Can They Catch Up? The Rewards of Hiring with Gaps in Hard Skills

A hiring manager (👩‍💼) discusses candidates with a recruiter (👨‍💻) after interviews for an open position.

👨‍💻: K. doesn’t meet our requirements. They lack experience with Framework G and haven’t worked with N or Y before.

👩‍💼: I like K.’s motivation and communication skills. Let’s hire them! They’ll catch up on the hard skills over time.

Hiring someone who lacks certain hard skills can be risky. After all, hard skills are the foundation that determines whether a candidate is suitable for a specific role.

We’ll explore when this risk is justified or too great in upcoming posts. Let’s start with a key question.

Why compromise on hard skills?

1️⃣ Talent shortages in the market make it hard to find the right specialist. It’s simpler to hire and train.

“Sometimes employers hit a wall with the limited talent pool. It can be more logical to invest time in training a less experienced candidate than searching endlessly for a rare professional”, says Oksana Prutyanova, NEWHR Recruiting, Head of Analyst and Data Scientist Recruitment.

💼 NEWHR Case Study. A client was searching for an Erlang developer, ideally with streaming experience. Such developers were scarce.

The company decided to hire Erlang developers with two years of experience and invest in their training. This approach proved successful, and the client still uses it today, says Olga Makarova, executive search consultant at NEWHR.

2️⃣ Hiring an experienced specialist is too costly. For instance, when there’s no budget for a fully established senior-level professional, companies may hire a mid-level candidate and invest in their growth, either through internal team support or by bringing in a senior consultant part-time.

3️⃣ The company prioritizes soft skills. Some employers require candidates to pass multiple stages of testing for soft skills alone. When combined with a strict hard skills filter, this can result in no candidates making it to the final stage.

4️⃣ The company’s work is so unique that the required skills can only be gained on the job.

5️⃣ Some employers, especially startups, value “idea-driven” individuals — motivated, fast-learning, and proactive people. These companies are willing to hire candidates who will grow with the business, including in terms of hard skills.

💼 NEWHR Case Study. A client was looking for a lead developer. They took a bold step by hiring an ambitious, energetic candidate with minimal experience.

Although it was a significant risk, the specialist quickly exceeded expectations. Over time, they became the head of development, shares Olga Makarova, NEWHR executive search consultant.

💙 NEWHR Recruiting could help you find tech specialists of any level to meet your business needs. Submit a request on our website or email us at contact@new.hr