IT Recruiters - why aren't they technical?

Anyone who read my short bio below (and for those that can't be bothered, here's my LinkedIn profile) will have noticed that I don't have any formal training or certification in IT. Indeed this is true of most IT Recruiters, and this is typically something that mystifies candidates. How we we effectively recruit IT roles if we don't have a deep understanding of the technology?

There are four key points I'd like to make addressing this question:

(1) IT recruitment is first and foremost a sales role, not an IT role. You spend a huge proportion of your day selling your services to clients, selling opportunities to candidates, and candidates back to hiring managers. If your heart lies in technology rather than sales, recuitment is not going to suit you.

(2) Candidates tend to be obsessed with technical skill, where are employers are more concerned about soft skills. Just about all of my clients tell me they would much rather hire the person that is 9 out of 10 for cultural fit and 5 out of 10 technically rather that the person who is 5 out of 10 for cultural fit and 9 out of 10 technically. Hence we put our focus into getting the person who is a great fit personality wise rather than someone who is a technical guru.

It's also worth noting that much like beauty, technical skill is in the eye of the beholder.

(3) IT is extremely broad. The nature of the roles I am recruiting change massively week to week - Java Developers, Helpdeskers, Business Analysts, Change Managers, Unix Engineers, Project Managers, SAP functional consultants, CIOs, ITIL specialists, etc etc etc. Even if I went out and got a certification such as a CCNA, 95% of the time it would have little to no relevance to the role I'm trying to recruit. And not having the opportunity to apply my skills means any technical nouse would rot on the vine, so to speak.

(4) Most decent IT recruiters do develop quite a good high level understanding of IT. You do need to be able to have a sensible discussion about technology.

To be honest I think a lot of candidates like playing the "Recruiters aren't technical" card when they aren't getting a lot of traction out in the market and want someone to blame. I will though expand on that in another post.