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StepStone Services' best ever hackathon ideas for recruitment

How StepStone Services came up with of the best ever hackathon ideas for recruitment

By Lewis StoweHuman Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting TipsNo Comments

There are few things that developers like more than hackathons and coming up with hackathon ideas. It’s an opportunity for them to flex their proverbial muscles and do something really creative. Holding a hackathon can be a great way of promoting blue sky thinking on your tech team and generally engendering a pro developer environment at your company. Since these results align with the mission of HR departments to encourage loyalty and productivity among the company’s workforce, hackathons are a no brainer.

In this article, we’ll be covering the following topics:

What is a hackathon
HR-focused hackathons
How StepStone Services improved its tech hiring with a hackathon project
StepStone Services’ 12 step approach to holding a coding test hackathon
Lessons StepStone Services learned about holding a coding test hackathon
Why developers loved thinking up and developing coding tests
Advice and takeaways you can use to hold your own coding test hackathon

November 5, 2019

Front-end developer job description template

By Lewis StoweHuman Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting TipsNo Comments

What is front-end development and what does a front-end developer do? We have all the answers in this front-end developer job description template.

Front-end development means creating components and features that are directly accessed by a user through the front-end of a website. Front-end developers create everything on a website that users see, touch, click, and use. They focus on the visual layout, user interface/interaction, and user experience. In their work, they create the buttons, images, links, and pages that all need to function efficiently, accurately, and quickly in order for the user to carry out a particular task.

Below you can find a front-end developer job description template. This template includes examples of the responsibilities and skills which are typical for such a position. Of course, this template is just a basic starting-point – we strongly recommend that you customize the template so that it fits the exact job which you wish to fill. Please note that, in line with good practice, this front-end developer job description template shows you one way of describing the person you’re searching for, starting from more general requirements, leading up to more specific requirements, and finishing with any optional extra skills or experience.

October 29, 2019

The Workable ATS tech recruitment workflow for hiring developers

By Lewis StoweIT recruitment, Recruiting TipsNo Comments

Workable is one of the most powerful ATS systems out there and is a particularly useful tool for tech recruitment. When recruiting developers, it’s incredibly important to keep track of your candidates. With as many as 20 people applying for each software development position, a simple spreadsheet won’t scale. But luckily, there is a useful Workable ATS tech recruitment workflow that you can use for hiring developers which will allow you to focus more time on the areas that recruiters are uniquely qualified for. Using Workable and the integrations that it offers, you can automate repetitive tasks. This will allow you to spend more one-on-one time with candidates to see if they are a good cultural fit for the company.

This article will cover the steps of a tech recruitment workflow for hiring developers and how this workflow can be streamlined in Workable. These steps include:

Post your ad to job sites
Integrate with Devskiller
Invite candidates to tests
Check your stages
Get test summaries
Invite candidates for interviews

October 15, 2019

Different types of interviews for technical recruitment

By Kate KandeferInterview questions, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

As a professional technical recruiter, there are many different types of interviews for you to consider. Some are more useful at particular stages of the assessment process, some are more appropriate for testing particular skills. This article will explain a number of different types of interviews and point out their various advantages and disadvantages.

Types of interviews you can use for technical recruitment

Read on to find out more about,

Case interviews
Coding interviews
Competency-based or behavioral interviews
Final interviews
Panel interviews
Phone interviews
Second interviews
STAR format interviews
Structured interviews
Video interviews
Working interviews

October 10, 2019

8 Reasons why you should use an applicant tracking system

By Cristiana SousaRecruiting Tips, tech trendsNo Comments

Inside HR Departments, recruitment is one of the hardest tasks to master. Recruiting managers spend hours looking at resumes, making phone calls, and performing interviews in order to select the best candidates to join their company. They know better than anyone else the consequences a bad hire would bring to their company. The right applicant tracking system can help avoid this.

Making a bad hire can become a big expense (a bad developer can cost as much as $485,371.38). In other words, finding the right people can be crucial to the financial success of a company.

Applicant tracking systems help companies of all sizes find the right candidates

August 28, 2019

teamwork interview questions: Software engineer interview questions

12 Teamwork Interview Questions to Land Your Team Player

By Karolina PiwiecHuman Resources, Interview questions, IT recruitment, Recruiting TipsNo Comments

There’s a lot more to the world of teamwork interview questions that asking ‘do you work better in a team or alone?’. The truth is that even in technical development roles, being a team player is important.

But with many startups, software houses, and even corporations using teams as a way to accomplish tasks and foster corporate innovation, the modern ‘team player’ has to have a wide range of personal skills and a flexible work ethic.

This means that whether you’re hiring a front-end developer, a data scientist, or a CTO, everyone needs to be able to work in a team environment in some way, shape or form. Read More

August 20, 2019

5 ways to assess cultural fit in your tech candidates

By Alexandra JohnsonHuman Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

When you’re hiring for tech roles, you need people to be job fit, meaning that they are actually capable of doing the job you’re hiring for. For example, you need to be sure that your tech candidates know certain programming languages, can navigate certain software, etc. Nevertheless, these specific skill sets shouldn’t be the only competencies you evaluate your tech candidates for. According to Forbes, 89% of hiring fails are a result of poor cultural fit. Which means you need to ensure that the potential tech candidate and your company are aligned in both core values and ways of working. While job fit is one thing, cultural fit is an entirely different kettle of fish. And arguably one that is just as important.

Neither should take precedence over the other, in fact, in a perfect world, your ideal tech candidate should have both. And even though the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a deficit of over one million tech employees come 2020, that doesn’t mean you should be rushing to hire the first person who comes along with the requisite job skills, even though they won’t mesh well with your company. Because the cost of a bad hire is much higher than you think, especially when it comes to developers.

So, while you can verify each candidate’s technical skills via assignments, coding challenges, and technical interviews, how do you assess something much less tangible and far more subjective, such as cultural fit? Read More

July 30, 2019

[Video]7 step formula to hire top tech talent

By Lewis StoweRecruiting Tips, Uncategorized, VideoNo Comments

Hiring the right software developers is hugely important. It requires a large investment (up to $31,970) to get the right person. If you get it wrong, you could be looking at a loss of almost a half million dollars in the worst cases. So every professional and engaged tech recruiter worth their salt is constantly working to build a process that is both efficient and effective.

Hire the right tech talent

But it doesn’t have to be that hard. In this video, we explain our proven 7 step formula for hiring the right tech talent. Find out why you should,

Start sourcing creatively, focusing on quality over quantity
Start using an automated technical screening platform
Run online coding interviews
Make timely and fair job offers
Make your recruitment team more technically aware
Eliminate unconscious bias
Nurture your candidates

July 16, 2019

17 interviewing tips for interviewers

By Lewis StoweHuman Resources, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

The modern job interview, as old as it is, hasn’t changed much considering modern technological advances. Some actionable interviewing tips for interviewers are just the thing to bring your process up to date.

Nowadays, the interview itself can happen between two people on opposite sides of the planet, but the dynamics and process stay the same. Modern recruitment interviews are now more planned and calculated. With the mounting costs of a bad hire on the line, interviews now need to be consistent and reliable.

So whether you’d like to bring your interview techniques up to speed or create a new interview process from scratch, you’re in the right place.

July 9, 2019

situational interview questions: software engineer interview questions

12 Must-Ask Situational Interview Questions You Need To Start Asking

By Kate KandeferHuman Resources, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

If your current interview process is not based around situational interview questions, it probably looks a little like this:

You meet your candidate, ask if they found the place ok, talk about their employment history and their skills, explain the available position a little more, then shake hands and ‘we’ll get back to you’.

If you thought that the above situation is all too common, you’re right – it is. Interviews like that offer no value to either party.

June 25, 2019

The 9-step guide to hire a mobile app developer

By Tom WinterHuman Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting Tips, Technical Interview2 Comments

Mobile apps are literally everywhere. So, if you’re a tech recruiter, one day very soon, your colleague will come to you and say: “I need an app developer,” “Please help me to hire someone to build an app,” “We need to hire app developers for our team,” “Please find app development companies near me,” “We need to hire a mobile app developer,” or “Do you know any app developers near me?”

This guide will show you, step-by-step, how to find app developers for hire. Not only how to hire any mobile app developer, but how to hire a mobile app developer who is right for you. We’ll also talk about the cost of hiring an app developer. For example, on average, do Android developers earn as much as iOS developers?

June 18, 2019

The complete guide to interviewer bias – what is it and how to eliminate it

By Karolina PiwiecHiring Statistics, Human Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

A bad hire in tech can cost as much as $485,371.38. This is a cost few companies can afford. In many cases, bad hires can are the result of interviewer bias, inefficient screening methods, or a combination of these.

Are recruiters even aware of the phenomenon? As it turns out, they are. Based on LinkedIn data, 42%of recruiters believe interview bias is a problem of traditional interviews.

Source: LinkedIn

Hiring in IT is risky and time-consuming. Offers are only made after reviewing applications, technical screening, performing background and reference checks, phone screening, and a final interview. So here comes the surprise: according to a study by Schmidt and Hunter, the interview can predict only about 14% of the variability in employee performance. It seems that recruiters rely heavily on a process that is far from being perfect and one of the most significant factors that affect it is an interviewer bias.

In this guide to interviewer bias, we cover the following topics: Read More

June 11, 2019

security engineer: software engineer interview questions

How to screen a security engineer

By Marek KaluznyRecruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

Security has never been more important than it is right now. As a society, we have become comfortable with putting much more sensitive and important information in areas that we don’t control. On top of that, we work collectively, with many of the applications we used to host on our own systems now being hosted in the cloud. While these new trends create tons of possibilities, the growing complexity of systems, the sensitivity of data, and widening access to our networks means that the role of the dedicated security engineer has become essential to most companies.

Security Engineers are not simply your standard software engineer or developer that has been pulled in from another function to look at security. The best candidates have unique skill sets and approaches that make them uniquely suited to this purpose. Security Engineers require a dedicated screen separate from the other technologies that you use. Keep reading to find out exactly what your security engineer needs to know and how to find out if they know it.

May 21, 2019

recruitment and employee retention in tech

4 best tech recruitment and employee retention strategies

By Anja ZojčeskaDeveloper Salary, Developer Salary, Human Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting TipsOne Comment

Recruitment and employee retention is a key challenge for most tech HR professionals. Indeed’s survey has found almost 9 in 10 respondents (86%) said it was challenging to find and hire technical talent.

The reason for this result is that there is a huge tech talent shortage. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has calculated that by 2020 in the US alone, there will be over one million computer science-based jobs without qualified college graduates to fill them.

Tech talent, especially software developers, are already in high demand. According to the latest Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2019, the largest and most comprehensive developer study which surveyed 90,000 respondents around the world, only 6.4% of developers are currently unemployed and looking for work. Read More

May 7, 2019

C and C++: software engineer interview questions

How to screen C and C++ developer programming skills to find the best – guide for IT recruitment

By Jakub KubrynskiCoding Test, IT recruitment, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

C and C++ developers don’t get the same buzz as developers in other languages. They aren’t as ubiquitous as JavaScript developers. They aren’t as well connected to hot topics like data science as Python developers. They don’t use a technology as up-and-coming as Kotlin developers do. But unlike the technologies making all the headlines, C and C++ continue to be the workhorses of many essential systems as well as areas like embedded technology and gaming. As a result, there is still a lot of demand for C and C++ developers. So the question becomes, how do you screen C and C++ developer skills?

March 20, 2019

How to use technical interview coding challenges to hire the best developers

By Karolina PiwiecCoding Test, Human Resources, IT recruitment, Recruiting Tips, Technical InterviewNo Comments

Interview coding challenges are a highly polarizing topic. The truth is, you could probably fill libraries with resources to help you master coding interview challenges. That said, what does it take for the employee to create an effective coding challenge scenario?

Interview coding challenges aren’t inherently evil. They can help developers master the art of coding. From the recruiter’s point of view, they can help choose the right candidates. You have to be careful though because they’re a double-edged sword. If done right, they can help you identify the best candidates. If done wrong, however, they can turn your candidates into your enemies and possibly make a bad hiring decision.

For more tips and tricks, have a look at The ultimate guide to the technical interview.

March 13, 2019

Recruiting Tips