I had the pleasure of interviewing Ruucha Bhave, Manager, Talent Acquisition at MetaMap. She is an innovative Talent Acquisition professional with a positive attitude, a strong work ethic, and someone who fully understands the importance of strategic hiring and its effect on the business.
With an MS in HRM, having earned an industrial scholarship as well, and backed up by more than eight years of HR and Recruitment experience, she is currently part of an energetic Talent team at MetaMap to help with the company’s rapid growth while maintaining a great culture. Providing incredible candidate engagement and building effective hiring manager partnerships are a few of her strongest strengths.
When she is not recruiting, she is probably planning her next travel with family or rehearsing for her upcoming Kathak dance performances ✈️💃🏻
Thank you so much for joining us!
What motivated you to choose technical recruiting as your professional career?
Ruucha: I was and am still heavily passionate about Human Resources. My first professional job after completing my MBA was working as a Recruiting Intern for a top Financial services company in India. I was lucky to work with great recruiters who became my most significant mentors, leading me to choose Recruitment as my focus.
When I moved to the Bay Area, California – the prime tech hub I was always in the company of IT professionals, including my husband 🙂 Curiosity about new technologies and understanding the brain behind the products that we all use daily led me to pursue this domain.
What is it that excites you about tech recruiting?
Ruucha: Being a Tech Recruiter, the profession allows you to deep dive into the engineering world where the products/software/ applications are built by the talent that you help these companies attract. Interaction with Hiring Managers and tech experts gives us a peek at their vision.
Excitement for me is experiencing the impact of one of your hires becoming the reason that products like Google, Instagram, etc., are bringing the world closer.
What has been your biggest challenge in tech recruitment?
Ruucha: Sometimes, Tech Recruiters are challenged with their limited technical knowledge and hands-on experience, which is not comparable to the top engineering talent. But, then this challenge could be leveraged as a topic of communication.
As a recruiter, we need to be good listeners and be able to tap the candidate’s passion. Recruiters should be equipped with the right approach to get Techies to open up and build a strong partnership.
What do you think is the future of tech recruitment, and what state-of-art problems do you think need to be solved?
Ruucha: I have been in Recruitment since 2008 and have worked in both staffing and in-house environment, Tech, G&A, and Leadership hiring, all at the International level. I have seen different hiring markets that tend to evolve at least every six months.
Even in the days of market vulnerability, companies will continue to build new products and design advanced technologies. They will need Recruiting experts to bring in those undiscovered talents on board to help companies achieve their dream. There may be some slow phases, but Tech recruitment will be nurtured for the long run, as long as technology lasts.
Like any other profession, Recruitment needs a lot of investment, from Compensation budgets to employer branding to leadership participation and complete autonomy to contribute toward strategic decisions. However, keeping a close eye on these issues will lead to a successful and long-lasting function.
If you had to share “words of wisdom” with a tech recruiter who’s about to start their journey in tech recruitment, what would they be?
Ruucha: Invest in your candidates that will lead to a strong network. Today you are hiring this tech talent, and tomorrow, they will be in a leadership position to hire more.
Stay updated with the technologies to keep open and transparent communication between hiring managers and candidates.
Bring the human side to the recruitment process, and develop a strong candidate experience that will give you an edge over other recruiters.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Ruucha: If you are interested in MetaMap’s opportunities or would like to connect in the future, I’d love to hear from you -> LinkedIn and Instagram
Thanks for joining us, Ruucha! Your innate need for diving deep into tech no matter what is a characteristic of resilience. It is because of technical recruiters like you that companies can hire talented techies worldwide.
