To help with this, HR Technical Advisors (HR TA) offer invaluable support to the HR department on many levels, guaranteeing proper technical staffing and overall strong business development. A good Technical Advisor can help recruiters find experienced specialists and strengthen employer branding activities. Here’s how this role (usually reserved for seasoned developers) helps build a strong software house.

Fortifying the HR Department

HR Technical Advisors assist the Human Resources department with the technical aspects of the recruitment process. They are responsible for:

• specifying the technical requirements within a job posting
• creating and updating recruitment questions and interview topics
• providing and administering test-based recruitment tasks 
• assisting during the interview process

The Road to Awesomeness

At Polcode, any seasoned developer can become a Technical Advisor in three ways:

• their own initiative, indicating an interest to become an HR TA
• the project manager’s initiative, who notices suitable qualities and personality traits of an HR TA
• an invitation directly from an HR recruiter

However, there’s a small yet important detail. The future successful cooperation between HR recruiter and HR Technical Assistant depends entirely on how they get along. After all, these people need to be in sync during the interview process, as to not confuse or leave a bad impression on the candidate.

“There has to be chemistry. When both the recruiter and the Technical Advisor work well together or share the same mindset, finding the right IT specialist is more effective,” says Olga Kwiatos, HR Specialist at Polcode. “And a lot more fun,” she adds.

“The cooperation should be based on communication and agreement that we work toward the same goal—to guarantee the best possible development path for the company by providing suitable candidates,” adds Bartosz Tyborowski, HR TA for Magento at Polcode.

The HR Technical Advisor’s Skills

HR TAs are also jokingly referred to as “Totally Awesome” at Polcode. That’s because an HR TA should possess numerous impressive skills. The absolute must-haves include years-long experience in the field and broad technical skills. Such a demanding experience stack guarantees that the technical part of the interview will validate the candidates’ knowledge as accurately as possible.

We also consider the extent of knowledge of industry and market trends. Technical Advisors have to be up to date with the latest news, changes, and publications devoted to software development.

Knowing the company itself is also an important asset. The Technical Advisor, even when supported by the partnering recruiter, has to know who exactly to look for. Then the HR TA has to be able to determine if a particular candidate will handle projects well and meet the expectations of their managers and the company.

Last, but not least, we consider personality. Discretion, soft skills and ease of communication are crucial character traits for candidates for HR Technical Advisors. Since the HR TA is a very responsible position, discretion is essentially the first trait recruiters look for in a potential candidate.

Here are some soft skills that guarantee a well carried out technical interview:

• precision in communication
• ability to communicate freely
• a sense of humor

Making Candidates Feel At Ease

Technical Advisors, aside from verifying the candidate’s skills, are also an excellent source of information for people applying for a particular position. The candidates certainly shouldn’t fear the interview with an HR TA. In fact, the interview is good news for the candidates because it’s their opportunity to talk in detail with a developer about projects and tools we use at Polcode.

Questions To Expect During an Interview

Bartosz Tyborowski offers great advice on the kind of questions the candidates should expect during an interview. “We definitely want to ask the ones that go beyond the candidate’s current knowledge base, especially when we’re talking about recruitment for a position (other than senior level). Determining the level of knowledge during a short interview is a challenge, and juggling with questions of varying difficulty helps to identify the candidate’s skills rather quickly. Aside from the questions strictly devoted to programming, (e.g. what a particular function does) there are also questions about specific problems that encourage candidates to share their thought process and approach to problem analysis.”

Teamwork To Find the Right Candidate

The IT job market requires a specific set of skills from the recruiters. Without the aid of HR Technical Advisors, it would be difficult for the HR recruiters alone to accurately verify a candidate’s in-depth knowledge and experience.

The candidates that match the employee profile allow project managers to build optimum software development teams. This, in turn, helps satisfy business needs of our clients.

When working together, HR specialists and Technical Advisors ensure that each hired candidate creates a win-win situation: The candidates have the ability to evolve, and their work guarantees steady business growth for the company.