Hello folks!

Today I would like to write about something very interesting I’m seeing all over the place from recruiters. And that is tool requirements from developers.

For words

So why is it a problem that in a requirement from a developer there a lots of these:

  • DB2
  • QTP
  • Ranorex
  • Eclipse ( yes I saw a few of these. )
  • Hibernate
  • Grails
  • Ruby on Rails
  • .

Long answer

The answer is simple yet it has it’s roots very deep in the recruitment and the way companies work.

It doesn’t really matter what kind of tool you know. It doesn’t really matter if you know intellij or eclipse or if you know a certain database or a tool for testing like QTP or Ranorex. The requirement should state: - well versed with development environments; - knows his way around SQL and can handle relational / noSQL databases; - has knowledge in testing environments.

Or even better: - adaptive capabilities; - can catch up quickly; - resourceful; - flexible;

You know where I’m going with this. I can understand that some companies don’t have the time to train a person in a certain tool they are using for a prolonged period of time. I can understand that some recruiters don’t have the time or the knowledge to distinguish between these tools to understand the common ground.

But these days there a million and million tools available for all sorts of things. There are a lot of databases and testing frameworks. A lot of development environments and it’s mostly to the preference of the individual what s/h choice is. As the delinquent, so must the recruiter and company be flexible and knowledgeable enough to know that if the person knows eclipse and he has excellent adaptive capabilities he will learn any other environment rather quickly and without too much trouble.

They must understand what they are looking for. Because they might actually get what they want but that might not be what they need.

Short answer

So in conclusion. you must look for skills, abilities, techniques, brain power, proves, savyness. Not tools. If you look for tools you might find somebody who is up for the job, but if you look for the above you will find somebody who is up for ANY kind of job at any level at any company. Also his insight of other tools might make your world a whole lot better. Maybe he knows something else, something which is better or more recent, more up-to-date?

If you look for somebody who is versed in only that thing you will end up with that thing as long as you have nobody who is looking for something new and better. It might work for you at that time, but never forget.

Only change is constant

Tools will change. Tools will disappear. Tools will get out of date and will be discontinued. Than you will be sure as hell glad you ended up with somebody who doesn’t who knows more then that.

As always,

Thanks for reading.

Gergely.