Ashmita

We all know that hiring the right developeris a lot of hard work; you have to identify your requirements, find the right candidate, then integrate them into your team smoothly. Studies reveal that almost 24% percent of employers admit that they face considerable difficulties when searching for tech candidates. What’s worse, over 50% of businesses hire tech employees who don’t meet their top job requirements.

While this process isn’t a simple one, there is nothing like the energy that a talented and motivated employee can bring to your organization. The result is not only a tech project finished on time but an exciting new addition to your company that will make a lasting impact.

Read on to find out how intuitive tech managers attract and hire stellar developers.

1. Identify your requirements

Figure out the type of problems you are trying to solve, the challenges your candidate will face, and the outcomes you want to achieve. From there, let the nature of the work and the goals of the position determine the strengths, innate traits, and foundational knowledge that a candidate needs to possess. For example, if you are looking to hire the right software developer, the key skills to look for are mathematical aptitude, problem-solving, knowledge of programming languages such as Java and Python, accuracy and attention to detail, etc. While you may be an expert, it is always wise to bring more technical expertise and resources into recruiting. You can put your developer team in a room together and talk to them about how you can hire people like them. They can help you with the correct terminologies that are must-have and nice-to-have.

2. Get everyone on the same page

It is of utmost importance for the hiring manager, the development team, and the leadership team to be on the same page about who they are looking to hire, what will be the employee’s responsibilities, what primary technical skills are required, and how the person’s success in the role will be gauged. By having a clear understanding of expectations early on in the process, hiring managers can make sure candidates can perform the tasks efficiently which will be required as part of the role.

3.Know where to find developers

The goal in the sourcing stage is to attract as many talented developers as possible. Piquing interest is key and a simple and gender-fluid job description will definitely help you.

There are different resources that you can use to while hiring the right developers:

1. Developer communities: Tech communities are full of potential hires waiting to be discovered. Communities from where you can source talent for free include GitHub, Stack Overflow, and Hacker News.
2. Personal networking: Sometimes, things that we are looking for are right in front of us and we hardly notice them. Take for example your company’s Linkedin profile. You can find some great candidates just by looking at it closely. Also, make use of your personal and professional contacts and resources. Attend local meetups in your area for entrepreneurs in technology and you will find that there are many people who might just be looking for this kind of position.
3. Social media: Did you know that 53% of young online adults aged 18–29 use Instagram actively? Social media is a powerhouse of talent if used the right way.
4. Virtual job fairs: This is not exactly a cost-free way of sourcing talent but it is comparatively cheaper (average of $8,000 for one virtual event) than the conventional way of recruitment.
5. Job boards: Authentic Jobs, Mashable Job Board, Smashing Magazine Jobs, and StackOverflow Careers 2.0 are our top picks.

Also read: 5 Tips to source tech talent without your local staffing agency’s help

Further Reading

How to Attract and Select the Best Developers

4. Start with a conversation and only then jump to take-home coding tests

Pre-employment or take-home coding tests are an absolute necessity for evaluating the skills of a developer. However, tossing them at a busy developer in the early stages will drive them away. Hence, before you give them a test of any sort, start with a face-to-face or telephonic discussion about prior work experience and technical projects that they have worked on. This allows both the employer and employee to assess the chemistry and fit, learn from each other, and decide if moving forward with a coding test or additional interviews makes sense.

5. Listen, learn, and collaborate during the interview

Each employer should be asking open-ended, thought-provoking questions to begin a dialogue with the interviewee. Some examples include:

• Tell me something about a project that you are working on: By asking this question, you should be able to get the developer talking in a comfort area. If candidates are strategic in their answers, they will pick an area that’s aligned to the role they are interviewing for. Look for a candidate’s ability to tell a story and whether they can explain why they are working on it. This question acts like an ice-breaker that can lead to several other questions and discussion areas that will help you understand who is sitting in front of you.
• Where are you in your job search?: In addition to being a good ice-breaker, asking this question will also give you an idea of how far the candidate is in the job exploration and research process. Ultimately, you’re looking to understand what motivates them in the workplace, so you can assess if there is a likely fit between your technology work and their work style and aspirations.

You can also discuss the work style and practices of the potential candidate. If your candidate is someone who works remotely, you should ask questions about how they’ve been successfully working in a remote environment and the challenges they faced while collaborating with centralized teams. It is important to remember that while some developers like to mentor, others need mentoring and some prefer working alone. These questions are designed to help you evaluate whether the candidate is the right fit, whether he/she will be able to enhance the working style of the team they may join, and what may be the areas of change.

6. Hire the most promising candidate

Yay! You have finally found a great developer you’d like to hire. However, before you roll the offer letter, go with a trial first. You could give them a small project that’s complicated enough to test their problem-solving and role-specific skills and simple enough to be finished in a short time without a considerable cost. Hire the developer only if the code is right, is delivered on time, and you are satisfied with the communication and way of working. Last but not least, define expectations straight from the beginning.

There you have it; our 6-step guide to hiring the right developer. Any tips you’d like to share from your personal experience in hiring a dev? We would love to entertain a conversation. Drop a short excerpt from your experience in the comments below.

Want to create accurate skill-based assessments and hire the best developers? We can help you. Write to us at support@hackerearth.com and we will get back to you shortly.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of people around the world. In the midst of the pandemic, the world is facing uncertainty across industries, and the recruitment industry is no different. Experts believe that the pandemic will have long-lasting effects on the recruitment industry even after it is left behind us. It will change how organizations attract, hire, and retain talent. Hence, recruiters and hiring managers have to prepare themselves to brace the changes brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak and continue to hire talented candidates. Here’s our take on a few hiring trends that the world will see in a post-COVID-19 world:

1. Recruitment strategies will shift to virtual platforms

Following the unforeseen disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic, virtual interactions and remote interviews are replacing in-person job interviews and employee onboarding. Organizations are now resorting to intelligent automated systems that offer a virtual interviewing environment as well as provide a great onboarding experience.

Virtual platforms help the recruitment team to stay connected with candidates throughout the entire interview process without meeting them in person. Additionally, experts believe that the usage of coding assessment and video interview tools is expected to increase as part of the hiring process, especially in the tech industry.

One may ask, “Are remote hiring and onboarding just temporary solutions to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic?” We think not! Here’s why:

• According to recent studies, recruiters reported a 67% spike in video interviews. Candidates were keen too—with a 150% increase in the number of candidates wanting to digitize their CV with a video.
• Google has informed its candidates that interviews are to be conducted via Google Hangouts or using the organization’s videoconferencing service—BlueJeans. Also, the organization has witnessed a 60% increase in the use of Hangouts Meet.
• Amazon has set up virtual interview portals for candidates to quickly connect with recruiters and complete necessary documents. The company has canceled several in-person interviews and leverages its video conferencing software, Amazon Chime, to conduct remote interviews with candidates.
• According to a recent Gartner report, about 74% of CFOs expect some of their employees to continue working remotely even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. Several organizations are planning to make flexible and remote work models a more permanent part of their cost- and workforce-management strategies after COVID-19 recedes.

Several organizations have moved to the virtual screening and onboarding process, with the aim to mitigate COVID-19-led disruption and sustain business continuity. But even beyond using virtual platforms for interviews, companies that learn to incorporate such platforms in new ways can open up a world of possibilities for reaching and communicating with candidates. That’s why virtual platforms will be one of the most relevant online recruiting strategies in the days to come.

Conduct remote coding interviews with FaceCode.

2. Candidate applications will surge significantly

Nearly 25 million people (and counting) worldwide face unemployment as COVID paralyzes all sectors of the modern economy. A quick recovery is unlikely, says Sangheon LEE, director of employment policy at the International Labor Organization.

In such times, companies are bound to see a spike in the number of applications for a job role. According to studies, youngsters are most likely to lose their jobs or see their income drop because of the pandemic. This can have serious long-term repercussions. If this cohort’s career is disrupted or postponed by even a year, it will have to compete with the new cohorts, joining the labor force after them—arguably, for fewer jobs.

Furthermore, as work from home becomes relatively commonplace, and remote jobs have no specific location requirements, organizations will receive job applications from around the world. Hence, the candidate pool is bound to increase.

As a benchmark, the average job advert receives 59 applicants. However, companies post COVID-19 can expect to receive over 250 applicants per job position.

As a result, recruiters and hiring managers should have smart recruitment strategies in place to tackle such high volume recruiting positions.

3. University recruitment will move online

One of the most fundamental areas that is rapidly changing is university recruitment. Some of these changes were evident even before the pandemic, such as digital portfolios, social media advertisements, and phone calls. They replaced the traditional methods to ease the tedious university recruitment process. In a post-COVID-19 world, students will experience university recruitment in a different light. Where recruiters have traditionally attracted students through on-campus events and tours, they must now shift focus to online activities. A study found that almost 73% of leaders are increasing their marketing efforts during this time. The study states that leaders are reallocating

• 18% for more content marketing
• 15% on organic growth
• 28% toward more online advertising
• and 12% on social media marketing

More organizations will use Instagram and Facebook to engage with prospective students, share alumni stories, and provide valuable tips. As physical contact will become more restricted, email marketing will offer a great opportunity for recruiters to contact prospective students.

Hire the best tech talent from universities without the need to travel. Find out more.

4. Number of middle-management positions will drop

The 2008 recession saw organizations pulling out all types of middle-management positions. The same trend may continue in 2021, says John Sculley, who served as Apple’s CEO from 1983 to 1993. “A lot of organizations are going to say, ‘Wait a minute, we don’t really need all these layers of middle management that we had in the past,’” Sculley tells CNBC Make It.

Roles in tech companies that were typically assigned to employees in the middle-level bracket may be handled by tools. For instance, Capgemini is using IBM’s cognitive consulting tool Watson to assign people to projects. However, one fear of flattening the middle-management structure is that fewer managers will be available to oversee a higher volume of direct reports. This will create room for error, lack of oversight, and mismanagement.

5. New employee rights will emerge

State and local governments have mandated paid sick leaves for all employees during the COVID-19 outbreak. Hence, many organizations are shifting their focus to hourly workers that were formerly excluded from such perks. It is expected that these laws and policies will accelerate even after the pandemic subsides. As organizations hire new employees and increase retention rates in the face of completion once the economy reviews, this change may become permanent. Companies will need to leverage everything available to keep their employees, partners, and customers as safe as possible.

How has tech recruitment changed after pandemic?

The recruitment landscape, and tech recruitment in specific, has been profoundly reshaped in the post-pandemic era, marked by a significant shift towards remote and hybrid work models, accelerating the digital transformation within hiring processes. Organizations now prioritize digital collaboration skills and autonomy in their search for talent, leveraging advanced digital tools and platforms for virtual interviews, digital onboarding, and AI-driven candidate screening. This transformation extends to an increased focus on employee well-being, work-life balance, and the need for flexibility, fundamentally altering not only how companies recruit but also how candidates evaluate potential employers. As a result, recruitment strategies now emphasize adaptability, digital proficiency, and a strong alignment between organizational values and candidate expectations, setting a new standard for the future of work.

Summing up…

While governments, businesses, and citizens are finding ways to overcome this catastrophe, experts are trying to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the future of the recruitment industry. Upswings and downturns in the industry are unfortunate, but with this pandemic, one of the biggest changes in hiring trends is likely to be how the recruitment process itself is conducted. Hence, recruiters and hiring managers need to think ahead to stay on top of the curve.