How to get out of the recruiter loop and get your development projects done

Little story: I once knew a Development Leader that was tasked with filling multiple development roles in his company. His company had determined the best way to do this was to leverage a recruiting firm.

My friend dutifully reviewed resumes the recruiters sent in and conducted interviews of their top candidates. He had a good system of assessing them in a meeting setting against his desired attributes, then inviting them to take a written skills test based on the technologies used on the team.

Seems simple enough, but my poor friend was pulling his hair out. The resumes were often not in the ballpark of the job requirements, and the candidates were flunking the test miserably. He was killing hours a week managing this process of iterating with recruiters. Meanwhile, months are going by and their software projects were behind schedule.

The best part of the story is when the recruiters came to meet with my friend, and – wait for it – actually told him and his team how much money they were going to make off of his company by filling all these roles. Ouch.

Guys, there are absolutely times when recruiters are just the right answer. I’m thinking when the new hire is an unadvertised C-level role that requires extensive vetting. But the fact is – recruiters get paid based on placing someone, so they will be aggressive in doing exactly that. Good on them, it’s a model that totally works for some folks.

A model that works for others is filling roles quickly with a cohesive team of experienced developers who are ready to code to your requirements immediately. That’s our model at Efficiencyware. Oh, and it comes with my friend and partner, the Development Leader, as your layered-on CTO for advice, management, consulting, or to help with your in-house hiring.

Best part – no HR, no recruiters, no benefits, no company-paid craft beer/cold brew, no paperwork, no commissions. It’s easy.

Not sure if this model is right for you? Compare the investment of time and money of accessing EW developers vs. hiring your own or leveraging recruiters with our comparison tool.