation.
It is therefore not surprising that recruiters focus more and more on catching talent from the market, using various sourcing and headhunting techniques.
Due to the complexity of the processes and the number of responsibilities, the sourcing and the first contacts with candidates are assigned to the Researchers. So that, after the initial selection, the next stages are moving to the Recruiters.
What does the Researcher do on a daily basis?
The researcher’s work is based on daily contact with dozens or even hundreds of people whom the researcher wants to involve in the particular recruitment process. Of course, the researcher’s first tasks are: thoroughly examine the job profile for which he/she is looking for candidates, verify the skills that the appropriate candidate should have, and then contact the people who best match the profile. A Researcher is also a person, who matches careers with opportunities, search the best job for the candidate, predicts his/her career path, and becomes a candidate’s partner in changing theirs career journey.
In everyday work, the Researcher spends most of the time on popular social networking platforms, such as Linkedin, Facebook, Stackoverflow, using various sourcing techniques – Boolean search, Direct search, or X-ray search.
Because Researchers are an indispensable part of recruitment teams, the knowledge of HR, psychology, and management issues is a big plus. However, this is not a requirement! Don’t worry in case you are not HR graduate or don’t have professional experience in IT or sourcing at all. These are things you can easily learn, using the knowledge of an experienced Team.
What are the requirements to become a Researcher?
At NATEK, we have a big team of people working in the position of Researcher. Most of the NATEK Researchers are people with a sales background, but also people during or after graduating in psychology or law.
More important than education is the attitude towards work and certain character traits.
„To become a good Researcher, you have to be, first of all, open to new acquaintances. You have to be sociable and above all meticulous” – says Adrianna Jankowska, IT Researcher at NATEK, who successfully finds the greatest talents in CEE.
What other character traits should a Researcher have?
What helps Researcher stand out from the crowd is great curiosity and investigative mindset. The researcher is a person who conducts an “investigation”, but doesn’t solve a criminal puzzle, just tries to find the best talents on the market. Sales skills and creativity will also be useful here.
Judit Galceran (IT Researcher at NATEK), points out “You must not be afraid of contact with people. In this case, patience and persistence are also important, which will come in handy while waiting for a response from the candidate. Being an open person who loves contact with people guarantees success in this position”.
Adrianna and Judit support NATEK recruitment team and are responsible for acquiring the best talents in the IT industry for NATEK partners.
How did their adventure with sourcing start?
“I’ve decided to become a Researcher 3 years ago. Why? It’s the best way to develop my skills in IT recruitment topics. I have always known that my career path will be towards recruitment and now I am on the final straight” – confirms Adrianna Jankowska. In the case of Judit, after finishing her studies with Labor Law & HR, she decided that she would prefer to work with people than deal with law, which is why she decided to develop a career in recruitment.
What do I like the most about being a researcher? Judit and Adrianna think the same way – „We have constant contact with new people, make new connections, and can learn new issues related to the positions for which we’re looking for candidates. Moreover, we can work from any place in the world, being in touch with people from many nationalities”.
As you can see, working as a Researcher will help you to develop your career in recruitment, learn new issues related to the industry you’re working on, and also have a great chance to expand your contact network.
Working as a Researcher can be performed from anywhere in the world, as long as you have access to a computer and the Internet. Many companies also offer the position of Researcher to people who are just starting their professional career or want to combine work and studies.
