Give a Grad a Go Employers-Logo
  • Candidates
  • Employers
    • Recruitment services Take your recruitment to the next level with our fully managed services
    • Advertise a job Sign up in minutes and share your opportunity on our job board
    • Employer branding services Boost your brand presence for talent attraction
    • Employer blog Recruitment news and hiring advice from the UK's graduate experts
    • Graduate employment statistics Valuable insight into the graduate recruitment industry
    • Annual leave calculator Calculator for employees who work part-time, or started part way through the year
    • Employer FAQs Find answers to some of our frequently asked questions
  • About Us
  • Contact
Sign in Post a job
    • Recruitment services
    • Advertise a job
    • Employer branding services
    • Employer blog
    • Graduate employment statistics
    • Annual leave calculator
    • Employer FAQs
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Candidates
  • Employers
Sign in Post a job

Software, engineering & IT hiring

  • Why hire with us?
  • What can we offer you?
  • Advice: How to hire
  • Advice: IT candidate qualities
  • Advice: Hiring effectively
  • Advice: Hire Engineering graduates
  • Advice: Engineering candidate qualities
  • Advice: Writing a job description

Graduate software, engineering, and IT recruitment

We’re experts in IT recruiting! We have been hiring software developers and recruiting engineers since 2009.

And we continue to build great tech teams every day.

We’ll get to know your company, you’ll tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll plan the step-by-step solution to help you expand.

So, whether you’re an SME looking to hire a Software Developer or a global company interested in partnering with software sales recruiters, you’re on the right page.

Get in touch today!

Or, keep reading to find out more about why we’re amongst the UK’s best IT recruitment agencies for IT specialists in the graduate market.

What can we offer you?

Leading resources

We have the best resources to help you hire IT people.

Over 180,000 of our candidates have IT, engineering, or software experience.

And we receive 19,000 new job applications every month. So we are constantly finding new graduates to fill your roles.

Dedicated recruiters

You’ll be dealing with a team of recruiters who are recent graduates themselves. Many come from IT and tech backgrounds: we know the industry well.

Unlike other IT recruitment firms, we go the extra mile.

We can assist with assessment centres, outplacement services, and even boost your EVP with bespoke email campaigns and social media competitions.

Find out more about our other IT recruitment services and employer branding services.

Unmatched speed

We are the most efficient recruiters in the UK.

On average, we fill our IT and software roles in 22 days, nearly twice as fast as the industry average!

And no quality is compromised in the process: over 90% of the candidates we place pass their probation period.

Recruitment advice

Top tips for recruiting IT staff

Here are our top tips on how to recruit and hire great Software Engineers, hire Junior Developers, and hire IT staff…

 

Know the role

When hiring IT staff, focus on the candidate’s background. Notice the languages or programmes they have experience with, and what this means for your business.

As an experienced IT recruitment agency, with 10+ years of knowledge in recruiting developers, programmers, IT technicians, and software testers, we are aware of what each role entails.

The first stage in our IT recruiting process is ensuring that we know your aims of hiring. We’ll need to determine whether you are looking to simply hire a Software Engineer, or whether you want to hire a software development team, for example.

 

Understand the league tables

Many hiring managers do not understand that the academic league tables in tech are different to the traditional league tables.

For example, Give a Grad a Go has placed graduates from a University that is in the top 100 in the UK overall, but top 25 for computer science.

This is because they offer such a robust course which puts them ahead of others. That’s why Give a Grad a Go and other IT staffing agencies will try to avoid the bias of the overall league tables when looking to hire Software Engineers or other roles in technical recruitment.

 

Look beyond the CV

When you hire Junior Developers, look beyond what they just have on their CV. See if they have a portfolio or a project that will enable you to judge them on that merit.

It’s still important to see great CVs when hiring IT professionals, but you need to also be able to analyse their industry experience. This will enable you to make a fully informed decision and hire the best candidate for the job.

Recruitment advice

What’s the most important thing to look out for when recruiting IT talent?

Many IT recruitment agencies will require a candidate portfolio, such as a GitHub, to showcase projects.

We believe it’s important to take the time to look carefully at candidates’ portfolios. It demonstrates their ability to be proactive, and gives you the opportunity to see examples of their work before hiring engineers or developers.

Current IT recruitment trends show high levels of competition for software staffing. So, if the candidate doesn’t stand out to an IT employment agency, then they won’t stand out to a team of developers.

Therefore, we encourage our graduates to clearly demonstrate projects, coding, walkthroughs, and readmes so that they can show their thought processes and their ability to code.

For more information on technology recruitment trends or IT, engineering, and software recruitment patterns, visit our graduate employment statistics archive.

Our IT recruiters advise:

“When you are looking to hire a team of developers, it is worth looking at graduates who have an academic background in software development.

When you hire a programmer, 3 years of study will nearly always give better experience than someone who’s come from a STEM background and done a coding course.

Our Software Developer recruiters with strong experience in information technology recruitment suggest this is one of the most important considerations when you hire developers.

However, there are many benefits to hiring graduates from STEM subjects like computer finance and engineering. Give A Grad A Go have incredible access to fantastic candidates at a really high level.

So, for businesses looking to hire developers or IT employees straight out of university, an academic background that can be moulded may be more beneficial during your IT talent acquisition. Either way, Give a Grad a Go has the capacity to make this possible and help you find the perfect candidate.”

 

Recruitment advice

What to consider when hiring IT staff

Recruit for exciting projects

Know the market rate for starting salaries and for salary packages in IT staffing.

A software staffing agency will encourage you to advertise exciting new projects.

This is easy to do when you’re hiring developers for startups, as most IT and software engineering graduates want to be challenged and tested through their work.

 

Candidates know their worth

These candidates know their worth.

IT recruitment agencies in London find a lot of people starting, and then getting pitched or headhunted by other companies looking to hire engineers. These other roles tend to have bigger base salaries.

So, when hiring IT Support or looking to hire App Developers, you will need to offer quite a robust package if you want to find developers for a startup who are interested in learning data science.

 

Professional development

Many companies who aren’t sure how to recruit and hire great Software Engineers will use LinkedIn to pitch their roles.

Some specific recruiters for IT may be unsure where to find programmers and try to hire an engineer by poaching them from their current roles.

Don’t let your graduate be tempted into another company with a stringent, regulated plan of development. Make them a better offer, with personalised development opportunities.

 

 

Recruitment advice

Tips for engineering recruitment

Thinking about future engineering recruitment for your business and looking for engineering recruitment tips? We’ve put together our top tips for finding perfect engineering candidates for your business.

Or, if you’re looking for an engineering recruitment agency, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve helped thousands of businesses with their engineering hires, and we’re ready to help a thousand more .

Get in touch today to find out more about our award-winning hiring services.

 

Have a well-written engineering job description

The key to efficient engineering recruitment is having a well-written, accurate, and detailed job description.

Make sure to give your engineering role an accurate and industry-recognised job title. Be specific about the number of years experience required, as well as the skills/software you require experience in.

We know engineering roles require specific skills and experience, so listing these in detail on your job description will allow you to find perfectly matched applicants.

 

Ask targeted questions during the interview

Engineers need to have excellent problem-solving abilities and technical and analytical mindsets.

In your interview, ask insightful and targeted questions that will help highlight if a candidate possesses the necessary skills for your engineering role.

For more advice, visit our blog for employer interview questions to ask candidates.

 

Sell your opportunity to candidates

If you’re recruiting for a senior engineering or a more specialised engineering role, candidates will be highly skilled and might be more particular about the type of role and company they’re looking for.

To attract top talented candidates to your engineering role, it’s essential to be proud of your company. List interesting benefits, any stimulating projects they will be working on, training opportunities, company perks, and the full, competitive salary.

 

Use experienced engineering recruitment agencies

A great way to hire talented engineering candidates for your business is to partner with engineering recruitment agents.

If you’re looking for engineering recruitment agencies in the UK, Give a Grad a Go is the UK’s leading graduate recruitment agency with years of experience hiring for engineering roles.

With a database of exceptional engineering graduates, we can help add talented engineering candidates to your company quickly and efficiently.

 

 

Recruitment advice

Engineering qualities to look for in potential applicants

Looking to recruit engineers and hire software engineers for your company, and wondering what makes a good engineer?

An important part of your engineering hiring process is knowing the exact qualities to look for in an ideal engineering candidate.

This will allow you to confidently make the right hires for your business and get the most out of your engineering new starters.

Here’s our guide of the top civil engineering qualities, technical engineering skills, and engineering qualities to look for in potential candidates:

 

Excellent problem-solving abilities

One of the top skills of an engineer is excellent problem-solving abilities.

Engineers will face problems throughout their day-to-day tasks, so it’s essential that your potential applicants have the ability to assess a situation.

Seek a candidate who can meticulously study a problem, apply their analytical skills in a methodical way to identify the root of the cause, and then find a way to solve the issue.

 

Ability to communicate effectively with a variety of people

As well as having excellent analytical and technical skills, it’s important for engineers to have great soft skills.

An important interpersonal characteristic of an engineer is being able to effectively translate technical issues and jargon to people at many different levels.

Candidates who have the ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner, and change their language depending on audiences, are key to look out for when hiring engineers.

 

Pay attention to detail

Working in the world of engineering, the slightest error may cause a system to malfunction, structure to fail, or software to glitch.

Your potential engineering applicants should have excellent and precise attention to the smallest of details.

They should be detail orientated and understand that, when working in engineering, nothing is too insignificant to double-check.

 

Creative thinking

A skill that you may not think is essential to your engineer hires, but is important to look for, is creativity.

Successful engineering candidates should not only have great mathematical and analytical abilities, but be able to also think dynamically.

The best engineering hires for your business will be candidates that can bring new creative solutions and big ideas to the table to improve the overall efficiency of existing systems and processes.

 

Recruitment advice

Software Developer job description tips

Hiring Software Developers for your business and wondering how to write the best software developer job description?

The key to making the right hires for your business is an effective job description. As one of the best graduate recruitment services, we know how to write successful job ads.

We’ve put together our example Software Engineer job description, software job description examples, and IT job description examples to help with your hiring needs:

 

Let candidates know the seniority, requirements, and type of Software Developer role from the beginning

To attract the right candidates to your role, it’s key to instantly show a candidate what you’re looking for.

In your job overview start with a statement such as “we are looking for a driven and switched-on Junior Front-End Developer”. This clearly lets a candidate know the type of Software Developer you are hiring, the seniority level, and a quick insight into your expectations of the role.

Follow this with an attention-grabbing statement about your company to excite a candidate and prompt them to carry on reading your job description: “You’ll be joining a growing FinTech startup who have recently gained funding and are ready to take the industry by storm!”.

 

Be clear about the role requirements

The key to qualified applicants applying to your Software Developer job vacancy is listing the role requirements and experience in detail.

List which web frameworks, relational databases, and programming languages you require experience in, and if you require a certain amount of years experience in any.

If it’s a more junior role, add if a certain degree is necessary. And, if it’s a more senior role, include if you require management experience and specific previous positions held.

 

Include a competitive industry average job salary

Providing a strong base salary for your Software Developer roles will ensure you find the very best talent when hiring for your developer team.

For Software Developer job descriptions and salary examples, visit our graduate employment statistics to see what other companies are paying Software Developer graduates.

 

 

Next article in this series: /
min read
Logo-Dark-Blush
Footer-Logo-Mobile

Connect with us!

  • twitter
  • instagram
  • linkedin
  • tiktok
  • youtube
  • facebook
Web Design London

© 2023 Give a Grad a Go

Change Location

Company

Work for us

Our Partners

The Team

Legal

Privacy Policy

Diversity & Inclusion

Modern Slavery Statement

Terms of Agreement

Web Design London

© 2023 Give a Grad a Go

An error has occurred, please try again later.An error has occurred, please try again later.

We use cookies to give you the best experience on our website. Click here for more information.

Give a Grad a Go
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!