Carles Font: “The successful headhunter is the one who tells the truth very well.”
We interview Carles Font, CEO and Partner at Q-tech, to talk about candidates, attracting talent, how the talent market is changing, and the role of salary in attracting talent. Q-tech is a recruiting company that specializes in selecting IT professionals with over twenty years of experience.
What should all the candidates you are looking for have?
Technical knowledge is very important when making technology, it is obvious, but it is worth saying. However, setting aside the technical conditions, there is a crucial factor that we could define as the personal skills of the individual. Being focused on doing things with desire and quality is key in our lives, not just in the technological realm.
A person motivated to do their job, with a predisposition to get things right and improve, is the raw material for growth. In the end, technology can be taught, but skills and aptitudes are something you have to put yourself forward for.
What’s the biggest difficulty you encounter when it comes to attracting talent?
Today, in the technology sector, there is brutal pressure on the labor market. Many companies are looking for professionals, but there is a scarcity of them. So much so that nowadays, on many occasions, professionals who are even happily working are sought. There is very high need inflation, therefore very high wage inflation, and a growing recruitment dynamic that is limited to filling positions very quickly.
Faced with this scenario, the companies dedicated to hiring tech profiles find it difficult to understand which positions have a long-term projection, which are interesting projects, and which are not meant to plug a hole very quickly. Once this has been determined, the appropriate candidates for the profiles must be identified, with information relayed to them and genuine efforts made to persuade them of how these opportunities fit into their personal and professional trajectories. The successful headhunter is not the one who cheats very well, but the one who tells the truth very well.
The talent market seems to have changed a lot in recent times. What changes have you noticed recently?
At this time there has been a change in trend in terms of what companies and candidates offer and demand. Most companies currently offer a hybrid model of part-time work: three days of telework and two face-to-face; or vice versa. This was unthinkable two years ago, and now it has become a requirement.
On the other hand, the remote sheet is also being implemented vigorously. It appears that it could have a market presence of 20% to 30%. Many companies based in Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, London, New York, or Amsterdam recruit remotely, both inside and outside their country. This has put more pressure on senior profiles that are already independent and ready to work autonomously. It is also slowing down the evolution of junior profiles, which may not have all the skills to work remotely.
To all this, we must add the international offer. Several companies in New York, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, and Berlin ask us for people with specific and difficult-to-find abilities. These positions to be filled elsewhere are remunerated at more than 30% of the salary they would pay, for example, in Barcelona. The market is changing very quickly.
In this changing landscape, what is the role of salary in attracting digital talent?
Salary about ten years ago was the most important thing in motivating decision-making. However, for some time now, salaries, without losing importance, share prominence with other aspects. It is the case of social benefits, flexible working hours, the projects to work on, the equipment, or the technology used. We are at the advent of the remote, there is a growing competition between companies for the digital talent market, and we are increasing our digital presence… Even so, the salary seems to have been the undisputed protagonist again.
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