Software speciality is a major force in the job market. Unfortunately the field is strongly stereotyped. It is commonly believed that software engineers are introverts that work silently in the corner – somewhat typical nerds 🤓.
#ILookLikeAnEngineer was called into life to stop this appearance-based bias. Now let’s investigate the performance-based tilt.
It is commonly believed that great knowledge of tech skills is all you need to be a successful software developer. However, the HR & recruitment experts from People Link have pointed out an interesting shift 👀 in the IT recruitment field.
Currently, personality is getting more weight in taking a decision whom to hire as an engineer.
We discussed with Danas Venclovas, head of IT recruitment at People Link, how the software engineers’ personality has become the primary focus during the recruitment process.
Danas Venclovas from People Link has strong expertise in the IT sector recruitment.
Software engineering speciality has become a very broad field of study. Years ago a solo task is now an interaction between many stakeholders: designers, users, product owners, etc. How has that changed the profile of a software engineer?
That’s right, stakeholders are more and more involved in contributing to tasks meaning more collaboration is needed. If we look back 3-4 years, most of the companies tried to fill roles with people handling very specific skill set (i.e. software engineer with 3 years of .NET 4.x, or ASP.NET and even in some specific business domain experience) and that was complete standart in the market.
Currently, in recruitment we see a huge shift to what is required to fulfil tasks – companies now appreciate technical eclecticism. Meaning we are not looking for a PHP Symfony specialist or Java engineer, companies are looking for a Software Engineer who would feel comfortable with a combination of programming languages and would be able to choose different tools for different problems (i.e. use Node.JS on one microservice and Python for the other, while working on the same platform).
Another thing that changed over the past few years is the view on engineer’s personality. Companies used to focus on a specific skill whilst turning a blind eye on what they are as a person. Currently, personality is getting more weight in taking a decision whom to hire as an engineer.
As every company is using a different technical stack and in almost every case when a person joins the team, they have to adapt to the company’s stack and learn new things, Hiring Managers tend to take in consideration their communication, collaboration skills, ability to learn, flexibility, agility, etc.
Study suggests that although interests and personality types may play a role in the selection of a career, they may not predict success in that area. Would you agree with this? Do you see any prominent characteristics among software developers that secure a higher rate of success?
I really think that personality influences the selection of the career path – for example, in our recruitment we use a Tripod assessment center that assesses personality based on the Big 5 personality theory. Combined with mental and/or spatial ability tests can give us a very good indication on how a person will perform in a new role, will they adapt quickly and what might hinder their success.
Overall, higher scores in Arithmetical and Spatial abilities is a good predictor of one’s opportunities to have a good career in the IT industry. Hence if one is considering to transition to IT, I would very much advise them to take such a test- it would be a very useful guideline for them.
Developers like any other people share a very wide range of interests and hobbies – sports, hardware, gaming, cooking, you name it. None of these interests can predict developers’ ability to succeed at work. During my career I interviewed a lot of diverse people who in no way support the stereotypes of developers. I’ve seen very communicative, extroverted people enjoying coding all day and complete introverts who successfully manage teams and develop businesses.
But there is one factor which can definitely describe a person’s success in IT, actually in any field – and it’s a very simple thing – constant learning and finding ways to challenge oneself. Best candidates and leaders of the market always say the same – the more I’ve learned along the way, the more I still don’t know. And as IT is a very fast paced industry with constantly developing technologies, tools, and frameworks, one must keep up with all of it if you want to stay in the game.
People Link consists of experts in HR Recruitment and Sourcing, providing full Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services to wide range of sectors.
As an expert in recruitment, you have probably done numerous successful hirings. What are the biggest stumbling blocks that people make during an interview or in the applying process?
There are numerous ways one can fail in interviews or any other stage of the recruitment process. I could tell you stories for hours about candidates who come to a video interview without wearing a T-shirt, lights up a cigarette while being interviewed, curses, appears late by 30-40 mins or forgets to show up at all. So it’s not easy to surprise me anymore 😀
The interesting thing is that these stories are much more common in the IT industry than any others. It’s hard to tell why.
I think the biggest mistakes that people make during an interview is coming in without any preparation – not having taken a look at the company or position they’ll be interviewed for. I had cases when a person shows up on a video interview and doesn’t remember what company we will be talking to, and in most cases this strongly indicates that candidates have little motivation tochange jobs and are just “window shopping”. In most cases, talking with recruiters means one of the following: either you improve your salary and benefits by going to a better position/company or you increase your salary in the current company by going to your boss and saying – company X is headhunting me. So why not make some effort and show your best qualities.
At People Link we do a lot of surveys on the Lithuanian labour market and a few years back we were looking into what personal qualities employers look for in their employees. And the results showed that most desired qualities are responsibility, efficiency, independency, diligence and proactivity. So try to show these qualities during interviews with companies in addition to your technical skills and you will earn much more than you’ll lose: you’ll improve your working conditions, your salary, or at least – your reputation that in the long run might positively improve your working conditions and/or salary.
Give some hints to students or those who are considering a career change. Where in the IT sector do you see that companies’ demand is high, but the potential amount of talent is low?
In all the areas in the IT market demand is higher than supply. Choosing almost any field in IT to study has a tremendous potential. Of course, you should consider studying modern technologies like Golang, Node.JS, React.JS, Python, since the demand of these skills in the market are higher than other technologies but if you choose PHP, Java or .NET as your main technology, you will still have plenty of opportunities in the market. One of the “not such a good” choices would be going for Mainframe or other legacy technologies.
But, as I mentioned before, not only your technology stack is important, think of ways how to improve and show your personal qualities. And not only that but also invest some time into data literacy. If you’re thinking about IT, huge chances are that you’ll be working with data, algorithms and databases, unless you go for Front-end and Design. In this case you’ll have less data 🙂
If a company is struggling to find talent to join their team, how can People Link help in these situations?
At People Link we provide a number of services to the companies but the main is the full recruitment process. But I always say that companies we work with benefit the most from the partnership we have, since we help not only with finding and assessing candidates but we work with companies to make the best Employer Value proposition, help with recruitment process and strategy, we consult companies on the market trends, salaries and challenges, efficiency and effectiveness of their HR processes, etc. We have experience building teams for start-ups from scratch, helping market leaders to find and hire the right people and we cover many more functions from consulting to organizational research.
Want to know more about recruitment trends? Contact team of People Link for more info.
What are your predictions for the future? How will the IT sector recruitment trends change? What struggles/changes we have to be ready for?
The main struggle that recruitment will face is less time for filling the role. Two years ago it was completely normal for recruitment to take 3-4 weeks, year ago it was 2-3 weeks. Now if a candidate doesn’t have an answer whether he or she gets the offer or not in 2 weeks, you can practically forget about them – they’ve forgotten about you and lost their interest in the role. From the candidates point of view it’s completely fair to ask for a faster process since nobody wants to go through 1 month of recruitment and find out that the company chose someone else. It’s even worse when candidates don’t get any feedback at all.
Another thing that’s not a future trend but todays’ reality – recruiters need to work alongside hiring managers in order to recruit and engage the best people in the market. The age where recruitment agencies were just service providers is over and now every head-hunter needs to be as much as possible included in the recruitment process because only by having all the information we can help companies and candidates and actually be partners in dealing with market’s challenges.
And for the future in IT predictions, I really feel that Data literacy will become more important as everything is moving towards Big data, Data Science, AI and we all, doesn’t matter if you are a developer, a customer support, or HR Generalist, everyone will have to work with data and its analysis. Another trend – technical eclecticism – problems in the IT field evolve and become harder to solve but by sticking to one or two technologies as your technical stack means that soon you’ll be not competitive in the market. This means that, again, keep learning new things, keep up-to-date with new trends and invest time in learning.
Let’s summarise with 5 main takeaways:
💡 Currently, companies appreciate technical eclecticism – the ability of combining things from many different areas or systems. Constant improvement and finding ways to challenge oneself is the key.
💡 Danas has interviewed a lot of diverse people during his recruitment career and these people, in no way, support the stereotypes of developers.
💡 The recruitment process has become faster and faster. Two years ago it was completely normal for recruitment to take 3-4 weeks, year ago it was 2-3 weeks. Now if a candidate doesn’t have an answer whether he or she gets the offer or not in 2 weeks, you can practically forget about them.
💡 According to People Link survey results, the most desired and valued qualities are responsibility, efficiency, independency, diligence and proactivity.
💡 Not only your technology stack is important, but think of ways how to improve and show your personal qualities.
People Link is constantly helping to connect the right talent to relevant companies:
The recruitment landscape is changing every day. The same is the case for HR jobs in Lithuania. To really get ahead in the job market and find the perfect job or talent, you need to work with the right information.
Imagine accepting that job offer only to find out that you could have been double the royalty with a cherry on top elsewhere.
So, take the doubt out of your job or talent search. Read here to learn the 2019 data on HR jobs in Lithuania and what it might mean for you or your company.
Current stats on HR jobs in Lithuania: Who do companies want to hire
Continuing a general trend for recruiters, Lithuanian companies are most interested in hiring for higher roles. Out of a total of 40 job offers tracked between January and July 2019, the most offers (11) went to candidates for mid-level roles.
Offers for senior and junior roles followed in close second and third. The least number of offers were made for recruiters in executive roles. This makes sense, since it would be absurd for companies to build their teams out of 5 executives and 7 other team members. There’d be four pilots too many on that plane.
The more interesting part of the data is in the spread of offers though. Unlike what we found from our data on HR jobs in Estonia, the recruiting focus of Lithuanian companies is more on lower level staff.
It might be indicative of a drive on the part of these companies to build their HR teams out for the first time. So, if you’re just looking to cut your spurs in the HR landscape, you’ll definitely have your shot at HR jobs in Lithuania.
Top recruiting companies for HR jobs in Lithuania
More than a few companies have been actively hiring recruiters this year. We came up with a list of ten of the most active. The top ten are:
Most in-demand skills for HR jobs in Lithuania
Working in HR ordinarily requires a very broad skillset. Companies ordinarily prefer candidates to possess higher than average administrative skills, in addition any technical requirements.
You should have strong interpersonal skills, at the very least. So you don’t go John Wick on someone that abducts your dog, or meat pie.
Our data for the most in-demand skills for HR jobs in Lithuania also represents this preference for administrative competence. HR management and organisational development were each required by companies in 10% of job offers.
That makes sense too. You probably won’t want to work at a company where John Wick is the HR manager any more than other talent would.
Companies however displayed a strong preference for candidates with recruitment skills, requiring this competence 16% of the time. Headhunting and sourcing make up the top five, each being required in 13% of job offers.
Average salaries for HR professionals
What are companies on MeetFrank willing to pay talent for HR jobs in Lithuania? Well, quite a bit actually, especially when the national average is compared with our data on average salaries for HR jobs in Lithuania.
Trading Economics reports that the general average in Lithuania held at €1,289 per month. Our own data indicates that the average minimum salary during the first few months of 2019 was €940. The average maximum that companies offered was €1,659 while the total maximum recorded was €2,780.
When prorated for the mean average, average salary on MeetFrank falls around €1350. This indicates a slightly better figure than the national average for workers in Lithuania.
This is also consistent with our data on averages over the first 7 months of 2019, from January to July. The year started out in January with an average of €1,150, which rose to €1,300 in February. Although there was a slight dip to €1,050 in March, June was better, with €1,585.
These averages should not be taken at face value though, since they are more representative of the general spread in salaries from entry to executive level. While the big boys will obviously earn more, employees in lower level roles outnumber them. This makes for a generally lower average.
Our data on averages per seniority supports this. Employees in entry level roles earned €1,460 on average in 2019. Lead recruiters earned more than €300 more although, weirdly, executives earned less on average, almost €100 less.
The quirk may have been caused by a radically low salary offer. Somebody must have hired one very unlucky executive.
Top skills to earn over €2,500 from HR jobs in Lithuania
To earn upwards of €2,500 while working in HR jobs in Lithuania, you need to have competencies in headhunting, HR management and recruitment.
The mix of required skills are representative of what would be expected from a high-level member of any company’s HR team. To increase your chances of securing an offer within this range, it would be in your best interest to skill up.
Get as much experience as you can, even while obtaining the necessary skills. This way you have the best shot at getting the offer of your dreams.
Where do people want to work?
In a variety of 21st century establishments, no doubt. Our data confirms, once again, that the preferences of employees are rapidly moving away from traditional workspaces.
Our users want to work for the coolest offices, in startups and companies that allow remote work. With over 150,000 users from countries all over the Baltic on MeetFrank, this data may just confirm where employers should be looking to if they want to be the top choice.
There are companies that already fit this bill though. Baltic Amadeus, Telia Lietuvoje, UAB Icona, Interactio and Kilo Health already offer candidates these opportunities.
Baltic Amadeus, for instance, is a Vilnius based software development company that provides custom business solutions to companies in Europe and the US. It has over 200 employees and more than 500 clients. Its core values are continuous learning, expertise and, if you’ll believe this, fun.Check them out on MeetFrank to see if they tick the right boxes for you.
Find the jobs and talent that tick all the boxes
MeetFrank is a recruitment app. It’s not just any recruitment app though. It was specially designed to provide talent with all the information they need to make smart decisions about the job market.
It allows talent to not only find the best jobs on the market, but also lay hands on all the critical data that informs a better appreciation of the market. That’s why MeetFrank is made for you, the talent, first.
But what’s a hot talent without a company? MeetFranks works to provide companies with a cost-efficient, absolutely painless recruitment solution. If there’s a type of talent you want, we can help you find them. All without the administrative expense and stress of a full-blown traditional recruitment.
What makes the perfect HR job? A challenging work environment? Remote workspace? Juicy pay? It’s only natural that some of these factors are dear to you since they’ll often determine how well you feel HR jobs in Estonia rate.
We were also interested in the stats behind these. So, we asked some questions of our own. What positions are companies looking to fill? How much are they willing to pay? What are the top companies currently hiring HR personnel?
Drawing on data culled from our app, MeetFrank, we have created this article to provide all the answers you’ll need. Here’s all you want to know about 2019 trends for HR jobs in Estonia.
Most in-demand skills for HR jobs in Estonia
Estonia is the startup capital of Europe. No, really. The country’s citizens are super talented (and quite entrepreneurial too) since they have more startups per capita than any other country in Europe.
Although this may be helped significantly by the fact that it is the 132nd smallest country in the world by land mass, you still have to appreciate that they gave us Skype.
Considering the highly entrepreneurial landscape of Estonia, it can only be expected that their standards for HR jobs will be equally high.
Out of 9 skills often required for HR jobs in Estonia, companies were most particular about recruitment skills. According to data from MeetFrank, 19% of employers preferred that HR candidates have good competencies in recruitment.
This makes sense, since a large chunk of what HR ordinarily does is recruitment. In fact, according to The Harris Poll, half of HR managers never stop hiring. They are on the lookout for new talent all year round.
So, it makes sense that companies will be looking to maintain this energy too by ensuring that their HR team is never short of personnel.
Other skills making up the top 5 were HR management and HR planning, with 13% and headhunting and sourcing with 12%.
The mix of skills most in-demand is indicative of a current bias for higher level roles in recruitment. You want your HR team lead to have specific skills in management, planning, headhunting and sourcing.
This is corroborated by our data on the team roles that companies are most looking to fill.
Who are companies looking to hire?
Employee roles in companies can be broadly categorized into six roles. There are entry, junior, mid-level, senior, lead and executive roles. Seniority also goes in that order with newbies to the industry coming in at entry level and really experienced hands, as executives.
According to our data on offers for HR jobs in Estonia made on our app, companies are looking to fill senior, lead and mid-level roles the most.
Senior recruiters are currently in highest demand, reinforcing the bias that companies seem to have for higher level roles. Lead recruiters are the second most recruited while demand for candidates in mid-level roles follows in third.
There’s quite a distance between demand for these three roles and demand for recruiters in entry, executive and junior roles. This, perhaps, emphasizes the need for candidates to ensure they expand their competencies if they’re to get a fair shot at HR jobs in Estonia.
Average salaries for HR jobs in Estonia
We curated our data on average salaries across three main tracks: average overall salaries, average per seniority and average between January and July 2019. The results make for interesting reading.
Overall, the average minimum salary recorded for HR jobs in Estonia was €1,395 while the average maximum was €2,444. The highest salary recorded during the period was €4,000. These figures are not indicative of the overall salary landscape though.
While there was reduced demand for recruiters in lower level roles, individuals such as these often form the bulk of HR workforce. And considering that they don’t ordinarily earn as much as those in higher level roles, their salaries would reduce the general average.
This especially makes sense when you consider the data for average salaries per seniority. Recruiters in entry roles earned an average of €1,500, with those in mid-level roles earning more than €700 more. Seniors, lead and executives earned averages of €2,562, €2,650 and €2,750 respectively.
For the month of January, the average salary earned was €1,625. This picked up well in February and March, with the average in March being €3,000. Although there was a bit of a drop in May and June, the average came back up to €2,083 in July.
What skills do you need to earn over €2,500?
To earn more than €2,500 working in HR jobs in Estonia, you need a strong mix of skills including recruitment, HR management and headhunting skills.
This skill set would ordinarily be what you’d expect of a senior or lead recruiter since HR management and headhunting are generally high-level tasks. The data correlates with what we found on average salaries per seniority.
What HR jobs in Estonia are getting the most attraction?
One of the great things about Estonia is the openness of its businesses to new ideas. With so many startups routinely kicking off in the country, it’s little wonder that there’s quite a preference for disruptive workspaces.
Thanks to the data we were able to get off MeetFrank, we found companies falling into this category, that are also looking for recruiters. COMODULE, SEB, BigBank, Change, Scoro, Derivco, Xolo, 1oT and NoCry fit the bill.
Comodule is a global company with its headquarters in Tallinn. It also has business development offices in Berlin and Taipei. The company is a global leader in bicycle and scooter connectivity, providing solutions that link light vehicles together. If you’re interested in Comodule,check them out on MeetFrank. The interest might just be mutual.
Top 10 companies hiring recruiters in Estonia
Quite a number of companies have been recruiting for HR jobs in Estonia. We curated the data to find the top 10 busiest companies and came up with a list.
Mobinner, SEB, Bigbank, Playtech, betPawa, Change, Scoro Software, INZMO GmbH, Derivco and Nortal have all been very active.Head on over to MeetFrank to see what they’re about.
MeetFrank can answer all your questions
Our job solutions app, MeetFrank, was created to democratise the job market. We make it easier for talent to find the companies closest to their hearts and for recruiters to find the talent they want.
We believe recruitment should not be difficult, expensive or stressful. That’s why we have created the perfect platform for both talent and recruiters to meet halfway. Interested in finding out how MeetFrank makes recruitment easy?Schedule a free demo today.
A country where you can sit in a glass igloo and watch the aurora borealis almost all year round, Finland can often seem like a dream. It has beautiful scenery, and with a population of slightly over 5 million, is the most sparsely populated country in the world.
If you have always wanted to find work in Finland, you just may be coming in at the best time ever. Due to the country’s contracting labor market, more jobs will become available.
So, if you have had your eye on some HR jobs in Finland, you want to read through this article so you know what to expect.
What does the job market in Finland look like?
Finland has one of the best performing economies in the EU. Its highly industrialised economy had a GDP $244.9 billion in 2017, with a per capita GDP of $44,500. Its per capita figures were almost as high as those of Austria and the Netherlands, and slightly higher than Germany.
These figures underscore the high standard of living in the country and the quality of opportunities open to its inhabitants.
Although the economy grew at a steady rate prior to 2009, it contracted slightly between2012 and 2014. This recession affected the government’s spending power and the country’s debt ratio. It recovered in 2016 though and is expected to maintain a 1.5% growth rate in 2019.
It’s a different story for the Finnish labor market however. Finland has been struggling with a rapidly ageing population for a while now. It is expected thatin 15 years’ time, Finland’s population will look likeJapan’s today.
The country’s working population is steadily ageing, andby 2070, those aged over 65 will be about 1/3 of the population. This will strain the country’s earning capacity and increase its expenditure at the same time. More money will have to be spent on social security plans for the newly aged members of the population.
The Finnish government is looking to make the country more attractive to immigrant talent in hopes of bridging the steady loss of its working population. Against this backdrop, we can better appreciate the 2019 statistics on HR jobs in Finland culled from MeetFrank’s app.
What positions are in demand for HR jobs in Finland?
The interesting thing about our data on HR jobs in Finland is their direct relevance to Finland’s current labor market troubles. HR personnel are generally tasked with helping companies maintain the positive image they need to attract talent.
They are often charged with recruiting, screening, interviewing and placing workers. They are also key to employee relations, payroll, benefits and training. You would expect that companies looking to ride out the troubles posed by the dwindling working population will want their HR on its “A-game”.
Perhaps this also explains our data on what talents are being sourced for HR jobs in Finland. Senior recruiters are currently in highest demand, as per MeetFrank data on jobs offers within the first 6 months of 2019.
Offers for mid-level and lead recruiters followed in close second while offers for junior recruiters were least.
The data does indicate that companies want to build out their HR teams from the middle up. Rather than adopt a top-heavy or bottom-heavy approach, the data shows that firms want more balanced teams with a good mix of talents.
Average monthly salaries for HR jobs in Finland
There has been a general upward trend for salaries in Finland recently. In the second quarter of 2016, average gross per month in Finland was €3,380. This was the7th highest in the EU at the time.
That figure has however steadily risen through the period. Gross average hit an all-time high of€3,534 in the second quarter of 2019, from €3,499 in the first quarter.
On the MeetFrank app, the average minimum salary offered for HR jobs in Finland was €2,833 while the maximum was €4,133. The figures confirm the national average, falling within the same threshold.
The total maximum amount offered during the period was €4,700. You’ll probably agree that much will be required of anyone that takes home this paycheck. That makes sense too, when you consider our data on the top 5 in demand skills for HR jobs in Finland and the combination of skills required to earn a salary in that range.
Top 5 in demand skills for Finnish HR jobs
The job description of HR officers covers a wide range of tasks. Although the general workload may be broken down and distributed amongst several departments in big companies, that’s not always the case.
For startups that cannot afford to spread too many functions, HR personnel will need to come highly skilled and versatile.
According to our data, out of 9 skills, companies are most interested in hiring candidates that have strong recruitment competencies. At 18%, that’s where the focus of most companies is on and quite frankly, we can understand them. No one wants to be caught in the squeeze of the contracting labor market.
The other skills also reflect this, although there is a more even spread in the requirements. Companies are also interested in candidates that have employer branding and headhunting related skills. Along with team leading and other skills, each of these constitute 12% of the requirements in job offers on MeetFrank.
How skilled do you need to be to command a salary well north of €2,500? Very skilled, if our data is anything to go by.
To earn a salary over that amount, candidates need to be competent in recruitment, HR management and headhunting. That pretty much describes an HR team lead or at least, a senior officer.
Top companies hiring for HR jobs in Finland
The three top companies that have been most active in the HR recruitment landscape are Sector Alarm Oy, Teamit Group Oy and Transval Henkilöstöpalvelut Oy. Here’s a bit on each of these companies.
Sector Alarm Oy is the second largest operator in the European home security sector. It has over 2,000 employees in Europe and boasts a customer base of over 530,000 customers across Europe. The company has been around for 25 years and provides the prospect of stable, secure employment.
Teamit Group Oy is an IT company based in Helsinki. It is a software consulting and product house that specialises in developing IT solutions for a varied range of clients. The company markets itself as an equal opportunities employer with a turnover of over €2.3 million in 2018. Considering that it was only established in 2013, that’s a healthy growth rate.
Transval Henkilöstöpalvelut Oy is based in Vantaa, Finland. The company is an internal logistics giant, with services covering the five core areas of industrial, warehousing, terminal, consulting, human resources and retail services.
Use MeetFrank to find your perfect job solution
MeetFrank is an app that makes talent hunting and job search easy as breathing. As a talent driven marketplace with over 250,000 users, MeetFrank provides both employers and candidates with all the juicy stats that drive employment.
Recruiters can use the platform to incredibly simplify the task of sourcing and recruiting talent. The platform removes the need to expend sparse resources on developing in-house recruitment solutions by providing the same services in a cost-efficient package.Book a demo call here to see how it can help your company recruit better.
The platform is driven by individual talent though. That’s why MeetFrank is made for you, the talent, first. To find the best HR jobs in Finland, and pretty much any job you’re after,download the app here for free.
