The Importance of the Developer’s CV

Photo by Rajiv Bajaj on Unsplash

In the tech industry, we’ve developed an almost mythical reverence for the job interview at the expense of the résumé. The Secret Developer argues that we should take a résumé seriously and take that documented achievement seriously when considering software development candidates.

“We use a résumé as a basic check before progressing a candidate to a technical and then a behavioral test.
This isn’t right. Let me explain why.”

Do you feel the power of the Gladiators?

It feels like software development candidates have to overcome hurdles like gladiators. The résumé hurdle is typically tested by a recruiter. Devs handle the technical piece and then management handles the cultural fit. A final stage might be a discussion with a CEO or CTO.

“I assert that things would be better if we front-load the interview process.

We could believe the achievements that are called out in a candidate's résumé. We could then perform a limited validation of skills in a technical portion — something like pair programming so you also see the suitability of the candidate.

If we don’t believe a résumé checked with the reference process, what is it for? 

I’ll tell you. It’s currently a hurdle that candidates must pass to get to the final stage which is the only real interview in the whole thing. I once had a day and a half of interviews only to be rejected right at the end by the CTO. Wasted everyone’s time.”

What is stopping us from doing better?

We put too much emphasis on the interview. Achievement isn’t all about objective goals, we can have subjective goals too, and even communicate with people who have employed the candidates.

” We should take a candidate’s résumé as proof of their achievement. The paper-sift stage should be a major hurdle to overcome for prospective employees. The only thing stopping us from valuing a candidate’s past achievements is our own attitudes.

Typically, those who set the tests and interviews for new positions have benefited from the current system.

They seem to think because they’ve been through a broken process that you need to as well. That’s not good thinking and is something we need to work on and improve.

We need to change this. The sooner the better. “

Conclusion

If a candidate has a sparkling CV or tech project, we should pay attention. We should consider how we measure grit and how the person can integrate with our team. We can do this by actually thinking about what we want before embarking on an interview process.

“I’ve written about the ideal interview process. It’s time we took that framework and put it into action. I didn’t say it would be easy, but I do say it’s possible to improve things.”