Interview with Vindya Rajapakse, Recruiter and Sourcer at Qreer.com

Within Qreer.com, Vindya works in the recruitment and sourcing department. She is responsible for our international inflow of technical and IT candidates for our customers.

In addition, she works towards the successful implementation of talent acquisition strategies used to proactively source, recruit and assess a highly qualified and diverse pool of candidates for a variety of roles for the customers of Qreer, all while providing on-going consulting to the sourcing team and customer in the process.

1. Could you summarize your experience in recruiting and sourcing? What get’s you excited about this experience?

Finding the right person for the vacancy in question gives me great satisfaction. At the end of the day not only have we fulfilled the expectations of our client, we have also found employment for a job seeker.

In addition, we notice that companies are nowadays applying more than one source to receive candidates, recruitment strategies have really changed over the past few years to a very proactive approach to candidates.

2. What tools & methods do you use on a daily basis to source candidates?

We have an extensive CV database and also access to European and global databases which we cross reference with the specifications of the vacancy at hand and the needs of the employer.

Nevertheless, due to the fact that a CV database is limited to the candidate, we apply an active approach to source for candidates through more channels. One of those channels is advertising the job on a variety of international and local jobsites.

We also highlight and promote the job advertisements on social media and network channels to reach those candidates that do not upload their CV in a database.

Another source are the industry forums and network sites which we use to interact with (smaller) communities and reach out to those seeking a job or new career challenge.

Lastly, we visit different recruitment fairs throughout the year to get in contact with job seekers around Europe. We inform them about the technical jobs we have on our jobsite, and provide tips on how to write that killer CV or motivation letter that gets the applicant hired.

3. What do you believe is necessary to stay on top of your field?

I think it’s very important to meet the clients (employers) expectations with a “can do” attitude no matter how complex or difficult the requirements are of a specific vacancy. And of course staying on top of the latest developments in the technical world.

We are constantly searching for the best candidates out there, and evolve in the way we look at the job board model. Traditionally, job boards did not have a lot of contact with the client who posted a vacancy. Since the beginning of Qreer, we have continuous contact with recruiters responsible for job advertisements, and provide updates on how their jobs are performing in terms of views and applicants.

In addition, with feedback and candidate CV examples, the sourcing activities are being optimized throughout the job posting period. For a job board, this approach towards customers is unique and necessary to stay on top of the competitive market.

4. How do you and your team stay up to date with new technologies, processes and procedures?

We reach out to our network by using blogs, social media and network sites, and we have weekly brainstorm sessions on which other technologies, processes, or procedures need to be added or can be optimized to more effectively and efficiently source for candidates.

We also prioritize “Recruitment Marketing”, thus which marketing tools can we use to promote job advertisements, which ones are trending and upcoming?. This is of major importance, as It adds value to our clients corporate branding. We are always on the lookout for new tools to help us in our recruiting/sourcing processes.

5. What difficulties do you face when sourcing for candidates?

Tech recruitment in general is one of the biggest (If not the biggest) challenges to Multinationals or SME’s alike, it can literally make or break a company.

To make sure that our team is able to find those specific candidates in a niche industry, Qreer provides many consultant trainings. These trainings are set up to cover time management issues, and train to have vertical knowledge of all 19 educational backgrounds that Qreer has available.

Thereafter, due to the transparent and open environment within the company, every consultant is able to experiment with different recruitment techniques. Difficult sourcing commands ask for a team effort, and this leads to a comfortable and successful way of working.

6. What is Qreer doing that other recruiters and sourcers aren’t?

This job board 2.0 approach is relatively new within the industry, so as soon as we explain that we do all these additional activities, companies assume that we are an hiring agency instead of a job board.

At Qreer we have an extremely proactive approach to recruiting/sourcing international candidates. We believe that the traditional job board model (Post and Pray) is outdated and nowadays no longer effective enough to reach technical and IT candidates in a niche industry.

Therefore, we bring the vacancy to the notice of jobseekers all across Europe. If we think that a jobseeker comes from the relevant educational background and has the necessary expertise, then we contact them and make them aware of the job opportunity.

It does not stop there. We receive feedback from candidates about where they search for jobs or what difficulties they face when reading a job description. This feedback is communicated to our clients and can be used to optimize their hiring activities.

7. What are your expectations in trends and developments in the recruitment industry? And more specifically for recruiters and sourcers?

I expect that the coming years will show an emerge of more satisfactory sourcing software and tools that will make the sourcing process more automated than it is right now. For recruiters and sourcers this means more easier tracking the applicants behaviour, but on the other hand also requires changes in recruitment activities.

In conclusion, the recruitment activities and tools that are used today are much different than those of 5-10 years ago. I do believe that recruiters and sourcers will rely less on database searches, social networks etc in the near future and will start working along with what drives a candidate to take a decision to (quit or) apply for a job, and what advise can be provided to support in the next career step.

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