The Talent Profile, And How To Use It

 

Picture this…

You go to the zoo and decide to watch the snakes get fed. When you stroll up to the exhibit, there’s a guy there sweating profusely while trying to entice a boa constrictor to eat a pineapple – that’s odd!

Later you find out that the guy with the pineapple isn’t a herpetologist, in fact he’s not even a biologist. He’s a java developer! Well, now we can understand why he may have thought that a pineapple would be something that a snake would eat, instead of a rat or mouse. What was he doing trying to feed that snake?

The question above, what was he doing trying to feed a snake?, sounds like it’s addressing something that is very obviously wrong with the scenario that was described. Most people would guess that a java developer should not be placed in a job that requires someone of a completely different skill set, right? Maybe that’s the case in the scenario described above, but for skill sets that are closely tied yet different, the understanding of who belongs in which role can be a little confusing, especially when a recruiter that is not doing the role themselves has to find candidates to fill the job.

This is where Talent Profiles come into play. I’ll explain more below.

Let’s use the example of a java developer again. What is a java developer? How does that differ from an Android Developer? Here are some core skills that entry-level talent in these professions would need.

Entry-level Java Developer:

• Java
• Java EE components
• Java Web frameworks
• ORM
• Java Build Tools (Hibernate, Gradle, JPA, etc)
• Java application containers
• Java testing tools
• IoC frameworks
• 3rd party libraries
• XML and/or HTML
• SQL

Entry-level Android Developer:

• Java
• XML
• Git
• Android SDK
• Android Studio
• SQL
• 3rd party libraries

There are similarities and there are differences. Both developers use Java as a core language but have differing skills based on the environments that they work in and the products that they work on. Similar, but not the same. Now, with enough practice either of these candidates should be able to pick up the skills of the other since they have a foundation based on Java, but when you need to fill a requisition that has a very particular ask, it’s important to hone in on the skills and experience that will get this person the job.

Now that both the core and specific requirements are understood, an accurate profile can be drawn up that will ensure that the recruiter/sourcer finding talent for the requisition is able to distinguish which of the thousands of potential candidates in the marketplace could actually be a good fit for the opening.

A recruiter or sourcer can use this method for ANY role that they need to locate talent for. Do your research! Always have a game plan and develop a template around what a good candidate should look like. If you follow this way of thinking, even the hardest openings will be filled.

Good luck!