Understanding a Technical Recruiter with Loren Guerra

In the United States, the STEM-skilled workforce is in high demand. There aren’t enough candidates skilled and educated in science, technology, engineering and math to fill the number of positions available nationwide. In fact, STEM jobs are remaining unfilled in large numbers which is why I thought it best to go to the source and talk directly to a technical recruiter to understand how the hire, recruit and build relationships with these highly sought after STEM workers.

Episode 33: Tapping Into the Mind of a Technical Recruiter with Loren Guerra (@lorenguerra)

In this episode I talk to Loren Guerra, a technical recruiter based in Austin, Texas, who recruiter for Blizzard Entertainment, a gaming company that has a cool techie culture. Loren shares with me on his approach to engaging and reaching out to technical candidates who are increasingly deleting their LinkedIn profiles as well as other social sites due in part to recruiters who are spraying and praying to find candidates to fill their company’s job openings. Loren’s approach is casual focusing on building relationships with his candidate population and unlike many “social recruiters” he relies on in person and phone conversations to get to better know his candidates and gain those coveted referral introductions that often lead to the purple unicorn and squirrel candidates.

Competitive Advantage in a Global Marketplace

Loren, is not an engineer or coder but has worked in the industry for 20 years which he says gives him a distinct competitive advantage to talk the language without just dumping buzzwords into the conversation and turning off a potential candidate. Interestingly enough about Loren is that he has worked in both agency recruiter as well as corporate and provides some great global insights into the differences and how they can uniquely suit your company’s technical recruiting needs.

I love his insights into the global world of technical recruiting. He believes that recruiters have to live the brand and provide candidates a window into a company’s culture especially to compete against other popular high tech companies. You can connect with Loren on LinkedIn.