Spend a good amount of time understanding JDs well before you get on a call with any candidate says Amit Narayan Bhagwat

I had the pleasure of interviewing Amit Narayan Bhagwat, who is an HR professional with over 20yrs  experience and a total of 25yrs industry experience. He is now an exceptional mentor at IndyWise.

HR chose him and he is very happy to belong. Over the span of 25yrs, he has recruited for almost all the technologies out there, and the skillsets, expertise, and understanding of the industry he has harnessed are truly remarkable and inspiring.

Thank you so much for joining us! 

What motivated you to choose technical recruiting as your professional career? 

Amit: Actually it is the other way round. When I was in school (1980s era) we had computers as compulsory subject sitting in AC room with best chairs for us I got fascinated & I told my parents I want to become a computer engineer however my dad wanted me to become a chemical engineer like him! When I passed by 10th std I realized I may not make a good engineer (computer or chemical, 3 idiots movie feeling, agar ban bhi gaya to bahut bura engineer banuga 😃 ) so then I took admission with a leading training institute of my time for software & hardware engineering.

After 12th I started working as a hardware engineer my friend who was already in HR spoke to me about how amazing is HR & particularly recruitment is; we had a detailed discussion & he helped me find my first HR job in 2000, I was very fortunate to be mentored by my boss & trust me I had already started liking it! So, yes, recruitment chose me & I am glad to be here in spite of seeing over 4 recessions my other friends diversifying into non-tech hiring and some have even left the recruitment industry.

What is it that excites you about tech recruiting?

Amit: Everything!

Twenty years ago technology hiring was different from today! How we did recruitment back then & how it is done today is amazing. My first placement back then was Ariba (today it is SAP Ariba) it took me 4 months to find someone on a job portal! My boss told me “client needs an Ariba candidate with 10 exp” find someone, today we have JDs and social media hiring. Yes, challenges have increased our approach to tech hiring has changed which still excites me. We were on our toes back then today we are still on our toes. Amazing!

Today we have solutions to control offer blackouts and no-shows at the interview, we use ATS systems to keep track of candidates, back then we used Excel sheets. In short, recruitment dynamics have changed technology that we hire for has changed.

What has been your biggest challenge in tech recruitment?

Amit: Always, always SAP and IBM mainframes. In the year 2000 mainframe developers were in high demand, CICS, COBOL, AS/400, and DB2 clients really wanted people to join them in 15 days & were ready to offer them a premium salary, and joining bonus. SAP is and will always be a challenge to find the best talent & most importantly with genuine experience many SAP JDs are difficult to understand but thanks to Google and SAP website most information is available.

As a manager my day-to-day work involves understanding team members sourcing challenges, and helping them understand the requirements, before I assign any new requirements to my team I make sure I have all answers for them ready if anyone comes to me with a challenge pertaining to sourcing & the position that we are hiring for.

I am firm believer recruiters should be good at sourcing & screening resumes, a manager who has grown from a recruiter would be perfect to lead the team maybe he will not get on to a job portal & search for resumes but ever in his/her career they have done sourcing by themselves it helps the team. I see very few RMs today who have done that.

We have done our sourcing & screening perfectly we line up for interviews offers get rolled out & then comes the phase of anxiety, a test of our patience when the candidate will join or will he/she join? The talent war is at its peak, engineers getting 70-80% (this could be more for some organizations) hike on their current salaries, candidates having 3-4 offers in hand & candidates are at least honest these days, 20yrs ago candidates were not honest; they had at least 7-8 offers in hand. LinkedIn, Facebook, Glassdoor, and Quora are being used to weigh which offer is best, and which company is good amongst those offers he has received, some months ago I saw on LinkedIn a poll created by a Project Manager for his relative who got 3 offers in campus & since he was not able to advice him a poll was created maybe this is justified but I was surprised.

We as managers & recruiters do our best to give candidates the best interview experience when they visit our offices, employer branding so much is done we still have not managed to find a 100% full proof plan to not have dropouts joining ratio compared with offers is still 60-65% in most organizations.

What do you think is the future of tech recruitment and what state-of-art problems do you think needs to be solved?

Amit: Awesome future. We are now recruiting for AI, ML, data science, cloud computing, and data science. I will go back to the traditional way of recruiting which we followed, meaning start publishing job adverts in Times Ascent, conduct job fairs, weekend & off campus drives at our development centers, and on social media, we are not able to connect with this talent effectively for instance on LinkedIn I can have only 30K connections my reach is restricted.

AI, ML, data science, and blockchain are relatively new technologies, engineers have specializations in these technologies hence to hire this talent organizations should approach them. Recruiters & managers need to be really good at sourcing & understanding of requirements is the key.

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?

Amit: Do your homework well, get trained & mentored by your manager, and spend a good amount of time understanding JDs well before you get on a call with any candidate. 

Working on positions that require 15+yrs experience is a different ball game it requires a tremendous understanding of JD, understanding candidate experience & maturity. Making candidates aware of client expectations is the key, if you are recruiting for any start-up educating the candidate about your client is really important, how well funded they are, what is their growth plan for the coming 5yrs, and how will they grow as an individual, there are many unicorns which candidate may not be aware off hence as a recruiter it is your job, not all candidates will have time to read the JD & company description that you send them via email. Phone communication is the best.

Be good at sourcing & screening resumes. Use of CTRL+F should be avoided for screening you may miss out on something in this bargain.

Be approachable – today’s recruiters are quick in sharing their mobile phone numbers but do not like to be called for updates after 6 PM having said that I do not mean to say you should take calls on weekends, the point here is when you share your phone number with candidates you have an obligation to take those calls at 8 PM also, hence the best solution is to not share your mobile number, official email address & landline phone is fine.

Remain empathetic, network with various candidates, and join different groups on LinkedIn.

 Start humble; spend at least 3 yrs practicing your sourcing skills even if you have an MBA. I don’t see these traits in today’s recruiters.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Amit: www.linkedin.com/in/amitnbhagwat

Thanks for joining us Amit! You are a true legend with all the meaningful and practical advice. Expertise takes time, and we are here to soak in all the knowledge instructed by you to reach there.