Recruiting in IT is about more than just filling an empty seat; it’s a strategic move that directly fuels your company's ability to innovate and grow. It means navigating a complicated UK market, writing job descriptions that actually attract the right people, finding talent that isn't even looking, and making the whole hiring journey feel seamless and compliant.
Success starts when you realise you’re not just buying a set of skills—you’re bringing someone on board who will help build your future.
Understanding the UK’s Tech Recruitment Market
Before you even think about posting a job advert, you need to get a proper feel for the UK tech market as it stands today. Forget the high-level headlines for a second and look at what’s happening on the ground. The market is split by a sharp, almost paradoxical, divide.
On one side, you have fierce, unrelenting demand for highly specialised skills. On the other, the entry-level market is getting tougher and tougher for candidates. This dynamic puts hiring managers in a tricky spot. You might find yourself battling it out for a Senior DevOps Engineer while being swamped with hundreds of applications for a junior support role. Getting your head around this is the first step to building a realistic hiring plan that actually works.
The Specialist Skills Gap
The fight for experienced professionals in high-demand areas is intense. Companies all over the UK are chasing the same limited pool of talent with proven expertise. This is where tech recruiting becomes a game of strategy, not just numbers.
The hottest areas right now include:
- AI and Machine Learning: People who can build, deploy, and look after AI models are like gold dust.
- Cybersecurity: With digital threats getting smarter, experienced security analysts, ethical hackers, and compliance experts are a top priority for pretty much every business.
- Cloud Engineering: Expertise in AWS, Azure, or GCP is still critical as more companies shift their entire infrastructure to the cloud.
This demand has a direct knock-on effect on salaries and what candidates expect from you. A passive candidate with solid cloud skills is probably getting hit up by recruiters several times a week. Your offer, and your company culture, has to be compelling enough to cut through that noise.
The real challenge isn't a lack of people. It's the mismatch between the skills readily available and the deep, specialist expertise that companies desperately need. Your recruitment process has to be designed to find and identify these specific skills, not just sift through a mountain of CVs.
The Junior Paradox
While the specialists are in high demand, the story for junior and entry-level talent is completely different. Recent market analysis shows a major squeeze on these roles. While the 2025 UK tech market is crying out for specialists in AI, cloud, and cyber, entry-level positions have seen a sharp decline.
Reports suggest that factors like automation and wider cost-cutting have drastically reduced these opportunities. This creates a bottleneck, making it harder for fresh talent to get a foot in the door and for companies to build their talent pipelines for the future.
For businesses that rely on growing their own talent, this shift demands a new approach. Some are tackling this by bringing in external specialists to manage their hiring. You can learn more about how Recruitment Process Outsourcing works in our detailed guide.
Disclaimer: This article provides general guidance on recruitment and compliance in the UK. It is not a substitute for professional legal or financial advice. Always consult with a qualified professional for your specific circumstances.
How to Write Job Descriptions That Attract Top Engineers
Think of your job description as your number one marketing asset. It’s your first, and often only, chance to convince a great engineer to even consider talking to you.
Too often, though, they’re treated like an internal HR document: a dry shopping list of demands, stuffed with corporate jargon and unrealistic expectations. This doesn't just bore candidates; it actively repels the best ones.
Good engineers are wired to solve problems. They want to know what challenges they’ll get to tackle, what tools they'll be using, and what real impact their code will have. A great job description answers those questions upfront and cuts through the noise, speaking directly to the kind of person you actually want to hire.
Moving Beyond the Standard Template
Most job descriptions follow the same tired formula. A generic company bio, a long list of responsibilities, and an even longer list of skills you demand. The problem? It's all about what you want from them.
To stand out, you have to flip the script.
Instead of just listing tasks, frame the role around its purpose. Don't say "develop new features"; explain what those features will achieve for the business or its customers. That sense of impact is what gets a talented engineer interested in leaving their current role for yours.
Here’s a better structure to work from:
- The Mission: Kick off with a single, powerful sentence about what the team's core purpose is. Why does it exist?
- The Impact: Get specific. What does success in this role look like in the first 6-12 months? For example, "You will reduce our average API response time by 50ms".
- The Tech Stack: Be honest about the tools they will genuinely be using day-to-day. No fluff.
- The Essentials vs. Nice-to-Haves: Clearly split the absolute must-have skills from the ones that are just a bonus. It widens your talent pool.
- The Offer: Be transparent. Provide a clear salary range and highlight the benefits that actually matter.
This reframes the entire conversation from a list of demands to a genuine opportunity.
A job description isn't an HR document; it's a sales pitch. It should be written for the candidate, not for your internal approval process. The goal is to start a conversation with the right people, not to filter out everyone who isn't a perfect 10/10 match on paper.
Real-World Examples: Good vs. Bad
Let's break this down with a common role: a Senior DevOps Engineer.
A weak description is almost always vague, demanding, and full of clichés.
Weak Example (Requirements Section):
- Must have 5+ years experience with AWS, Kubernetes, and Terraform.
- Proven experience with CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong scripting skills (Python, Bash).
- Excellent communication skills required.
This tells a candidate next to nothing. It's a generic checklist that could apply to hundreds of companies, giving them no reason to choose yours.
Now, let's rewrite it to be specific and compelling.
Strong Example (What You’ll Be Working On):
- Build our next-gen platform: You’ll be at the heart of migrating our core services from legacy EC2 instances to a fully containerised EKS environment, using Terraform for all our infrastructure-as-code.
- Optimise developer workflows: You’ll own and dramatically improve our CI/CD pipelines in GitLab, with a clear goal to slash build times by 30% in your first year.
- Enhance system reliability: You will champion observability using tools like Prometheus and Grafana, helping us hit our crucial 99.99% uptime target.
See the difference? This version is specific, it's focused on outcomes, and it paints a clear picture of the actual work. Successful recruiting in IT hinges on this level of clarity.
Sourcing Strategies for Finding Hidden Tech Talent
The reality of IT recruitment is a bit of a tough pill to swallow: the best candidates are rarely scrolling through job boards. The most skilled, experienced engineers are usually head-down, happy in their current role, and not actively looking for a move. If you simply post a job and wait for them to come to you, you’ll be waiting a very long time.
This is where proactive sourcing comes into play. It’s the art of finding and engaging with passive talent—those brilliant professionals who aren’t applying for jobs but would be open to a conversation about the right opportunity. It’s a deliberate shift from a reactive to a strategic mindset.
Instead of the old ‘post and pray’ method, you need to become something of a talent detective, hunting for clues where top engineers actually spend their time. It means looking beyond the obvious and building a strategy to connect with people who don't even know you exist yet.
Looking Beyond LinkedIn
Let's be clear: LinkedIn is the default platform for a reason. Tools like LinkedIn Recruiter are undeniably powerful for identifying professionals with a specific tech stack and experience. The problem? You're fishing in the same pond as every other recruiter in the UK.
To find genuinely hidden talent, you need to expand your search to platforms where technical skill is demonstrated, not just listed on a profile.
- GitHub: This is where developers truly live and breathe code. Searching for users who contribute to relevant open-source projects, have well-regarded personal repositories, or follow influential engineers in your field can unearth exceptional talent. You can see their code, observe how they collaborate, and get a real sense of their capabilities before you even speak. A great free tool here is a simple Boolean search directly on Google:
site:github.com ("machine learning" OR "AI") "London". - Stack Overflow: A developer's reputation on Stack Overflow is built entirely on their ability to solve complex, real-world problems. High-reputation users who consistently provide quality answers in your required tech stack are often highly skilled, experienced professionals.
- Tech Communities: Don't underestimate the power of niche communities. Platforms like Discord, dedicated Slack channels (like UKDevs), and specialised forums for languages (e.g., Python, Rust) or disciplines (e.g., DevOps) are fantastic places to listen in and identify key contributors.
By diversifying your channels, you move from a crowded marketplace to specialist communities where genuine expertise is on full display.
Comparing Popular Tech Sourcing Channels
Choosing the right platform is about aligning your search with your specific needs. What works for finding a junior front-end developer won't necessarily uncover a specialist DevOps contractor.
| Channel | Best For | Cost (Typical) | Key Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generalist and senior roles; corporate functions | High (Recruiter licence) | Massive user base and detailed professional histories. | |
| GitHub | Highly technical developers; open-source contributors | Low (time-intensive) | Direct evidence of coding skill and collaboration. |
| Job Boards (e.g., Reed) | Active job seekers; entry-to-mid-level roles | Medium (posting fees) | Access to candidates who are immediately available. |
| Stack Overflow | Problem-solvers; developers with deep expertise | Low (time-intensive) | Reputation is based purely on demonstrated knowledge. |
| Specialist Agencies | Hard-to-fill roles; urgent contractor needs | Commission-based | Curated networks and deep market knowledge. |
Ultimately, a multi-channel approach yields the best results, allowing you to build a more rounded view of the talent pool.
The Art of Personalised Outreach
Once you’ve identified a potential candidate, the next step is absolutely critical. A generic, copy-pasted message is the fastest way to be ignored. Top engineers receive dozens of these every week, and they’ve developed a sixth sense for spotting them.
Your outreach needs to prove you’ve done your homework.
A great outreach message is short, specific, and shows genuine interest in the individual. It's not about your job; it's about their work. Reference a specific project on their GitHub, mention an insightful answer they gave on Stack Overflow, or comment on a blog post they wrote.
For example, instead of saying, "I saw your profile and you seem like a great fit," try this:
"Hi Sarah, I came across your 'Project Phoenix' repository on GitHub and was really impressed with your approach to state management in React. At my company, we're tackling a similar challenge with our main customer dashboard, and I thought your experience could be incredibly relevant. Would you be open to a brief, 15-minute chat next week to discuss it?"
This approach respects their time, acknowledges their specific skill, and immediately sets you apart from the 99% of other messages in their inbox.
While sourcing talent directly is powerful, many businesses find that collaborating with specialists can accelerate the process. For more on this, check out our guide on how to work with recruitment agencies to see if it’s the right fit for you.
Building a Sustainable Talent Pipeline
Sourcing isn't just a frantic scramble to fill an immediate opening; it's about building long-term relationships. The most effective recruiters build a talent pipeline—a curated network of qualified candidates you stay in touch with, even when you don't have a role for them right now.
This involves using a simple Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or even a spreadsheet to track promising individuals, noting their skills, career goals, and any interactions you've had. A brief, non-transactional check-in every few months keeps you on their radar.
When the perfect role does open up, you’re not starting from scratch; you’re reaching out to a warm connection. This strategic foresight is what separates good recruiting from great recruiting.
Designing a Technical Interview Process That Works
Let's be blunt: a slow, disjointed, or disrespectful interview process is one of the fastest ways to lose a great tech candidate. The best people have options, and they're judging your entire company on the quality of their experience from that very first interaction. Building a process that’s both technically rigorous and respects everyone’s time isn’t just good manners—it’s a massive competitive advantage.
The goal isn't just to filter people out. It's to create a series of conversations that give both you and the candidate the confidence to make a decision. Each stage needs a clear purpose, moving the right people forward while giving unsuccessful applicants a professional experience that reflects well on your brand.
It's about having a clear, repeatable system.
This simple flow captures the essence of it: a structured approach that takes you from that first contact right through to building a long-term talent pool.
Mapping Out the Ideal Interview Stages
A well-structured process creates momentum and clarity. While the exact steps will vary depending on the role, a proven framework for most technical positions includes a few key milestones. Each one is designed to evaluate something different without repeating questions or wasting time.
- Initial Recruiter Screen (30 mins): This is a non-technical chat. It’s a quick sanity check for alignment on the basics: salary expectations, right-to-work in the UK, and high-level career goals. The aim is simple: make sure nobody's time is about to be wasted.
- Hiring Manager Chat (45-60 mins): The first proper technical conversation. This is where the candidate can talk through their experience, discuss past projects, and get a real feel for the team's challenges. The manager is assessing their communication skills and the depth of their technical knowledge.
- The Technical Assessment: This is the core of the evaluation, where you see their skills in action. We'll dig into the different types below because this is where many companies get it wrong.
- Final ‘Values’ Interview (60 mins): This stage often involves senior leadership or people from other departments. It focuses less on raw technical ability and more on what it would be like to work with this person—their collaboration style, cultural fit, and long-term potential.
This structure respects the candidate’s time by increasing the investment required at each stage. Only genuinely viable candidates should reach the final, most time-intensive steps.
Choosing the Right Technical Assessment
The classic "whiteboard algorithm" test is dying out, and for good reason. It often tests abstract, academic knowledge rather than the practical skills someone actually needs to do the job. Modern technical assessments are designed to simulate real-world work.
- Practical Take-Home Assignment: You give them a small, self-contained project that mirrors a typical task—like building a simple API endpoint for a back-end developer. The good: It lets candidates work in their own environment and showcases their true coding style. The bad: It can be very time-consuming and risks candidates investing huge amounts of unpaid time. A good rule of thumb is to keep it under two hours.
- Live Pair Programming Session: This is a collaborative exercise where the candidate and an interviewer solve a problem together. It's brilliant for assessing not just coding ability but also communication, problem-solving, and teamwork under pressure.
- System Design Discussion: Essential for senior or architectural roles. You give the candidate a high-level problem (e.g., "design a URL shortener") and they talk through their approach, covering architecture, database choices, and scalability. This evaluates their thinking process, not just their ability to write code.
Dedicated tools like CoderPad have made remote technical interviews far more effective, providing a shared environment for live coding and system design.
Training Your Interviewers to Reduce Bias
Your interviewers are your brand ambassadors, but without training, they can introduce inconsistency and bias that completely undermine the process. A structured approach is non-negotiable.
Equip them with a scorecard listing the core competencies for the role. Encourage them to ask behavioural questions ("Tell me about a time when...") rather than vague, hypothetical ones. Free resources from organisations like ACAS provide excellent guidance on fair and effective interviewing techniques.
The single most important rule for an interviewer is to talk less and listen more. Their job is not to show how smart they are; it's to create an environment where the candidate can demonstrate their own abilities.
Ensuring every candidate is asked a consistent set of core questions helps you make a fairer, more objective comparison. In the current market, this is critical. After a 38% surge in applications in early 2025, the market cooled, with applications dropping 27% in the second quarter. With an average of 43 applications per job, a robust and fair process is the only way to reliably identify the best talent. You can discover more insights about these 2025 technology recruitment trends to see what this means for your hiring strategy.
Navigating UK Hiring Compliance and Legal Duties
When you're hiring tech talent in the UK, getting the legal stuff right isn’t just a box-ticking exercise. It’s fundamental. A misstep on compliance can lead to hefty penalties, so it's crucial to understand your duties before you even think about making an offer.
This isn't about creating red tape for the sake of it. It’s about building a fair and lawful process that protects your business and treats every candidate correctly.
Two areas trip people up time and time again: proving a candidate’s right to work and, for contractors, getting their IR35 status right. Let's break them down.
Verifying Right to Work in the UK
You cannot legally employ anyone in the UK without first checking they have the right to work here. This isn’t optional, and it must be done before their first day on the job. No exceptions.
Thankfully, the government has digitised much of the process, making it more straightforward than it used to be. You’ll generally use one of two methods:
- The Gov.uk Online Service: This is the go-to for most non-British or Irish candidates. Anyone with a Biometric Residence Permit or status under the EU Settlement Scheme can give you a 'share code'. You simply pop this code into the official Home Office online checking service to see their status in real-time. It’s quick, secure, and definitive.
- Manual Document Checks: For British or Irish citizens, it’s a bit more old-school. You need to see their original, valid passport (or other accepted documents). This can be done in person or over a live video call. Critically, you must keep a clear copy and note down the date you performed the check.
The most common mistake? Leaving it too late. Make the right-to-work check a non-negotiable step in your pre-boarding process. As soon as a verbal offer is accepted, get it done.
Understanding IR35 for IT Contractors
If you're bringing in contractors to work on tech projects, you'll run straight into the IR35 legislation, also known as the ‘off-payroll working rules’. In short, these rules are designed to stop 'disguised employment'—where someone works like an employee but is paid as a contractor to gain a tax advantage.
Since April 2021, the responsibility for figuring out a contractor's IR35 status falls squarely on you, the client (assuming you're a medium or large private sector business). It’s your job to assess whether they are genuinely self-employed or a ‘deemed employee’ for tax purposes. Get it wrong, and the tax liability is yours.
To make the right call, you need to look at the reality of the working relationship, focusing on a few key tests:
- Control: How much do you dictate how, when, and where they do the work? The less control you have, the more likely they're genuinely self-employed.
- Substitution: Does the contractor have a real right to send someone else to do the job in their place? A genuine right to substitute points strongly towards being outside IR35.
- Mutuality of Obligation (MOO): Do you feel obliged to offer them more work, and do they feel obliged to take it? If that expectation exists, it starts to look a lot like employment.
Once you’ve made your assessment, you must issue a Status Determination Statement (SDS) to the contractor. This document officially states your decision (inside or outside IR35) and the reasons behind it. The HMRC website on understanding off-payroll working (IR35) is your best starting point for detailed guidance.
Disclaimer: This information is for general guidance purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You should always consult with a qualified legal or HR professional for advice on your specific situation.
Making the Offer and Onboarding for Success
Getting that verbal "yes" from your top candidate is a brilliant moment, but don't pop the champagne just yet. The period between acceptance and their first day is a danger zone—it’s where momentum dies, second thoughts creep in, and counter-offers from their current employer can torpedo the whole thing.
Managing this final stretch is every bit as critical as the interviews that got you here.
It all starts with the offer itself. It needs to be competitive, of course, but also transparent and fair. This means doing your homework. Tools like Payscale or Glassdoor offer a decent baseline for salary, but you need to layer on real-world context: your location, the candidate's specific skills, and how hot the market is for their expertise right now.
Put it all down in a clear, written offer that details salary, benefits, bonus structures, and any equity. This isn't just admin; it prevents crossed wires and shows you respect them enough to give them all the information they need. Once you’ve sent it, stay in touch without being overbearing. A quick check-in keeps the connection warm and lets you iron out small queries before they become big problems.
From Offer Acceptance to Day One
The moment the contract is signed, the real work of retention begins. A fantastic onboarding experience doesn't just get a new hire up to speed; it validates their decision to join you and sets the foundation for their long-term success. A bad one, on the other hand, can plant seeds of doubt from day one.
Think of onboarding not as a single event, but as a proper programme that runs for the first few weeks. It needs to cover three key areas:
- The Technical: Is their laptop ready to go? Do they have access to all the crucial systems—GitHub, Slack, your internal wikis? A frictionless tech setup is the absolute bare minimum.
- The Role: Who are their key contacts? What does a good first 30, 60, and 90 days actually look like? Give them a clear roadmap so they can find their feet and start adding value quickly.
- The Culture: Get them introduced to the team. Schedule a few informal coffee chats. Assign them an onboarding buddy. Helping them build social connections is how you make them feel like part of the team, not just a new hire.
This structured approach is vital in today's market. The UK tech sector is a huge part of the economy, with around 1.8 million people in tech roles. As the landscape shifts, especially with AI-related jobs booming, a standout onboarding process becomes a real competitive advantage. You can discover more insights into 2025 UK tech recruitment trends to get a sense of what's coming.
Measuring Onboarding Success
How do you know if your onboarding is actually working? Don’t just assume a quiet new starter is a happy one. You need to gather feedback. A key metric here is the Time to Productivity, which measures how long it takes a new hire to become fully operational. A shorter time often indicates a more effective onboarding process.
A successful onboarding process is your first and best tool for retention. It transforms a promising candidate into an engaged, productive, and loyal team member who feels confident they made the right choice.
Consider sending out short, regular surveys at the one-week, one-month, and three-month marks. Ask direct questions: "Do you have the tools you need to do your job?" or "Do you feel clear on your main priorities?" This feedback is gold for spotting gaps in your process.
Ultimately, strong 90-day retention rates and positive feedback are the clearest signs you're getting it right. This holds true whether you're hiring permanent staff or bringing in specialists for a specific project, a topic we explore more in our guide on why more companies are turning to IT contractors.
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Common Questions (and Straightforward Answers) About IT Recruiting
Hiring in tech can feel like its own unique discipline, full of quirks and unwritten rules. If you've ever found yourself asking "is this normal?", you're not alone. Here are some of the most common questions we hear from hiring managers, along with our take on them.
How Long Should It Take to Hire a Developer?
Everyone wants a quick answer, but the honest one is: it depends. The UK average for a technical role generally sits somewhere between 30 and 60 days. But that number can be misleading.
Think of it this way: finding a mid-level Front-End Developer might take a solid four weeks of focused effort. But if you’re hunting for a highly specialised Principal Cloud Architect with niche experience? You could easily be looking at two months or more. The key is to be realistic from the start—don't expect to find a unicorn in a week. Your key metric should be Time to Hire, measured from the day the job is opened to the day an offer is accepted.
Should We Disclose the Salary Range Upfront?
Yes. Without a doubt.
In today's market, hiding the salary is one of the fastest ways to lose the interest of top talent. It comes across as evasive and signals a potential mismatch down the line. Transparency isn’t just a buzzword; it builds trust and, more practically, it saves everyone a huge amount of time.
Good candidates know their worth. If they can see the role meets their financial expectations from the get-go, they're far more likely to invest their time and energy in your process.
What's the Best Way to Handle Counter-Offers?
It’s the moment every hiring manager dreads: you’ve found the perfect candidate, made the offer, and their current boss comes back with a counter-offer. It’s tempting to jump into a bidding war, but that rarely ends well.
The best move is to gently steer the conversation back to why they wanted to leave in the first place.
A counter-offer is a financial plaster on a deeper wound. It rarely fixes the underlying problems—be it a lack of growth, a toxic manager, or a frustrating company culture—that prompted a talented person to start looking for a new job.
Remind them of the opportunities and a better future your role offers, not just the paycheque.
How Can We Improve Our Candidate Experience?
If you only do one thing, make it this: communicate consistently and quickly. It sounds simple, but it’s the single most effective way to improve your candidate experience. A great metric to track is Application Drop-off Rate – if candidates are leaving mid-process, it often points to a poor experience.
Even a quick update—"Hi Alex, just to let you know we're still reviewing applications and will be in touch by Friday"—makes a world of difference. Candidates know these things take time, but being left in the dark is what creates frustration and damages your reputation.
Keeping people informed at every stage shows respect. It enhances your employer brand, whether they get the job or not.
Ready to build a high-performing tech team without the hiring headaches? APPLY RECRUITING LTD specialises in connecting UK businesses with exceptional IT talent. Our proactive sourcing and rigorous screening process ensure you see only the best candidates, saving you time and delivering results. Find your next great hire with us.