

Post by Rich Moy on May 11, 2017, 12:00:00 PM

Although you don’t need to be a programming expert to recruit developers, you do need a basic understanding of the technologies your open roles require candidates to know. For many tech recruiters, this means studying the most common tech jargon and hoping that developers believe they know what they were talking about. Of course, programming is much more complicated than that, and today’s developers think about it in terms of languages and frameworks. Recruiters who can have educated conversations about these things can really set themselves apart from the competition, but that begs the question—what is the difference?

What is a Programming Framework?

In layman’s terms, programming frameworks are the foundation on which software developers can build programs for specific platforms. Frameworks are designed to decrease the number of general issues that programmers face during the development process by standardizing code that can be applied to a variety of modules or applications.

Although the concept of programming frameworks might be new to you, the chances are that you’re already familiar with some of the most popular frameworks used by developers. The developers who responded to the 2017 Developer Hiring Survey told us that the most popular frameworks include Node.js, AngularJS, .NET Core, and React.

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What is a Programming Language?

On the flipside, programming languages are vocabularies that developers use to build applications and essentially tell a piece of software what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.  This year, JavaScript, SQL, Java, C#, and Python are some of the most commonly used amongst today’s developers.

There are two types of programming languages: high-level and low-level. “High-level” languages are designed to be easy for developers to read and understand—and many of them are similar enough that programmers can understand code written in multiple languages. “Low-level” programming languages tend to have a close relationship with computer hardware, and as a result, it’s often incredibly difficult for developers to read.

What’s the Difference—and Why Does it Matter?

A lot of the specific tech terms we’ve discussed might look familiar, especially if you’ve ever written a technical job listing. However, it’s clear there are a lot of differences between the two. Although these differences aren’t lost on programmers, they should matter just as much to you when you’re trying to recruit them.

Nearly all the developers we’ve spoken to have told us that it’s obvious when recruiters haven't done their research. The homework you need to do before reaching out to a candidate doesn’t begin and end with a list of technology terms you’ve memorized. After hearing about developers’ favorite programming frameworks and languages this year, it’s obvious that if you don’t know the difference between the two, it’ll be hard to stand out from recruiters who have done no research whatsoever. The good news is that simply knowing the definitions of each will help you have much more educated (and engaging) conversations with developer candidates.

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