How can you use DevSkiller in recruiting programmers?

You are looking for a person who can not only code, but is also able to resolve your problems and meet your expectations. You post a job offer on a couple of recruiting portals, do a headhunt through LinkedIn or networking, and contact recruiting agencies to get as many promising candidates as you can. Every resume or LinkedIn profile states that your candidate can program in specific languages and in certain frameworks.

But what is the easiest way to find out if candidates really do have the skills you are looking for?

Usually companies invite all of their preselected candidates to an interview, where a technical person from the company verifies their skills one by one. It’s a pretty big waste of time and resources, especially when you have to hire a developer and each time ask one of your senior developers, who are knee-deep in work, to check a candidate’s skills. I have a better solution to your problem.

DevSkiller can be implemented smoothly in each recruiting process. While working with our customers we developed a 4-step solution, that will help you recruit the best candidates and do it very effectively.

1. The first step in recruiting programmers

The first step in your hiring process is screening resumes. Choose as fast as possible candidates whose skills and experience suit the spot you are filling in. If you have even a hunch that a candidate may perform, give him a chance, many times I’ve seen underdogs outperform other candidates. Then do a simple 5-10 minute interview over the phone. Don’t forget that the best programmers have a good position in the job market, so you must be active and act fast.

The purpose of the call is to make sure your candidate is right for the position and, what’s more important, you need to tell him about your company and the whole process of recruiting he will go through. Knowing that, the candidate will be more willing to go through all the effort to get recruited. What can such a call involve?

• Ask what they specialize in, what languages they know, what frameworks and libraries they are familiar with.
• Present them the merits of working for you. If they want to work for you, they are probably interested in what the company looks like. Take advantage of it – show them the benefits of working for your company. Make it worth their effort.
• Tell them about all the other steps of your recruiting process. Explain to them what they can expect on each step and why their participation is so important. Additionally, it is good to show the candidate that the whole process will be fast, and they will not have to wait for your decision for ages.

Remember, this step is crucial for the whole recruiting process!

2. Online programming test

One of the best ways to assess programming skills without wasting the time of your best developers’ precious time is to do an online programming test. DevSkiller can help you with that, making this process as simple and hassle-free for you as it can be. The test is easy to create (even for a person with no programming skills). You can use one of our predefined tests prepared by our experts or create one from scratch using your own codebase.

You can assess candidates’ skills with:

• programming tasks,
• code review challenges,
• multiple-choice tests.

Such examination allows you to save your time and money. You just send invitations to your candidates and wait for results. There’s no need for endless interviews with people who won’t perform well. The online programming test lets you reduce the number of unnecessary interviews by ten times and boost your new employees’ level of competence.

3. The main interview

After screening resumes and testing skills, you end up with a list of the best candidates. Therefore, the next step of your recruitment is an in-depth interview. As the chosen candidates are the best, you must be quick. They won’t be waiting for you. The hiring process should be as simple as possible, so the interview part should be the last one. However, it doesn’t mean it should be short and easy. This final step is your last chance to check if your candidates will fit your team.

The perfect interview is conducted by HR and a person with programming skills, and it should take at least 1-2 hours. Check the 14 things to look for when you want to hire a programmer and you get the hints for questions you can ask to know your applicants better.

You can re-check your candidates’ skills using, for example, the live-coding described in the cast study called Hit the bull’s eye with coding tests in natural environment.

4. The final decision

After the interview, you know who you want to hire. Congratulations! You have found a new member of your team. Let the chosen one know as fast as possible to be sure he or she will join your team. Again, the faster you act, the more likely it is they will still be available.

If you follow these steps, you will be able to act better than other companies that are looking for programmers. You may even make your decision before other companies contact a particular candidate.

Don’t forget to thank the candidates who didn’t make it this time. Their candidate experience is crucial because you don’t know if you won’t do the recruitment again. Don’t repel your potential workers and don’t forget that programmers often share their opinions about their potential employers with each other.