The Ultimate Solution for Recruiting Software Developers
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Many people say that the recruitment process for software developers is broken. It just doesn’t work properly and excludes many of the best developers from the best jobs.
Our favorite captive software developer The Secret Developer thinks that they have a solution for this and is ready to share it with the world.
“If we look at the typical candidate selection process we see there are concrete reasons why both junior staff and those without a classic computer science background get excluded from many software engineering jobs.
I’ll tell you why, and how we can solve this issue. Because I’m great like this.”
If we look at a typical candidate selection process, we can see why both more junior staff (who can develop) and rough diamonds are excluded from the process.
The issues
Today The Secret Developer takes a wary eye looking into the issue of recruitment.
“I guess if you’re reading this post you are more than aware of the issues with software development interviews. The process can easily be improved by working on a few key areas. Read below for my suggestions“
Suggestions
Recruiters
List genuine requirements for jobs
Get back to candidates within good time
Accept that candidates who do not tick 100% of the boxes may still be good candidates. It’s worth giving them a chance because there is a good chance that people can grow and adapt into a role
Make sure your job specs match the job
Think about what you'd like to see in a candidate before starting the interview process
“I’ve seen so many job adverts with copy-paste requirements. Sometimes there will be a job asking for every technology the company could possibly use in the future — it’s just not helpful to anyone.
A couple of weeks ago I completed the de rigor take home project. I turned it around in a weekend and waited for a response. Nothing for a week so I sent a reminder email. Nothing for another week and so I waited. Then after three weeks, I got an email that the reviewer had been on holiday and they would get back to me soon.
How hard is it to read someone’s OOO notification and get back to me?”
The interviewers
Think about what information to collect and how to process feedback
Create a positive feedback loop. Learn from candidates by asking for their comments and feedback
Get feedback from candidates who have failed a process at any stage. Rejected candidates and even staff who have been fired. It’s all great feedback
“I can see that companies don’t listen to feedback. That company I just looked at? They’re suffering on their Glassdoor interview reviews because their process isn’t fair. It hasn’t been for years, so I’m questioning why they don’t consider if it suits everyone to carry on as they are.”
Technical challenges
Take-home projects penalize those without much time
Take-home projects take much longer than anyone might expect (misname a class? You’ll get dinged for it do check check check)
“That take-home project? It got reviewed and then I got a technical interview. They hadn’t read it as there were a couple of bugs in it that they just didn’t see.
It’s quite annoying that they got me to talk them through it, clearly hadn’t bothered to read the readme. Surprised that they could open it TBH.”
Negotiation
The power is with the employer. They need to stop using this against the candidate
Transparency about salary is mandated in some states. In the Wild West, however, it is not
“One tech home delivery junk food service (guess who in the comments) asked me for my salary expectations during the first 10-minute chat.
I asked politely for a range.
They refused and said we would not carry on with the process unless I gave a figure.
I did, got invited to the next interview but then cancelled it. I’m sure you understand why”
The Secret Developer’s Solutions
List requirements for the job
“This can’t be that hard, can it? The business works with a recruiter to come up with a list of requirements.
Make these available to candidates. Filter candidates according to these criteria. Do not doggedly tick-box the criteria as people can grow and adapt.
To that point, make sure you put growing and adapting on your list.”
Abandon take home technical challenges
“How about we get rid of these as they exclude people? That’s clearly not good.
I also think we need to change the nature of how we evaluate technical skills. Go back to face-to-face interviews so we can see how we might work together.
While we are at it get rid of technical interviews that are a laundry list of questions about a chosen technology.”
Interviewers
“Interviewers are usually current developers without HR support. This means that they don’t know how to help candidates as they have the stock questions and answers already written for them. Sometimes the candidate gets an inappropriate or illegal question at this point.
So, how about we train people to interview new staff. I saw one tech company that gave people training for an afternoon about recruitment. I don’t mean a bit of training I mean the whole company stopped and HR told them about how recruitment is at the center of the company.
It was that important to them.”
Behavioral Interviews and Cultural Fit
“Tech interviewers are often told to ask behavioural questions.
I remember an interviewer saying he needed to ask about my failures ‘to make HR happy’. I mean seriously.
We should have trained interviewers and prepared candidates. I remember Yelp giving interview tips and a pre-interview session to let the candidate know what might come up. Respect!
Experience likely isn’t near-identical to the job a candidate applies for. They need help to think about how to bridge the gap to the new job. It’s currently down to the candidate to get this right yet it is also in the employer’s want to get the best possible candidate”
Stop Offer Negotiation
“In a state where asking for current salary is legal? We’ll use that against you. That means if you had a lower salary out of college due to subconscious bias, we’ll penalize you for that for your whole career.
Why can’t we just publish salary scales? Think it can’t be done? https://www.wise.jobs/engineering-career-map/ they’ve done it. Why can’t your company?”
Conclusion
“Take The Secret Developer’s advice and we can move things forwards. It won’t be like this forever if we change things.
We can change things!
Right?
Right?”