13 Qualities To Look For In Your Next Tech Employee

WinMax Blog Team

25 April 2022
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Hiring is never easy. Not only do you want an employee who possesses the right skills and talents for the job, but you also want to ensure that your hire will fit in with your company and its culture. This means that being proficient in tech or IT is not enough. The employee also needs to have soft skills like teamwork, time management, communication and critical thinking. To further complicate things, if you are a tech startup, you likely do not have the kind of budget that will let you go on a recruitment frenzy. At the same time, you also cannot afford to hire someone who does not tick every box. In other words, the margin of error for you – the recruiter – is very low, and you need to know exactly what you are looking for in a potential tech hire.

In this blog, we will discuss some of the essential qualities that every tech employee should possess. Looking for these qualities will help you identify if a particular candidate is the right fit for the role and your company.

Hiring a Tech Employee is Hard, Especially if you do not know the Traits & Abilities that you are Looking for. Here are Qualities To Look for in your next Tech Employee.

1. Curiosity

The one sure thing about technology is that it is dynamic and constantly evolving. Software and hardware vendors are constantly evolving their offerings. New IT trends emerge out of thin air and make current practices obsolete almost overnight. The obsolete practices then dissolve into nothingness, much like the people who failed to upgrade their skills under the delusion that these practices would stay on forever.

The point is, you should look for an employee that not only has the core technical abilities but a curious mind to go with it. They should have a never-ending desire to learn, not least because they work in an industry that is constantly coming up with new and more sophisticated tools.

Such an employee will always be hungry for knowledge, will never stop asking questions and learning new things and will also conduct themselves with humbleness and humility. You need someone who is willing to dive deep into things and question the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of everything that they encounter. Such employees will help you look at the big picture and solve the biggest problems.

2. Team Player

Being a team player is essential for pretty much any employee in any field. Being able to work and thrive in a team will make sure that your chosen candidate flourishes in their tech role. Also, you will need strong team-workers to make sure that your projects go smoothly and with minimal conflicts.

A team player is also someone who is willing to share their knowledge and expertise with others. They should help their colleagues improve and grow, and should not shy away from providing assistance and guidance to those who need it. This will also be beneficial for the employee themselves, as guiding other people often helps one to view things from a different perspective and broaden their horizon.

3. Agility And Speed

Look for someone who believes that the only thing constant in this world is change. As the past two odd years have taught us, it is pointless and irrelevant to look for stability and familiarity.

You want a tech employee capable of understanding the global landscape, and acknowledging the unprecedented pace of change that the world is witnessing. Risk aversion and loss minimization are far less important than agility, speed, and adaptability.

4. Attention To Detail / Patience

Most, if not all, tech problems are caused by minuscule and almost unnoticeable mistakes. These mistakes, however, are hardly as small as they look, as they can affect the appearance of a webpage or the fluidity of a software program. Therefore, your tech employee needs to have a tremendous eye for detail so that they can identify these tiny errors and anomalies before they evolve into major issues.

However, attention to detail is not of much use if the employee is not patient enough to review even the tiniest of details in each assignment. Hence, your chosen employee should also be patient and composed.

5. A Combination of Hard Skills and Business Acumen

One of the most crucial and significant trends with tech organizations is their increasing proximity with the businesses that they serve. This means that being a tech-head is not enough; you need to know quite a bit about the world of business. A successful candidate should be able to complement their tech skills with adequate business acumen. If you place too much emphasis on hard technical skills, you might miss out on the kind of organizational skills that are essential for handling an IT project, department, or company.

Find an employee who is skilled in tech but also has a solid understanding of business and how it works. This will allow them to better serve their clients in the business world, and come up with more innovative solutions for them.

6. Integrity

A candidate’s integrity will help you determine how true they are to their word and how much value they place on their commitments. In addition, someone with high integrity is confident about their decisions, open to constructive criticism, shows a strong willingness to learn and improve, and is willing to admit when they are wrong or do not have all the answers.

7. A Firm Understanding of Data

Data is the driving force behind every IT or tech company, and is equally important for the clients it serves. Your tech employee should be able to understand data and how all the software applications in the company are interlinked. In addition, an employee that understands data will also understand your company’s business model and internal processes.

8. A Quick and Creative Thinker

A common trait in employees who go on to become leaders in their organizations is that they are mentally agile and can make the right spontaneous decisions. A tech employee that can think on their feet will be able to deal with the fluidity of the tech universe, and will also be able to tackle any work-related obstacles that come their way.Related to swift thinking is the ability to think creatively. Creative thinking involves coming up with innovative and novel solutions to problems, reusing old technologies in unique ways, coming up with new processes, and defining new approaches.

9. Experienced in AI (Artificial Intelligence)

AI is the future, and many businesses are hiring data engineers, machine learning experts, and business analysts. It is believed that these technologies will be shaping and reshaping the world within the next decade or two. AI can boost your entire business landscape, and, in some instances, even help you identify more efficient business models.

10. Passion

You must hire someone who is passionate about their particular field and domain. See if a candidate has walked the extra mile to develop and hone their skills, demonstrates expertise in areas that go beyond their normal scope of work, or contributes to knowledge forums related to their field.

The more passionate someone is about their work, the more likely they are to go above and beyond for your organization. In addition, they are unlikely to be deterred by criticism – if anything, they will treat this passion as fuel, and use it as motivation to perform even better in the future.

11. Loves Technology

Building up from the previous point, a tech hire should live and breathe technology. Also, when you love what you do, you strive to do your best every time because it is not just about ‘getting the job done’. This love for technology will reflect in the quality of your employee’s work, their commitment to the task and hand, and their desire to work on more challenging and complex assignments.

12. Strong Communication Skills

A lot of modern tech roles reside at the border of technology and business. In order to bridge that gap, a tech employee needs to have firm communication skills, along with solid analytical skills and industry knowledge. A good communicator will be able to translate their technological skills into the business world, and help your organization make better decisions.

13. Emotional Discipline

Remaining cool, calm, and composed is very important for long term professional success in any field. Your tech hire should be able to handle complex projects and tight deadlines, and should thrive under pressure situations. They should also be vibrant and upbeat, and rub off positively on their colleagues and teammates.

Final Word:

To sum up, we tried to include all of the most essential prerequisites for a tech employee, but this list is by no means exhaustive. Having said that, we certainly hope and believe that this guide will serve as a useful reference point for when you want to hire your next tech employee.

If you are an IT company struggling to find the right employee, WinMax can help. For the last 15 years, WinMax has bridged the gap between IT engineers and technicians looking for employment, and IT companies willing to provide those employment opportunities.

To learn more, please feel free to reach out to us.

WinMax Blog Team

Founded in 2005, WinMax is an IT recruiting firm that specializes in connecting the best talents from the tech world to the right organization. As technology recruiters, we can help you find the right IT personnel possessing the skills, expertise, and values that reflect your organizational needs and goals.

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