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Spend A Day With: A Tech Recruiter

Spend A Day With: A Tech Recruiter

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Ruehie Jaiya Karri
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December 8, 2022
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7 min read
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In a mythical land far, far away…

Tech recruiters and talent acquisition specialists have been rumored to live in harmony with unicorns and purple squirrels. In this magical world of recruiting, a typical day looks something like this:

10.00 A.M. – Recruiters open their emails, check for job requirements and post one little job posting.

11.00 A.M. – Computers audibly shaking, you can hear the whir of thousands of applications pouring in!

Noon – You present the perfect candidate for the vacant role, gift-wrapped to your hiring manager.

Oh well, that was a good dream while it lasted! As seen above, there are plenty of misconceptions floating around about tech recruiters and how they should be able to rub a lamp, make a genie appear, and solve all the hiring problems in the world.

The actual reality looks something like a Taylor Swift song—sleepless nights, fear of not closing open roles under tight deadlines, and wistfully wishing for this magical land of recruiting to be a real one, with lyrics that go:

3 a.m. and I’m still awake, I’ll bet you’re just fine

Fast asleep in your city that’s better than mine

Recruiting teams have their work cut out for them and no two tech recruiters ever had the same journey in their career path. We’ve gone around and spoken to our internal recruiting team in depth to understand what their day looks like and what happens at each stage of the hiring lifecycle. Hop on, let us take you for an intriguing ride!

A special shoutout to our Talent Acquisition Manager, Preethi Saakre for all the insider information that shaped this blog and allowed us to go into great detail about the workings of a recruiting team!

Preethi's Linkedin Profile

Behind the scenes of a recruiting team in an organization

Although the overall structure of a hiring process remains the same, there can be slight changes when you are hiring at scale, conducting walk-in interviews, or looking to fill a small number of positions with 2 or 3 candidates. In this article, let’s take a look at hiring for a small number of roles.

Set the tone for the day

The first task on the agenda for the day is to check our email. Get an understanding of what roles are vacant from our hiring managers. And then set up meetings.

While we usually receive emails on open job roles, and top-level requirements to hire for these roles, we do have an in-depth discussion with our hiring manager. Such calibration meetings clarify important information like:

  • A debrief of the job role we’re hiring for
  • What does the ideal candidate look like for this role?
  • What are the must-have skills and good-to-have skills?
  • What tech stacks are we looking for?
  • How many rounds of interviews do we conduct?

This will greatly help you to create accurate job descriptions and attract the right candidates for your open positions.

In a nutshell, coffee with a side of meetings!

Plan tasks and responsibilities

After our morning meeting, we spend some time answering emails, following up with candidates, and filling out paperwork. Now that we clearly understand for whom we’re hiring, we prioritize our tasks for the day, see which roles have tighter deadlines, and get to work!

Ad hoc responsibilities of a tech recruiter in a day

Carry out market mapping for open roles

Armed with the requirements from the hiring manager, we begin to gauge the talent pool available in the market to see how many candidates would fit our industry-specific requirements. We do market mapping where we check for details that have been aggregated from several job boards like:

  • Compensation range
  • Years of experience
  • The geographic location of the candidate pool
  • Expected notice period
  • Diversity of the candidate pool

While all this information is available on LinkedIn, filtering for diverse candidates is only possible on Naukri RMS. This is where you need to make the most of the Google search engine. Hiring for rather niche positions or specific skill sets calls for using boolean search strings and site-wide X-ray search capabilities for highly customized results.

Once you are aware of the kind of talent pool available for your particular open role, we need to go back to the hiring manager to let them know. Post receiving their approval to go ahead, start with sourcing and contacting qualified candidates.

Focus on inbound applications

Now that it’s settled resumes don’t fall out of the sky, let’s see how we go about getting candidates to send their resumes in.

The first thing to do is to distribute the job posting for the vacant position on all job boards. If you are using an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Trakstar, Zoho Recruit, and so on, most job boards would already be integrated with it, making it simple for you to market your job postings.

The candidates that apply through this outreach are tagged as inbound applications. Inbound recruiting relies heavily on your ability to attract candidates—meaning job postings need to be clear and concise, employer branding should be on point, and career sites have to be user-friendly. Prospective candidates need to be excited about working for your company!

Also read: 5-Step Guide To Gender-Fluid Tech Job Descriptions (+Free Checklist)

Source suitable candidates through outbound outreach

The second phase of sourcing for candidates is outbound hiring. This is where you search for and contact all active candidates (those currently looking for a job) on the available job boards like Indeed, Monster, and Glassdoor.

You can also use the InMail feature on LinkedIn or tap into Naukri RMS to source high-quality candidates.

Next, we focus on connecting with passive candidates. Especially when you are hiring for niche tech roles, passive talent would be a good bet. GitHub and StackOverflow are hotbeds of tech talent—you can see projects developers have worked on, languages and frameworks they are interested in, and so on.

This is a crucial step to getting closer to finding that elusive unicorn candidate, who you know will be just the right fit for the open role! A recent LinkedIn report shows that 62% of talent teams find more high-quality candidates through sourcing than inbound applications.

Also read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring

Screen incoming resumes

All the inbound applications are captured on our ATS where every candidate’s data is parsed automatically from their resumes so it’s easy for you to go through it.

If we are hiring for generic tech roles, for instance, a software engineer with 0-1 years of experience, we directly send a screening test to the candidates. We check whether they have cleared the coding assessment or not and shortlist them accordingly. Then their profile is forwarded to the hiring manager.

For certain roles that can be tough to assess like front-end roles, even if the candidates have not entirely cleared the test, we forward the results to the hiring manager. They would further check for the candidate’s thought process and logic used while attempting to solve the problem before either shortlisting them or rejecting them.

Schedule interviews for shortlisted candidates

As discussed in the calibration meeting mentioned above, the number of interview rounds is already decided. All that remains is to set up interviews between the candidates and the hiring managers. If the candidates are mid-senior level developers or tech leads then their next round of interviews would be with the CTO and the CEO, accordingly.

For those who have been selected in these rounds, we next set up a meeting with our HR team to assess the candidates for culture fit.

This would be the last round of interviews. Post this, we begin discussing the compensation, perks, and benefits with the shortlisted candidates.

Sidebar:

Most recruiters would share a common journey up until this point in the hiring process. We carry out supporting tasks for all the above steps, in some capacity every single day.

Roll out the offer letter

Once the salary negotiation discussions are wrapped up, it is time to send the official offer letter to the candidates who made the cut. While this is an exciting part of the recruiting process, as we know, a recruiter cannot rest easy until— “Good hiring doesn’t end with finding the right person. It ends when the right person starts working for you!” – By anonymous

But not just yet. We have to do our due diligence first to ensure we’ve vetted the candidate thoroughly:

  • Complete required background checks
  • Call references and talk to the candidate’s previous managers

Getting verbal acceptance from your candidate before sending out the letter can increase the chances of them signing on the dotted line.

And then, **drum roll please!**

Drum roll

We roll out the offer letter to our candidate.

Nurture candidates to improve candidate engagement

Once the candidate accepts the offer letter and you are certain they will be joining the company, then proceed with your candidate engagement practices. We set up a buddy for them who will be able to familiarize them with the team after they join. We encourage the new hires to come to the office so they can meet different teams, understand how things work, and get a basic idea of their roles and responsibilities.

This helps make the “dreaded first day” easy for the candidate since they already know what to expect and whom to reach out to in case they are stuck.

Time for onboarding

A general practice for talent acquisition teams is to connect the selected candidates with the onboarding team, 10 days prior to their joining the company. This ensures the candidates have a smooth transition and have everything they need for the first day, including their laptop, email access, and other things.

To welcome your candidates and make them feel like they belong right from the start, send them company merchandise, goodies, and swag that they can use.

Also read: Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

To understand a recruiter’s job in a nutshell, here are 7 things that the recruiting team at HackerEarth carries out on a daily basis!

No magic potion, just plain hard work

Well, we tried to bust as many myths as possible about recruiters and tech recruiting in general. The bottom line, our job is to match the best person to the role and hiring manager—we are the people who bring in the people!

If you think that sounds simple, we are here to tell you it’s anything but.

One of the major reasons for penning this article was to bring to light the amount of effort that goes into finding the perfect candidate. As you can see, it is a LOT. We do have some tricks up our sleeves but that’s the extent of it. No potions, genies, or wands are involved!

As always, happy hiring 🙂

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Author
Ruehie Jaiya Karri
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December 8, 2022
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7 min read
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Vibe Coding: Shaping the Future of Software

A New Era of CodeVibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today,...

A New Era of Code

Vibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today, when code is produced quickly through AI, the true value lies in designing, refining, and optimizing systems. Our role now goes beyond writing code; we must also ensure that our systems remain efficient and reliable.

From Machine Language to Natural Language

I recall the early days when every line of code was written manually. We progressed from machine language to high-level programming, and now we are beginning to interact with our tools using natural language. This development does not only increase speed but also changes how we approach problem solving. Product managers can now create working demos in hours instead of weeks, and founders have a clearer way of pitching their ideas with functional prototypes. It is important for us to rethink our role as developers and focus on architecture and system design rather than simply on typing code.

The Promise and the Pitfalls

I have experienced both sides of vibe coding. In cases where the goal was to build a quick prototype or a simple internal tool, AI-generated code provided impressive results. Teams have been able to test new ideas and validate concepts much faster. However, when it comes to more complex systems that require careful planning and attention to detail, the output from AI can be problematic. I have seen situations where AI produces large volumes of code that become difficult to manage without significant human intervention.

AI-powered coding tools like GitHub Copilot and AWS’s Q Developer have demonstrated significant productivity gains. For instance, at the National Australia Bank, it’s reported that half of the production code is generated by Q Developer, allowing developers to focus on higher-level problem-solving . Similarly, platforms like Lovable enable non-coders to build viable tech businesses using natural language prompts, contributing to a shift where AI-generated code reduces the need for large engineering teams. However, there are challenges. AI-generated code can sometimes be verbose or lack the architectural discipline required for complex systems. While AI can rapidly produce prototypes or simple utilities, building large-scale systems still necessitates experienced engineers to refine and optimize the code.​

The Economic Impact

The democratization of code generation is altering the economic landscape of software development. As AI tools become more prevalent, the value of average coding skills may diminish, potentially affecting salaries for entry-level positions. Conversely, developers who excel in system design, architecture, and optimization are likely to see increased demand and compensation.​
Seizing the Opportunity

Vibe coding is most beneficial in areas such as rapid prototyping and building simple applications or internal tools. It frees up valuable time that we can then invest in higher-level tasks such as system architecture, security, and user experience. When used in the right context, AI becomes a helpful partner that accelerates the development process without replacing the need for skilled engineers.

This is revolutionizing our craft, much like the shift from machine language to assembly to high-level languages did in the past. AI can churn out code at lightning speed, but remember, “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” Use AI for rapid prototyping, but it’s your expertise that transforms raw output into robust, scalable software. By honing our skills in design and architecture, we ensure our work remains impactful and enduring. Let’s continue to learn, adapt, and build software that stands the test of time.​

Ready to streamline your recruitment process? Get a free demo to explore cutting-edge solutions and resources for your hiring needs.

Guide to Conducting Successful System Design Interviews in 2025

What is Systems Design?Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.Systems Design, in its...

What is Systems Design?

Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.

Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.

Systems Design, in its essence, is a blueprint of how software and applications should work to meet specific goals. The multi-dimensional nature of this discipline makes it open-ended – as there is no single one-size-fits-all solution to a system design problem.

What is a System Design Interview?

Conducting a System Design interview requires recruiters to take an unconventional approach and look beyond right or wrong answers. Recruiters should aim for evaluating a candidate’s ‘systemic thinking’ skills across three key aspects:

How they navigate technical complexity and navigate uncertainty
How they meet expectations of scale, security and speed
How they focus on the bigger picture without losing sight of details

This assessment of the end-to-end thought process and a holistic approach to problem-solving is what the interview should focus on.

What are some common topics for a System Design Interview

System design interview questions are free-form and exploratory in nature where there is no right or best answer to a specific problem statement. Here are some common questions:

How would you approach the design of a social media app or video app?

What are some ways to design a search engine or a ticketing system?

How would you design an API for a payment gateway?

What are some trade-offs and constraints you will consider while designing systems?

What is your rationale for taking a particular approach to problem solving?

Usually, interviewers base the questions depending on the organization, its goals, key competitors and a candidate’s experience level.

For senior roles, the questions tend to focus on assessing the computational thinking, decision making and reasoning ability of a candidate. For entry level job interviews, the questions are designed to test the hard skills required for building a system architecture.

The Difference between a System Design Interview and a Coding Interview

If a coding interview is like a map that takes you from point A to Z – a systems design interview is like a compass which gives you a sense of the right direction.

Here are three key difference between the two:

Coding challenges follow a linear interviewing experience i.e. candidates are given a problem and interaction with recruiters is limited. System design interviews are more lateral and conversational, requiring active participation from interviewers.

Coding interviews or challenges focus on evaluating the technical acumen of a candidate whereas systems design interviews are oriented to assess problem solving and interpersonal skills.

Coding interviews are based on a right/wrong approach with ideal answers to problem statements while a systems design interview focuses on assessing the thought process and the ability to reason from first principles.

How to Conduct an Effective System Design Interview

One common mistake recruiters make is that they approach a system design interview with the expectations and preparation of a typical coding interview.
Here is a four step framework technical recruiters can follow to ensure a seamless and productive interview experience:

Step 1: Understand the subject at hand

  • Develop an understanding of basics of system design and architecture
  • Familiarize yourself with commonly asked systems design interview questions
  • Read about system design case studies for popular applications
  • Structure the questions and problems by increasing magnitude of difficulty

Step 2: Prepare for the interview

  • Plan the extent of the topics and scope of discussion in advance
  • Clearly define the evaluation criteria and communicate expectations
  • Quantify constraints, inputs, boundaries and assumptions
  • Establish the broader context and a detailed scope of the exercise

Step 3: Stay actively involved

  • Ask follow-up questions to challenge a solution
  • Probe candidates to gauge real-time logical reasoning skills
  • Make it a conversation and take notes of important pointers and outcomes
  • Guide candidates with hints and suggestions to steer them in the right direction

Step 4: Be a collaborator

  • Encourage candidates to explore and consider alternative solutions
  • Work with the candidate to drill the problem into smaller tasks
  • Provide context and supporting details to help candidates stay on track
  • Ask follow-up questions to learn about the candidate’s experience

Technical recruiters and hiring managers should aim for providing an environment of positive reinforcement, actionable feedback and encouragement to candidates.

Evaluation Rubric for Candidates

Facilitate Successful System Design Interview Experiences with FaceCode

FaceCode, HackerEarth’s intuitive and secure platform, empowers recruiters to conduct system design interviews in a live coding environment with HD video chat.

FaceCode comes with an interactive diagram board which makes it easier for interviewers to assess the design thinking skills and conduct communication assessments using a built-in library of diagram based questions.

With FaceCode, you can combine your feedback points with AI-powered insights to generate accurate, data-driven assessment reports in a breeze. Plus, you can access interview recordings and transcripts anytime to recall and trace back the interview experience.

Learn how FaceCode can help you conduct system design interviews and boost your hiring efficiency.

How Candidates Use Technology to Cheat in Online Technical Assessments

Impact of Online Assessments in Technical Hiring In a digitally-native hiring landscape, online assessments have proven to be both a boon and a bane for recruiters and employers. The ease and...

Impact of Online Assessments in Technical Hiring


In a digitally-native hiring landscape, online assessments have proven to be both a boon and a bane for recruiters and employers.

The ease and efficiency of virtual interviews, take home programming tests and remote coding challenges is transformative. Around 82% of companies use pre-employment assessments as reliable indicators of a candidate's skills and potential.

Online skill assessment tests have been proven to streamline technical hiring and enable recruiters to significantly reduce the time and cost to identify and hire top talent.

In the realm of online assessments, remote assessments have transformed the hiring landscape, boosting the speed and efficiency of screening and evaluating talent. On the flip side, candidates have learned how to use creative methods and AI tools to cheat in tests.

As it turns out, technology that makes hiring easier for recruiters and managers - is also their Achilles' heel.

Cheating in Online Assessments is a High Stakes Problem



With the proliferation of AI in recruitment, the conversation around cheating has come to the forefront, putting recruiters and hiring managers in a bit of a flux.



According to research, nearly 30 to 50 percent of candidates cheat in online assessments for entry level jobs. Even 10% of senior candidates have been reportedly caught cheating.

The problem becomes twofold - if finding the right talent can be a competitive advantage, the consequences of hiring the wrong one can be equally damaging and counter-productive.

As per Forbes, a wrong hire can cost a company around 30% of an employee's salary - not to mention, loss of precious productive hours and morale disruption.

The question that arises is - "Can organizations continue to leverage AI-driven tools for online assessments without compromising on the integrity of their hiring process? "

This article will discuss the common methods candidates use to outsmart online assessments. We will also dive deep into actionable steps that you can take to prevent cheating while delivering a positive candidate experience.

Common Cheating Tactics and How You Can Combat Them


  1. Using ChatGPT and other AI tools to write code

    Copy-pasting code using AI-based platforms and online code generators is one of common cheat codes in candidates' books. For tackling technical assessments, candidates conveniently use readily available tools like ChatGPT and GitHub. Using these tools, candidates can easily generate solutions to solve common programming challenges such as:
    • Debugging code
    • Optimizing existing code
    • Writing problem-specific code from scratch
    Ways to prevent it
    • Enable full-screen mode
    • Disable copy-and-paste functionality
    • Restrict tab switching outside of code editors
    • Use AI to detect code that has been copied and pasted
  2. Enlist external help to complete the assessment


    Candidates often seek out someone else to take the assessment on their behalf. In many cases, they also use screen sharing and remote collaboration tools for real-time assistance.

    In extreme cases, some candidates might have an off-camera individual present in the same environment for help.

    Ways to prevent it
    • Verify a candidate using video authentication
    • Restrict test access from specific IP addresses
    • Use online proctoring by taking snapshots of the candidate periodically
    • Use a 360 degree environment scan to ensure no unauthorized individual is present
  3. Using multiple devices at the same time


    Candidates attempting to cheat often rely on secondary devices such as a computer, tablet, notebook or a mobile phone hidden from the line of sight of their webcam.

    By using multiple devices, candidates can look up information, search for solutions or simply augment their answers.

    Ways to prevent it
    • Track mouse exit count to detect irregularities
    • Detect when a new device or peripheral is connected
    • Use network monitoring and scanning to detect any smart devices in proximity
    • Conduct a virtual whiteboard interview to monitor movements and gestures
  4. Using remote desktop software and virtual machines


    Tech-savvy candidates go to great lengths to cheat. Using virtual machines, candidates can search for answers using a secondary OS while their primary OS is being monitored.

    Remote desktop software is another cheating technique which lets candidates give access to a third-person, allowing them to control their device.

    With remote desktops, candidates can screen share the test window and use external help.

    Ways to prevent it
    • Restrict access to virtual machines
    • AI-based proctoring for identifying malicious keystrokes
    • Use smart browsers to block candidates from using VMs

Future-proof Your Online Assessments With HackerEarth

HackerEarth's AI-powered online proctoring solution is a tested and proven way to outsmart cheating and take preventive measures at the right stage. With HackerEarth's Smart Browser, recruiters can mitigate the threat of cheating and ensure their online assessments are accurate and trustworthy.
  • Secure, sealed-off testing environment
  • AI-enabled live test monitoring
  • Enterprise-grade, industry leading compliance
  • Built-in features to track, detect and flag cheating attempts
Boost your hiring efficiency and conduct reliable online assessments confidently with HackerEarth's revolutionary Smart Browser.
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