Technical Recruiter interview questions and answers

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Technical Recruiter Interview Questions

Technical Recruiters source, interview and evaluate candidates for IT positions. They’re also responsible for posting job ads on technical sites and networking with potential candidates.

Candidates for this role usually have an HR or an IT background. Candidates with an HR background should have a good understanding of technical terms and positions. Ask pointed questions to determine whether they can tell the differences between IT positions and to learn how familiar they are with tech platforms (e.g. Github and StackOverflow.) Candidates with an IT background should have training in interviewing techniques or relevant work experience.

Tailor these questions to your hiring needs. Look for candidates with technical expertise, especially if you need them to assess potential hires’ qualifications and assignments. If your Technical Recruiter position involves attending events and/or hosting meetups, evaluate candidates’ networking skills and select those who can build your company’s employer brand. For fast-growing engineering teams, it’s best to hire someone who’s organized, efficient and can multi-task.

Operational and Situational questions

• Mention two-three common buzzwords you come across in technical job descriptions. What phrases would you use instead?
• What questions would you ask a hiring manager to learn about the requirements for an open role within their department?
• If we wanted to double our engineering team’s size in X months, which sourcing methods would you use?
• If a candidate declined your job offer one day before their start date and your runner-up candidate wasn’t as qualified for the role, what would you do?

Role-specific questions

• How is technical recruiting different from recruiting for non-technical roles?
• Do you participate in tech forums to source candidates? If so, which ones?
• How do you prepare before conducting a technical interview?
• Which roles have you found the hardest to fill and why?

Behavioral questions

• Describe a time when you struggled to collaborate with a hiring manager. What difficulties did you face and how did you overcome them?
• Mention a time when your proactive candidate sourcing helped reduce time-to-fill.
• How do you contact potential candidates you source on LinkedIn? How many times do you follow up if they don’t respond to your initial outreach?
• Explain how your networking skills ( online or offline) help you build pipelines of potential candidates.