27 Tools and Resources to Boost Technical Recruiting in 2020

Recruiting the best and the brightest developers in the business is hard work—especially when you’re not necessarily an expert in their domain. 

We’ve gathered tools that will give you a technological edge in helping you build a better technical recruiting process. From staying in the know, to reaching hard-to-get candidates, to employee engagement, we traced the hiring process from start to finish to bring you the most time saving, industry-changing solutions for each stage of the process.   

Based on a combination of user base size, social feedback, and reviews, we’ve incorporated both established high tech recruiting solutions, as well as some up and coming options for the adventurous. Though most of these solutions listed here are paid platforms, we’ve done our best to point out free (or nearly free) alternatives wherever possible.  

So without further ado, let’s get started:

Tools for Staying in the Know

These tools and resources help keep tabs on the news and trends that matter most in the tech talent community.

 1. Newsprompt

Keeping tabs on relevant tech news and articles can be incredibly time-consuming. Newsprompt monitors your article browsing activity to automatically suggest articles you might want to read, and then compiles them into one space. It focuses on fairly high-level news but is an easy way to keep in the loop with minimum effort.

For example, if you spend a lot of time reading through cybersecurity news in VentureBeat’s Dev channel, Newsprompt might suggest an article from another news outlet about the WannaCrypt ransomware outbreak. It plugs right into your Google Chrome browser, and just launched in August 2016.

2. HackerNews

Where developers notoriously hangout. It’s the Facebook for developers. The ultimate ear to the ground when you’re trying to keep in sync with the tech talent community.

HackerNews is run by Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley-based accelerator that’s helped to propel the likes of DoorDash, Zenefits, Optimizely, and Airbnb to success. The Reddit-style site lets the community upvote the content they like most, propelling the most popular stories to the top of the list. You’ll find posts on everything from “MNIST for Machine Learning Beginners”, to breaking news on tech acquisition deals – really, whatever web content the tech talent community is talking about at any given moment.   

3. Slashdot

Slashdot is the TL;DR version of most tech news sites. It compiles the most popular tech and developer-centered news articles into easy to digest executive summaries. Though on any given day, it shares a good deal of content with HackerNews, each entry contains only an article title and a roughly 200-word synopsis, making it perfect for quick, high-level overviews.

Tools for Reaching Hard-to-Get Candidates

This set of tools helps simplify the process of finding new potential candidates through automation and innovative communication tools.  

4. Lusha

InMail response rates low? Lusha leverages a database of “billions of contacts” to help you find direct phone numbers and emails for potential candidates. With the Chrome extension, you simply navigate to a candidate’s LinkedIn profile, and Lusha will automatically serve up any contact information it has on that candidate so that you can reach out directly.

The most basic subscription plan is free, but you’ll need to invest in a paid plan if you want to do more than a few searches per month.

Free alternative: Clearbit Connect

5.  Mixmax

Most mail tracking platforms let you see who has read, opened, or clicked links within an email. Mixmax goes above and beyond, with advanced email tracking, plus a calendar scheduling feature, customizable email templates, and scalable personalized emails. It even has built-in ATS integration options.
The beauty of Mixmax is that it’s truly “account-based”. It tracks email interactions with candidates as they go through the stages of interaction you’ve defined, and even goes so far as to automatically trigger email personalized sequences based on their activity.
Free alternative: Mailtrack for tracking + Gorgias for email templates

 6. Valilly

Valilly is like LinkedIn specifically for tech job seekers and employers. Job seekers create free profiles to get matched with relevant hiring employers, and employers receive a weekly list of candidate matches for their posted roles.
Once you’re signed up as an employer, you can post any open jobs on the platform. From there, Valilly’s in-house sourcing team will work to provide a curated list of interested candidates on a weekly basis. They also provide a chatbot service to help get in touch with candidates and ask them any qualifying questions you want to kick off with.

Tools for Candidate Screening

These tools help screen promising candidates to determine which will be the best skill, team, and company fit.

7.  Pymetrics

Skill fit doesn’t always equal personal fit. pymetrics [sic] aims to build candidate cognitive profiles based on a series of neuroscience-based games. Candidates are given a series of 12 games to determine where they fall in the spectrum of qualities like planning efficiency, attention control, and willingness to take risks.

Once a candidate completes pymetrics’ games, the algorithm matches them suitable job openings, based on those that employers have posted within the platform. The result is an unbiased, inclusive method of seeking out cognitive and emotional fit for any given role.

8. The Predictive Index

According to The Predictive Index, cognitive and behavioral traits are among the biggest predictors of on-the-job performance. That’s why The Predictive Index utilizes behavioral assessments to determine the cognitive traits required for any given job and then matches candidates based on how well they meet the ideal traits for the job.

Potential managers and stakeholders take a job assessment test, which in turn generates a behavioral and cognitive target for the job at hand. Candidates are screened using the target data, allowing you to compare their measured traits side by side to see which will fit your needs best. The Predictive Index even assigns a workplace behavioral expert to every account to ease the process.  

9. HackerRank CodeScreen

You probably saw this one coming. HackerRank CodeScreen is a technical assessment tool aimed at sourcing, screening, and hiring effective developers through skills-based assessments. They're a great way to test and assess candidates on specific technical skill sets before you get to the interview stage. You can either create your own custom tests, or use a pre-made one.

Either way, there’s no manual code review on your part, so you’ll be able to accurately assess a candidate’s technical skill set without the time sink of a line by line evaluation.

Tools for Engagement & Feedback

These tools ease the process of encouraging employee engagement to decrease turnover for in-demand tech talent.

10. Fond

Previously AnyPerk, Fond is a one-stop shop for increasing employee engagement. The platform can not only coordinate corporate discounts and perks but also offers an employee recognition program managed independently by a Fond CSM. It also offers free employee engagement surveys to help gauge general employee sentiment within your company.

One particularly cool feature of Fond is its Employee Rewards program, which allows managers to send out points-based rewards whenever an employee has accomplished something truly stellar. In turn, employees can redeem those points in the Fond rewards platform for things like gift cards, movie tickets, and more.  

11. Ratedly

Glassdoor, Indeed, CareerBliss… the list of employee review sites goes on. Ratedly is a new platform that aggregates and monitors employee reviews of your company across multiple popular feedback sites. Currently, run through an iOS app, Ratedly creates a collection of recent company reviews across multiple sites in a single, simple, scrollable feed for review. You can even set the app to send you a notification whenever a new review appears, or share relevant reviews with managers via email directly from the app.

It’s still in its infancy, but at $150/mo, it stands to save a lot of time for those that want to keep tabs on their reputation on the ground. It’s currently mobile-only, but their website indicates that a desktop web app is on the way.

Tools for Organization & Efficiency

These tools streamline everyday processes to decrease your time spent on tedious or needlessly time-consuming tasks.

12. Calendly

Book calendar appointments without back-and-forth using Calendly, an appointment scheduling tool. You simply set your preferred availability, share your link with the person you want to meet with, allow them to choose their preferred time, and you’re done – the event is automatically created.

It’s free to start, but most advanced features (like integrations) require a low monthly fee.
Free alternative: Appoint.ly

13. ZapInfo

ZapInfo is a simple tool, but a huge timesaver. Its functionality is simple: it clips detailed candidate data like name, location, phone number, and more from sites like LinkedIn. Since it automatically parses the data into relevant fields, all you have to do is paste it into your ATS—it’ll autofill the correct information into the appropriate fields.

14. Airtable

Airtable is a "part spreadsheet, part database" tool that can be used to organize pretty much anything. While there's a bit of a learning curve to master the platform, if you're looking to get started quickly, you can always start with one of their HR & recruiting templates. You'll find anything from a simple ATS, to an onboarding checklist, to visitor management system, and more—all of which are totally customizable. And if you're looking for inspiration, their community, Airtable Universe, has tons of usable, user-submitted templates that you can build off of, too. Best of all: it's free to use. 

Freelance Hiring

These tools and resources help find freelance technical talent at the budget, skill level, and scope you need, from singular independent developers to fully functional development teams.

15. Upwork

Upwork (previously oDesk) is The original standard for finding freelance talent, boasting boasting over 12 million registered freelancers on its site, Upwork is the world’s largest freelancer marketplace. It also has a wide variety of technical talent in its pool, but with none of the vetting – so you’ll have to manually seek out and review any potential freelance candidates.

That said, the expansive user pool drives (very) competitive prices, so it’s very budget friendly in comparison more exclusive freelancer networks. Simply post a job description, define any specific freelancer requirements (e.g. location), then sit back and review as interested freelancers send proposals your way.  

16. Scalable Path

ScalablePath focuses on a fairly large subgroup of talent, supplying hiring managers with everything from developers, to designers, to marketers. Once the team at ScalablePath speaks with you to determine the scope of your project, they’ll personally source the freelancers best fit to get the job done.

17. Gun.io

If you’re looking for a long-term relationship with your freelance technical talent, try Gun.io. They leverage only full-time freelancers to build “high-quality, needs-based custom work at a fair and honest rate.” The focus is on integrity and long-term stability for every project they work on, which is a slight departure from the siloed plug-and-play model freelancers are most often hired for.

Once you sign up for Gun.io, all you need to do is fill out a short form to describe your freelancer needs. Representatives from Gun.io will match you with the best-matched freelancer, then oversee the project until completion to make sure you stay on time and on budget.

18. Koder

Another platform at the leading edge of on-demand tech teams, Koder is a monthly subscription service that crowdsources everything from CTOs, to product managers, to developers to bring your vision to life. Koder doesn’t just source individual freelancers, but a whole technical team for any given project – including a product manager to oversee and communicate progress from start to finish.

Users pay a monthly subscription fee that determines the level of support you’ll receive in your pre-built team. Each level comes with a set number of employees and set of capabilities they can tackle (like Web Apps, or even VR). You choose the level of support that’s best for your current needs, then ramp up your plan if needed as your project evolves.

Tools for The Future of Hiring

These up and coming tools seek to leverage AI technology to take manual labor out of the hiring process, using automated processes to find, screen, and even interact with potential employees.

19. Textio

Writing an effective job description is something of an art. Textio turns that art into a science, analyzing 10 million+ job posts a week to help you write the job description most statistically likely to attract your ideal candidate.

Using its natural language processing engine, Textio tracks millions of job posts and their eventual outcomes to determine how to best frame your job description to attract the candidates you’re seeking. It can even help tweak your language to ensure a neutral written tone, which can help your listing appeal to a more diverse set of candidates.
Free alternative: DirectReports

20. Job Pal

Job Pal lets you chat directly with potential candidates without having to actually talk to them. It’s a conversation chatbot that works across Messenger, Skype, Slack, and even Telegram to chat with potential candidates. You can use Job Pal either on your career-related webpages to catch engaged candidates on your site or use it in your outbound social media recruiting to spark a conversation with potential candidates. It even has a pre-screening function to help weed out irrelevant candidates based on criteria you specify.

Though Job Pal only offers its services through customized packages at present, this could be a huge help to those dealing with large volumes of inbound candidates.

21. Arya

For those that want a fully automated process, Arya is worth a look.

The platform calls itself “the world’s first AI recruiting platform,” leveraging AI technology to populate your pipeline. In tandem with your internal database, popular job boards, and social media sites, it uses a combination of advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to pick and choose the candidates that best suit the jobs you’re looking to fill.

Based on the data it collects, it can even predict which passive candidates are most likely to move jobs based on “mover probability,” so that you don’t have to limit your search to just active job seekers. It can also integrate with your ATS.

22. Mya

Billed as “your team’s A.I. recruiter,” Mya works with your existing team and ATS to source, screen, and schedule time with potential candidates. Mya uses a machine learning algorithm to prioritize candidates from a large volume of applicants, and even interact with top applicants as needed.

Mya’s chat function is especially impressive. It utilizes natural language understanding to pull important details out of a fluid conversation, and dialog management to determine what questions to ask, based on the information gathered on a candidate up to that point. It even has a natural language generation facet, which allows conversations with Mya to feel natural, fluid, and even human.  

23. Paradox

Paradox uses an AI-powered assistant they call Olivia to automate a variety of recruiting and coordination tasks via chat. Leveraging channels like email and SMS, Olivia is able to communicate directly to candidates to answer frequently asked questions, guide candidates through the application process, schedule meetings, and more.

24. Zoom.ai

Zoom.ai bills itself as "a meeting assistant for recruiters." Its goal is to offload tedious and repetitive tasks related to meeting scheduling, prep, and documentation. The biggest benefit is its scheduling capabilities, which let candidates self-schedule interviews and calls based on your calendar availability. But it doesn't just set 1:1 meetings: Zoom.ai takes it one step further by scheduling complex group interviews, sharing daily briefings, booking meeting rooms, and more.

Tools for Remote Hiring

Remote hiring is the new normal in 2020. These tools help you find and evaluate the best fit candidates from afar—wherever they may be.

25. Altru

When candidates aren't interviewing onsite, it's not always easy for them to get a feel for your workplace, and your work culture. So when hiring remotely, it's more important than ever to double down on talent branding. Altru leverages its video platform to build talent branding content that "builds an authentic view of what it's really like at your company." It puts employees front and center, turning them into talent brand advocates with video testimonials they can record on their own time, and on their own devices.

26. HackerRank CodePair

Again: you probably saw this one coming. CodePair is HackerRank's online technical interviewing solution. Leveraging a shared, live IDE, CodePair connects technical candidates and interviewers via video chat as they work collaboratively from afar. With tons of built-in interviewer tools like recommended questions, a library of pre-made questions, diagram functionalities, and more, CodePair makes it easier for engineering teams to evaluate developers without the onsite.

27. Printfection

Arguably one of the biggest challenges of remote hiring is remote onboarding. In a new job, most people rely on face-to-face peer interaction, orientations, and any number of hallway conversations to learn about the org, and to get excited about their role. One way to get candidates excited from afar? Sending swag kits.

For sending swag kits to remote employees, Printfection is extremely handy. A full-service swag management platform, Printfection can prep, store, and ship onboarding kits anywhere in the world with a few clicks. It also has a built in swag inventory tracker, and can handle sourcing and printing.

What did we miss?

What are your favorite tools and resources for simplifying the hiring process? If we missed one of your go-tos, reach out to us on LinkedIn and let us know.