You're a recruiter, not a software engineer. Or a data scientist. Or whatever hyper-specialized role you're currently trying to fill. And that's fine—you don't need to code to recruit coders. But you do need a strategy that doesn't involve praying your keyword searches work. Here's how to effectively recruit for roles you don't personally understand.

Partner With Your Hiring Manager (For Real)

This isn't the usual "align with stakeholders" corporate advice. You need to actually sit down with your hiring manager and get them to explain the role like you're a smart person who doesn't speak their technical language. Ask what skills are non-negotiable versus nice-to-have. Understand what the person will actually be doing day-to-day, not just the buzzwords in the job description.

Good hiring managers will take the time to educate you. If yours won't, that's a red flag about the partnership and the role's chances of success. You can't recruit for something nobody will explain to you properly. Push back if you need to. It's literally your job.

Learn Just Enough to Be Dangerous

You don't need to become an expert, but you should learn enough to hold a basic conversation and spot obvious mismatches. If you're recruiting for a Python developer, spend 30 minutes understanding what Python is used for and what related skills matter (Django, Flask, data science libraries, etc.). You're not learning to code—you're learning to screen.

Use resources like Codecademy or YouTube to get surface-level knowledge. Read a few job postings from competitors. Talk to any technical people in your network. The goal is pattern recognition, not deep expertise. You need to know enough to ask intelligent questions and spot red flags in candidate responses.

Use Your Hiring Manager as a Technical Screen

If you can't evaluate technical skills yourself, get someone who can involved earlier in the process. After your initial phone screen for culture fit and basic qualifications, loop in the hiring manager or a technical team member for a brief technical conversation before moving forward. Don't waste everyone's time bringing in candidates who can't clear the technical bar.

Some recruiters resist this because they feel like it slows the process down. It doesn't—it speeds it up by filtering out bad fits early. A 15-minute technical screen with your hiring manager is faster than scheduling an on-site interview with someone who doesn't know basic concepts.

Ask Candidates to Explain Things Simply

One of your best screening tools is asking candidates to explain their work in simple terms. If someone truly understands what they do, they can explain it to a non-expert. Ask them to walk you through a recent project like you're a stakeholder who needs to understand the impact, not the technical details.

Candidates who can't simplify their explanations are either not strong communicators or don't actually understand their work deeply. Either way, it's information you need. The best technical people can code AND talk to humans. That's who you're looking for.

The Reality Check

Recruiting for technical roles you don't understand requires humility, curiosity, and strong partnerships with hiring managers. If you're faking your way through technical screens and hoping for the best, candidates can tell. And so can your hiring team when you send them unqualified people.

You don't need to become a subject matter expert. You need to become skilled at pattern recognition, asking the right questions, and leveraging the expertise of people around you. That's recruiter work. Do it well, and you can recruit for anything.

Stop pretending you understand when you don't. Start asking better questions and building better partnerships. That's the actual skill.