Soumya began their journey in software development but found their voice in storytelling. Now, Soumya simplifies complex tech concepts through engaging narratives that resonate with both engineers and hiring managers.
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Explore Soumya Chittigala’s blogs for thoughtful breakdowns of tech hiring, development culture, and the softer skills that build stronger engineering teams.
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Planning your recruitment efforts for the next year is no easy task. How much should you budget? Which tools should you invest in? What will your ROI be? Basically, what should you even be doing!? These are all very legitimate questions every recruiter has when the year is wrapping up. Well, we are here to help sort out a few. Here’s a list of recruiting tools you might want to check out before you start planning for 2020.
Recruitment operations
In March 2018, there were 6.6 million job openings in the US—source
Everybody is on the hunt for rockstar talent. Some of the following talent sourcing tools could help you hire that perfect candidate:
Greenhouseis an applicant tracking system (ATS) and recruiting software designed to help companies source, screen, and hire suitable candidates. If you are a growing company, this is a great tool to invest in as it offers complete visibility of your candidates’ pipeline.
If you are looking to find qualified candidates, streamline the hiring process, and help teams work together to identify and hire the best, Workable is a great option. They’ve helped recruiters and hiring managers make great hires across 100 countries and offer 24/7 global support.
If you run a larger enterprise, SAP SuccessFactors could be your go-to tool. It offers cloud-based talent management solutions and ranks consistently as a leader in this category.
Bullhorn provides cloud-based CRM and operation solutions for the global recruitment industry. It features data capture and customer insight technology for a better candidate experience.
If your goal is to manage your entire talent acquisition life cycle within a single SaaS application, iCIMS could be your best bet. It’s one of the world’s fastest-growing tech providers.
Pre-employment assessments
Recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds looking at a candidate’s resume—source
That’s barely any time! These recruitment tools can help you hire the best candidates quickly and fairly:
Pymetrics allows candidates to play neuroscience-based behavior games to assess cognitive and personality traits with no right or wrong answers. It has a 98% completion rate.
Mapped focuses on numerical, analytical, and problem-solving skills in a bias-free way to promote diversity.
HackerEarth uses an AI-powered test creator to assess programming skills and save time. It’s known to reduce time to hire by up to 50% with anti-cheating features built in.
Koru ranks candidates based on traits like grit and curiosity with predictive analytics that compare to top performers in your company.
Predictive Index identifies the right match for any role using behavioral and cognitive assessments within the PI Hire framework.
Video interviewing recruiting tools
80–90% of talent say a positive or negative interview experience can change their mind about a role or company—source
Interviewstream offers a simple and interactive interview experience anytime, anywhere. It also allows for panel and back-to-back scheduling via calendar sync.
Spark Hire enables asynchronous interviews so you can review responses at your convenience and compare candidates more efficiently.
HackerEarth Facecode is a live coding interview tool that supports 30+ languages and evaluates real-time coding ability with a built-in video interface.
VidCruiter offers pre-recorded and live video interviews with custom workflows and improved candidate communication.
Jobvite provides consistent, accelerated applicant screening with its on-demand video recruiting tool.
There you have it, our selection of recruiting tools to look out for in 2020. This isn’t an exhaustive list but we hope it gives direction to your hiring plans for the upcoming year. Happy hiring!
The conventional methods of recruiting can no longer keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of the tech world. With it becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled talent, recruiters have to think out of the box to attract and retain the best candidates out there.
How can that be done? Technology, of course. It is the one-stop solution for most of the challenges in the tech industry. There are automated tools for every step of the recruiting lifecycle, from sourcing to onboarding.
However, there is a lot of noise in this space, and it can be hard to tell what’s real from what’s simply a good marketing pitch. You may not need tech recruiting tools for all the stages of hiring. Depending on your requirements, do your research and choose wisely.
Tech recruiting technology tools for each stage of the hiring process
Job aggregator tools for sourcing
Talent sourcing takes up a huge chunk of time for recruiters. Without the help of sourcing tools, it will be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Automated job aggregator tools make it easy to grow your talent pipeline. There are plenty of avenues like job portals, placement agencies, social media, and hiring challenges to source candidates from.
Job boards and job aggregators are fundamental to the recruiting ecosystem because direct applicants make up 48% of all hires. Let’s take a look at the key features of this recruiting tool for recruiters:
increases the visibility of your job postings across a wide range of job boards/portals
carry out an in-depth search of candidates using filters like skills, experience, location, etc. to spot the best ones
find resumes, contact information, online portfolios, etc., and gather the data under one profile for each candidate. These profiles can be quickly added to your pipeline and you can engage with them over a period of time
make a quick assessment of the candidate based on their portfolio and projects
All the data related to a candidate can be stored on one platform with easy accessibility to the entire HR team
Job aggregators to keep in mind:
Indeed is said to be the largest platform for external hires with 75% of job applications coming in and 47% of all hires in the US
Glassdoor has its own job board where 83% of its 64 million monthly users are currently looking for a job
LinkedIn provides a Job Search Tool with advanced search capabilities and can filter out results based on location, skills, industry, and recommendations
Standalone applicant tracking systems (ATS)
Using numerous job boards and portals for posting your job vacancies can quickly become exhausting if you have to do it manually. A study by GetApp shows that 86% of recruiters say using an ATS has increased the speed at which they hire candidates.
A good ATS, recruitment technology tool offers capabilities like:
job opening posting across multiple job boards and websites
automated screening of candidates, and their resumes, which also decreases human bias and errors
database assistance where you can store all applicants’ information
view the status of each candidate throughout the interview process
send out assessment invites from the ATS itself to the selected candidates and prepare a performance report in real-time
initiate offer letters directly from the ATS, get them signed by the candidates and save the documents digitally on the cloud
Offering most of the features listed above, we have some good ATS options in the mix like:
Lever, a San Francisco startup, focuses on diversity and metric-based recruiting
Naukri RMS, automates the hiring process from end-to-end
LinkedIn Talent Hub, allows customers to source, manage, and hire in one integrated platform
Recruitment CRM tools for engagement
Waiting for a role to open to begin scouting for skilled developers is not a good idea. Instead, build and maintain a talent pool of passive candidates. Keep them engaged with company updates and relevant content so that you know exactly whom to approach for any role when the time comes. This is where recruitment CRM tools step in. They help in:
building a personal connection with the candidates during the hiring process
keep your candidates in the know by sending timely updates at each stage of the process
reduce time-to-hire by eliminating manual data entry and increase productivity with collaborative hiring
effectively engage prospective candidates through social media
nurture and engage candidates who were not hired in this phase but can be given an opportunity in the future
Recruitment CRM tools that need to be tried out for yourself:
Zoho has a cloud-based CRM platform that offers diverse solutions for building a relationship with your candidates
Yello provides an automated talent acquisition platform with a variety of services
Beamery, a London-based startup offers self-styled recruitment marketing software
Tech screening and assessment software
With scores of applications coming in, it is a huge task for recruiters to identify the ones worth talking to. Do the applicants with great resumes possess the skills that they say they have? The technical screening round is designed to filter candidates who exhibit the skills they listed on their resumes. Leveraging speech-to-text technology can streamline the documentation of candidate interactions, making it easier to review and share insights with hiring stakeholders. Additionally, assessments are an effective way to test the behavioral and technical skills of developers. Coding assessment tools provide features like:
create highly accurate coding assessments or even custom ones based on the job role/skills/experience with minimum technical knowledge
make use of an extensive inbuilt library of questions across programming languages and skills with a robust proctoring system
set standard benchmarks for performance to shortlist candidates easily
sync seamlessly with your existing ATS to keep candidate information in one place
Screening tools that make the lives of recruiters easy:
HackerEarth Assessments helps you to objectively evaluate developers with a rich library of 13K+ questions across 80+ skills and shortlist candidates based purely on their performance
DevSkiller provides an automated technical screening platform that assesses candidates based on their skills
CodeSignal offers coding tests and assessments for hiring at scale
HackerEarth’s recent developer survey showed that 40% of developers preferred to be interviewed on interview tools that are equipped with code editors and video conferencing. For a fair and objective screening and evaluation of the applicants, coding interview tools are the best choice. They offer features such as:
conduct structured interviews with standard evaluation parameters
have real-time code editors with built-in compilers (doing away with whiteboards)
allow pair-programming
have AI-powered functionalities
provide real-time feedback and automated summary of each interview
enable blind interviewing to combat bias in the process
Coding interview tools that come with most of the functionalities given above:
FaceCode allows you to invite and conduct coding interviews on a collaborative, real-time code editor that also automates your interview summaries
CoderPad offers an intuitive programming interface that enables you to leave the whiteboard behind
CodeBunk provides an online real-time editor and compiler for interviewing developers
Background check tech recruiting tools
You are ready to roll out the offer letter as the selected candidate has excelled in all the rounds of interviews. It is advisable to conduct a background check before that to avoid making a bad hire as well as for additional security purposes. Some advanced features of such tools include:
an applicant’s ID verification, credit check, drug screening, and social media check
an applicant’s civil court records, motor vehicle records, and fingerprints for a more detailed verification
recruiters can create custom screening packages according to job role or department
This helps create a fuller picture of the candidate to deem whether they will be a good fit for the company. Some useful tools to try out include:
GoodHire provides an easy employee background check experience with its pre-bundled and custom-designed packages
Sterling helps create safer environments for your employees with its myriad background check services
Verified First enables accelerated background screening of candidates with its platform
Onboarding and core HR management software
Onboarding tools
Recruitment doesn’t end once the candidate signs the offer letter. There’s still the matter of onboarding. You are given one shot to make a great first impression on your new joiner and you do not want them to be blinded by paperwork.
With nearly 58% of organizations focusing their onboarding programs on lengthy processes and paperwork, only 12% of employees feel that their organization does a great job of onboarding. This is a wake-up call for organizations to switch to suitable tools for onboarding.
Now, let’s help make onboarding enjoyable for you and the candidate with the latest tech recruiting tools in the market. They have automated capabilities to:
help new hires self-onboard themselves with a checklist of tasks
finish filling out paperwork like offer letters, tax forms, and company NDAs ahead of time
customize the onboarding workflows like creating email addresses, allocating company devices, etc. for different candidates
introduce them to the rest of the team with welcome emails
HR management tools
Now that you have onboarded your new joiners, the next step is to ensure they have an easy and hassle-free employee experience. An integrated HR management tool allows you to manage the entire employee lifecycle from a single platform.
has self-service options for availing leaves, travel reimbursements, and timesheet entry
maintains a database of existing employees’ profiles
Tools that offer services for the complete employee lifecycle:
BambooHR takes care of onboarding, compensation of employees, and building culture at the workplace with its integrated platform
Leapsome enables companies to carry out performance management, personalized development, onboarding new hires and so much more
Darwinbox provides an end-to-end HRMS Suite and provides services for all stages of the employee lifecycle
Your employees are the foundation of your company. Therefore, the onus falls on you, as recruiters, to give them the best possible experience. Armed with this toolkit of tech recruiting tools, you can simplify your entire hiring process and keep your employees happy, at the same time.
FAQs on tech recruiting tools for recruiters:
#1 How can tech recruiting tools benefit my hiring process?
Tech recruiting tools can save time and increase efficiency in the recruitment process. Additionally, they also provide valuable data and insights into the recruitment process, helping businesses make informed decisions about their hiring needs and strategies.
#2 What is the difference between an applicant tracking system (ATS) and a recruiting tool?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a specific type of recruiting tool that is designed to manage and track resumes and job applications. While all ATSs are recruiting tools, not all recruiting tools are ATSs.
#3 How can I integrate tech recruiting tools into my existing recruitment process?
Integrating tech recruiting tools into your existing recruitment process can vary depending on the tool you choose and your current recruitment process. Some tools offer seamless integration with other HR and recruitment software, while others may require more manual setup and configuration. Be sure to consider the level of integration offered by each platform when choosing a tech recruiting tool.
#4 How to use social media as a recruiting tool?
Using social media as a recruiting tool can be an effective way to reach and engage with potential candidates. Here are some tips on how to use social media effectively for recruiting:
Choose the right platforms: Consider which platforms your target audience is using and focus your efforts on those. For example, LinkedIn is ideal for professional networking and job postings, while Instagram and Snapchat can be useful for reaching younger candidates.
Create a company profile: Establish a company profile on the social media platforms you’ve chosen and make sure it’s professional, up-to-date, and provides a good representation of your company culture.
Post job opportunities: Regularly post job opportunities on your social media profiles and encourage your followers to share the opportunities with their networks.
Engage with your followers: Respond to comments and messages, and share content that your followers might find interesting or relevant to the job.
Utilize employee advocacy: Encourage your employees to share your job postings and company culture on their personal social media accounts. This can help expand your reach and increase the credibility of your company.
Measure your success: Use analytics tools to track the success of your social media recruiting efforts, including the number of job views, applications, and hires generated from each platform.
Keep it professional: Remember to maintain a professional tone and image when using social media for recruiting. Avoid making any discriminatory comments or posting anything that could damage the reputation of your company.
#5 What tools do tech recruiters use?
There are several tools and platforms that can be used in tech recruitment to make the hiring process more efficient and effective. Some of the important ones are:
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): An ATS is a software tool that helps to streamline the recruitment process by automating many of the tasks involved, such as tracking resumes, scheduling interviews, and generating reports.
Job boards: Recruiters use job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn to post job openings and search for potential candidates.
Video conferencing software: With the increasing trend of remote work, video conferencing software such as Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet has become an indispensable tool for conducting virtual interviews.
Employee Referral Programs: Such programs encourage current employees to refer friends, family members, or acquaintances who they think would be a good fit for the company.
Pre-employment assessment tools: Employ pre-employment assessments to determine a candidate’s skills, personality, and work style, which can be useful in making hiring decisions.
Social media: Use social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to connect with potential candidates and promote job openings.
Chatbots: Integrate chatbots into a company’s website or career page to assist with frequently asked questions, schedule interviews, and collect candidate information.
The generation of early-talent is comprised mostly of Gen Z (those born after 1996). This group comprises students who are recent graduates or about to graduate. They are known to be entrepreneurial, tech-savvy, and are true digital natives.
With the unemployment rate hitting the lowest of lows and several Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) entering retirement, the need to hire early-talent is more significant than ever. The early-talent you recruit will help define your company culture for years to come. Therefore, it is important to prioritize a diverse pool of candidates with the right skill sets throughout your hiring process. To effectively engage with this sought-after group of job-seekers and run a bias-free hiring process, organizations need to evolve their recruitment methods to be more authentic, digital, and proactive.
What bias means in recruitment
As humans, we are bound to make quick decisions. Every day we make a multitude of choices: your most recent one was whether to read this article or not. Similarly, in the hiring process, bias happens when you prefer one candidate over another based solely on first impressions. Or, be inclined toward a candidate who seems similar to you. Sometimes, a candidate’s name, pictures on their resume, or hometown could influence your opinion more than you think. In short, bias (conscious or unconscious) affects your decision—whether positively or negatively, using criteria irrelevant to the job.
How to avoid bias in early-talent hiring?
Does your company have a program for hiring early-talent as interns, co-ops, and for entry-level roles? If yes, great! However, it may be wise to revisit your hiring strategy. That’s because Gen Z represents the first generation of true digital natives. This generation is equipped with the most in-demand skills, such as leadership, communication, problem-solving, data analysis, and tech. Hence, it would be best if you had a solid understanding of the profile of this generation and how to recruit them while cutting from the entire process.Read more on the 7 Types of hiring bias and how to avoid them. Here are 3 proven ways to avoid bias in early-talent recruitment.
Use a pre-employment assessment tool
Gen Z were the first to be born into a completely digital world. They are extremely tech-savvy because they grew up immersed in a digital culture.
Hence, you must speak their language and digitize your hiring process, leaving no room for bias. Consider using coding assessment tools or recruitment software solutions. These tools have many benefits that can help you eliminate bias from the interview process:
First of all, these tools will allow you to conduct structured interviews. You will also be able to use evaluation parameters or scorecards to test candidates on the go. Conducting structured interviews and having pre-defined evaluation parameters are excellent ways to interview candidates in an unbiased and standardized manner. Asking a set of questions in a structured interview format helps the hiring team collect useful information from each interviewee that they can use to make informed hiring decisions and compare with other candidates in the funnel.
These tools foster collaboration between two or more recruiters and hiring managers. Hence, every hiring decision is a team effort, which helps you avoid recruitment bias.
These tools hide all personally identifiable information of candidates such as gender, name, email address, etc. Hence, the chances of unconscious bias are reduced drastically.
Rework your job descriptions
It’s no surprise that Gen Z uses mobile phones with lightning dexterity—as if the features of their phones and their minds were one and the same. But that also means that this generation is quick to swipe left at lackluster or poor job descriptions. Hence, employers and recruiters need to be on their toes.
Gen Z doesn’t want to be gender-stereotyped and is acutely aware of bias. According to a New York Times poll, this generation believes that they can change their sexual preferences and gender identities more than any other generation.
In early-talent hiring job descriptions play an important role as they provide the first impression of a company's culture. Look at the language in your tech job descriptions. Chances are, the wording is more biased toward one gender than you realize. Always avoid pronouns and potentially gender-charged terms in your job-descriptions. The idea is to make them gender-fluid.
Furthermore, you can emphasize both in your job descriptions and in your company brand that your company is committed to inclusion and diversity. This results in a richer, expanded candidate pool of Gen Z.
Shift your focus from pedigree to potential
Every student dreams of getting into one of the Ivy League universities around the world. However, the competition for getting into elite colleges seems to be getting more and more intense. According to research, elite colleges and universities enroll fewer than 6 percent of U.S. college students.
This brings us to a fundamental question: what should be more critical to an organization when hiring early-talent – the educational pedigree or potential of candidates? When organizations begin searching for early-talent, elite universities are likely to be the first to attract their attention. However, by doing so, they are limiting their candidate pool.
Google helped start this trend when they spoke of hiring for “Intellectual Humanity” and a push toward a focus on skills more than credentials. We are not saying that you should ditch the Ivy League cohort altogether. But it is important to remember that students from the lesser privileged section of the society can have the required skills that you’re looking for even without going to an Ivy League school. By shifting your focus from pedigree to potential, you will have a clear insight into a candidates’ performance and problem-solving skills in a real-world scenario. This method has proven to be accurate, delivering actionable results, and leaving no room for bias whatsoever.Assess a candidate's potential with accurate coding assessments
Gen Z are on their way and it’s time to get ready for them…
Gen Z are hot on their heels in the job market today, and now is the time to get ready for them. This generation is known for being open-minded and deeply invested in diversity and inclusivity. A study found that 70% of this generation strongly believes that public spaces should provide gender-neutral bathrooms, compared to 57% of Millennials.
What does this mean for you? You must shine a spotlight on your diversity and inclusion efforts by eliminating bias from the recruitment process!
On a typical workday, Satish S - Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition at Lenskart - begins his remote recruiting by attending meetings on Zoom and taking remote interviews on FaceCode, HackerEarth’s remote interviewing platform. This work arrangement might sound familiar to most of you today but it wasn’t the case just a couple of months ago.
Hiring has always been a high human touch process. But thanks to remote being the new norm, a lot of businesses that are actively hiring are looking for ways to hire and manage people away from the confines of a traditional brick and mortar setup. What better way to enable this transition than through Lenskart’s recruiting success story!
“In the past, we haven’t been using a lot of tech tools in terms of hiring”, said Satish."Till last December, we were following a very traditional approach to assessments- the pen and paper model"
But what changed?
“We were looking to scale our hiring by 25% and took the call to move to remote hiring options like a developer assessment software and live video interviews just this February. Little did we know that it would actually help us close a few key positions during the lockdown as well as identify potent talent we could engage with at a later point in time.”
Remote recruiting tools that changed the hiring game for Lenskart
Coding assessment tools
These help recruiters create online coding tests for a wide range of pre-defined tech roles and programming skills. Using these, Lenskart was able to customize tests based on difficulty levels, duration, cut off scores and much more.
“Developer assessments helped us understand coding patterns among candidates”, said Satish. “Earlier we would spend at least 45 minutes with a candidate to understand their coding capabilities. Using an assessment, we can roll out a common set of coding questions for a group of candidates and identify who is the best among them within a matter of a few minutes”
Bias-free assessments
The best part of coding assessments - they eliminate any kind of unconscious bias that could creep into the hiring process. These tests can also be run anonymously to completely eliminate bias based on pedigree, gender, background and other factors.
“We at Lenskart try to keep our hiring process as bias-free as possible. Only the skillset counts. We don’t hire based on academic pedigree. Using developer assessments helps us be very objective in the hiring process. Only skill matters.”
Video interview tools
These help recruiters screen candidates further. Generally, tech companies conduct at least 5 to 6 interviews in a single day. With a face to face interview, a hiring manager can evaluate skills through a white board approach or pair programming with future team members but it is nearly impossible to do this on a simple video call.
Hence, it is important to invest in a tool that comes close to the actual experience. Providing interviewees a holistic experience with an option to code in real-time is made possible today through live video interviewing platforms like FaceCode.
“There have been a couple of instances where we’ve hired candidates just by interviewing them through FaceCodeVideo Interviews, not administering a coding test, however tried Facecode and seemed quite useful for us as it helped us do the coding test live remotely.
Lenskart’s advice for choosing the right hiring platform
According to Satish, this is what every recruiter needs to ask before adding a tool to their hiring arsenal -
Does the tool support the skills and roles you are looking to hire?
Does it have a live interview option to be able to view candidate’s code in real time?
Does it have an inbuilt feedback mechanism to coordinate better and make the right hires?
But it doesn’t stop with just investing in the right tool. Incorporating some interviewing best practices can help -
Make the interview process more personal. Always turn on the video during a call.
Get candidates warmed up before the process. Ask them a little bit on some tech projects they’ve worked on and derive questions that they can answer naturally
Don't expect the candidate to explain code by talking or by writing code in a Google doc. Use a technical video interviewing solution so that the candidate feels comfortable writing code in an IDE-like experience.
Don’t have all of your interviews on the same day like how it happens in an offline setup. Instead, space them out over two days so the candidate gets a break in between.
Don't get stuck on code. If the candidate gets stuck at some point, be comfortable to pause coding for some time, maximize the video, and just have a conversation with the candidate.
You are only as good as your team so make sure you hire a great one. For more information on remote recruiting, download our remote hiring checklist today!
A couple of weeks ago, more than 500 IBM employees across China, Japan, India, The Middle East, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Canada, Brazil and the United States got together to solve some pressing customer problems from the comfort of their homes.
The goal? To infuse Artificial Intelligence into existing products.
How? Through a virtual AI-a-thon.
Now, don’t be surprised. Everything around us is going virtual and so are hackathons.
Most people know hackathons as an event where people come together to a physical location to solve real-world problems with technology. And doing this virtually has its own benefits, said Jeffrey Dare, Advisory software engineer at IBM and one of the organizers of the IBM virtual hackathon.
For those who are new to virtual hackathons, Jeff said you’d need to keep these points in mind for successful execution:
Know your target audience and have your problem defined to a granular level. If your employees don’t understand what the problem is in the first place, you may not reap the benefits of an activity like this. Also, have your judging criteria set and announce it before the hackathon starts.
If you are running an AI hackathon as IBM did, you must have your data sets ready. Also, make sure you invest in the right infrastructure. In the case of a virtual hackathon, signing up for a hackathon software such as HackerEarth can make the process so much easier.
Run a hackathon once every quarter or once every 6 months. But make sure it is not too frequent as it could bring down your employees’ interest levels.
Jeff said there were 3 key benefits that clearly placed this model above the traditional one:
“For starters, the virtual hackathon was really engaging. Most employees don’t want to travel to a different location. In fact, the coding phase started during the lockdown and we were skeptical if things would work out or not. But it sure did and the employees loved this model for the flexibility it offered.”
“It helped bring the global IBM team together. We encouraged our employees to form a team as diverse as possible. Imagine someone sitting out of China brainstorming with an employee based out of IBM Brazil! Virtual was the only way it would work and it did wonders to keep our employees engaged.”
“Managing the hackathon was a cakewalk. The HackerEarth platform did all the heavy lifting for us and with no logistics to take care of, it was a huge relief for an organizer like me.”
The result? Most of the solutions solved our customers' problems. We were able to move all viable solutions into production,” said Jeff.
“In fact, one of the judging criteria we have is the hack’s applicability. So yes, we have long term benefits from running hackathons like these. Since it was virtual, we were able to scale the hackathon without worrying about logistics.”
Running internal innovation campaigns is an excellent way to engage talent and have a surge in creativity and output. Here is HackerEarth’s 7 point guide to hosting the perfect virtual hackathon:
Define a clear objective for the hackathon. It could be a solution for a real-world challenge your company is facing or to engage with your current workforce or both.
There is no harm in over-communicating. It is necessary to over-communicate timing and expectations and ensure everyone is engaged during the virtual hackathon.
Bring in as many employees as you can. Trust us, the more people on board, the better the outcome.
Let participants know the hackathon protocols and judging criteria in advance.
Keep the hackathon fluid. Let people have fun while they work on making your products better. So if they need a break or if they want to have a fun session in between, let them.
Have informative sessions to engage with the team during a hackathon. This could be an expert webinar or even a fun online game that can be played to ensure everyone is in high spirits during the hackathon.
Invest in the right tech. With the right tools, you can make the distance seem smaller and virtually bring people from around the world closer to ideate and create solutions.
Also, if you wish to learn more about hackathons in general, here is our comprehensive guide to helping you host the perfect hackathon. If you want us to help you host the perfect hackathon, virtual or not, reach out to us we’ll help you get started.
Developers are pretty awesome. Think of all those times that a developer had come to your rescue. As the keepers of code, they have incredible skills to create some amazing things.
While we all can agree that they just seem to be superheroes among men (developing lightning-fast code and fixing loose ends without even wrinkling their capes), most of us forget the ‘Clark Kent’ side of them—what they want, like, and dislike just like any of us.
We went behind the scenes to understand both these alter egos - what truly makes them the superheroes we look up to as well as the little joys they seek when they go about saving your day. Here are the findings of The 2020 HackerEarth Developer Survey, where we highlight the priorities and concerns of over 16,000+ developers from across 76 countries.
Data Science is still the demigod
From student developers (63%) to experienced ones (61%), everyone wants to have a slice of the Data Science pie. No wonder this is the most sought after developer skill. According to Glassdoor, the national average salary of a data scientist in the United States is $1,17,345, and Firstround.com says that in a competitive field like Data Science, strong candidates often receive three or more offers.
Other skills that student developers are looking out for include Cybersecurity and IoT, while professionals are interested in IoT and BlockChain.
Everyone wants Go in their arsenal
Go is this year’s most sought-after and popular programming language, with 29% of students and 32% of experienced developers seeking to add it to their programming arsenal. Other popular programming languages that student developers prefer are JavaScript, Kotlin, and C#. On the other hand, experienced developers want to learn Python and Kotlin.
The survey showed us that the top programming languages that student developers currently know include C++, Python, and HTML/ CSS, while senior developers frequently code in SQL, Java, and HTML/ CSS.
Use LinkedIn for your next coding mission
Are you looking for a new coding project? 56% of student developers and 57% of working professionals use LinkedIn more frequently than other channels, such as job boards and referrals, to find new coding gigs.
We also came across some interesting job avenues, such as hackathons, which student developers (13%) use to find new jobs. If you’re new to hackathons, this guide will equip you with some much-needed info.
Up for a challenge? Try a take-home coding test
Most experienced developers favor take-home coding tests, followed by an onsite interview for assessing coding skills. Surprisingly, 10% of developers who took the survey said that they wanted an option to decide their interview process.
A majority of developers, 70% of students, and 53% of working professionals, make use of coding assessment platforms such as HackerEarth to upskill themselves.
If you’re leaving developers hanging after an interview, you need to stop, now! Developers hate it when no feedback is conveyed to them. 45% of the developers said that recruiters need to stop doing this right away.
Other reasons that irked them the most include too many interview rounds and misleading job descriptions.
Meetings are like kryptonite to developers’ productivity
You’d want your developers to be a ‘Jack of all trades’, but very often we forget that this comes along with a ton of ideation meetings that could very well spell doom for developers’ productivity. It is no surprise that when asked what they’d need to achieve 100% productivity at work, 70% of the developers opted for fewer meetings.
Other options that could help developers be more productive include multiple monitors, clutter-free working spaces, and a no interruption policy when they have their headphones on.
Developers play foosball and watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S in their fortress of solitude
When they are not coding, most developers spend their time playing indoor games such as foosball and table tennis (29%). They also love watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S (42%). Other TV shows they spend downtime watching include Game of Thrones and Big Bang Theory.
Developing is hard work, and it takes a coding superhero to do it well. Developers, keep using your powers to the best of your abilities to create powerful stuff. We at HackerEarth will always be cheering for you from the sidelines. Here’s to creating code that matters! :)
