Interviewing software developers: speed up the hiring process
Moving online with high-quality software development is becoming increasingly critical for large and small businesses to succeed. Developers are currently in high demand but finding, interviewing, and hiring them is time-consuming and complex. It follows that recruiters wish to speed up the hiring process beyond what is reasonable or even responsible.
Bringing new recruits onboard takes about two months on average. In the past, western companies could choose from a large pool of local developers. However, this has changed with the dramatic rise in demand for their services in recent years. While the tech industry requires more talented individuals to drive their operations forward, hiring a developer without vetting their competence is extremely risky. So, how can you accelerate hiring without making huge errors along the way?
Choose an outsourcing or offshoring model
If you want to speed up the hiring process process, the answer might be to look overseas and adopt a new software development model. Organisations often find it highly effective to outsource or offshore their hiring and recruitment processes to build overseas extensions of their current team.
While outsourcing often results in successfully locating cheap talent, it’s not a solution to finding high-quality candidates that can become part of a dedicated team. It’s also not a long-term solution because outsourced teams always operate via third-party vendors. This means the vendor — and the developers by extension — works with you on a project-by-project basis and automatically treats you more as a client than a partner.
On the flipside, offshore teams are composed of highly-skilled developers who work only for you. By partnering with the right offshore development company, your business can build a team custom-tailored to your needs and specifications. An offshore team is identical to your local team, but it’s composed of individuals from different parts of the globe.
The importance of keeping candidates interested
Software developers are notoriously difficult to attract and even harder to retain. The saturation of the employment market, combined with rising costs of living in the West, has created an environment where the demands and expectations of developers continue to increase. The massive need for software development has also created a situation where developers feel that they can be highly selective about choosing an employer.
They judge organisations on their incentive programs, the comfort of their working conditions, and how interesting they find the projects they are involved in. Scheduling meetings and conducting interviews can take a lot of time for recruiters, tech leads, and business owners. A company that overly complicates the hiring process may affect a developer’s desire to work there. So, they may continue interviewing for another job without waiting for your organisation’s decision.
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DOWNLOAD GUIDEYou will have to start the whole hiring process again if this happens. These demands create recruitment hurdles for organisations and can pass on top developers that could benefit their company immensely. To avoid this happening and to speed up the hiring process make an effort to keep candidates interested.
Gives candidates a chance to excel
Many companies strive to find the most suitable candidate with the full range of technical skills and knowledge needed for the project. Nevertheless, this option requires quite a bit of time. Suppose you’re looking for a senior or middle expert with excellent credentials. A critical aspect of evaluating their skills is determining what they are good at. It isn’t necessary to review all the technologies and frameworks listed on their CV.
If the developer has not yet mastered additional frameworks, you can discuss them with the candidate. It takes a month for a coder to learn a new skill, but it can take months to find a senior developer with all the skills and expertise needed. By giving candidates a chance to excel, even if they don’t match every single requirement, you can speed up the hiring process. It’s also advantageous for your business as coders can learn new skills quickly.
Make a decision quickly
It’s wise not to put too much emphasis on finding your ideal, perfect, or right match. A person’s ability to learn and master new things should take precedence. By doing this, you’ll be able to hire top talent programmers for your engineering team.
Once you have interviewed and tested a developer, you’ll be able to determine if they are a good fit for your team. It’s also important at this stage not to delay the process and to let the candidate know if they are the right candidate as soon as possible.
You’ll waste more time and the programmer’s time if you take too long to make a decision. If developers weigh their options too long, they might arbitrarily choose another company over yours. But what other options do organisations have to combat this and speed up the hiring process?
Essential interviewing tips to speed up the hiring process
High-quality tech products start with talented developers. At The Scalers, we hire world-class software engineers for your team who’re ready to solve complex challenges and deliver innovative products and services for your customers.
According to both recruiters and employers, interviewing programmers should be done efficiently and quickly without compromising quality. To help you speed up the hiring process, we are sharing our recruitment process, including essential interviewing tips. It has been honed since our founding and includes our cultural fit and technical excellence approach.
Talent scouting: Screen candidates thoroughly
When recruiting software engineers, it’s critical to optimise the recruitment process. Create your tech team by searching, prescreening, and contacting elite candidates. Streamline the process whenever possible and focus on the most important parts by combining stages.
An in-depth CV can help you determine whether a candidate is a good fit for your company. Checking a candidate’s CV thoroughly can help you To speed up the hiring process by evaluating their skills quickly, so you can spend less time vetting them. It’s possible to arrange a video call with the candidate to assess their soft and technical skills.
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LEARN MORELogical skills test: Ensure candidates can tackle complex problems
If you are really looking to speed up the hiring process, prepare your technical questions well. Before interviewing software engineers, think about your questions in depth. The most critical thing to remember is that you shouldn’t ask theoretical questions that programmers can memorise before the interview. Rather than asking for a specific skill, look for something that demonstrates the level of the developer’s skills.
Technical expertise: test a developer’s technical and coding skills
Coding tests are generally necessary for software developers and are best performed live. Perform a one-day, on-site assessment with a technical panel to measure their understanding. It would be helpful if you had a colleague capable of performing these tests to assess a candidate’s abilities. The importance of fast action cannot be overstated. As stated previously, your goal is to speed up the hiring process.Taking too long on a task can alienate qualified candidates. Consequently, tasks should not take more than four hours to complete.
Mock assignment: get a holistic overview of the candidate’s ability
‘Take-home’ tests speed up the hiring process because they are more convenient and effective than in-office assessments. Ask the candidate to architect a solution to a task that takes up to three days to complete at home. A knowledgeable member of the team will then evaluate the candidate’s results. Coding tests or homework assignments are excellent topics for discussion in subsequent video chats.
HR interview: gain better insight into the candidate’s personality
An HR interview can speed up the hiring process by not only determining how qualified the developer is but also providing key information that will help you decide if they are a right fit for your team. An HR representative must assess a candidate’s ability to find a common language with other people. They also have to inquire into their preferred working conditions, ways of dealing with others, and cultural aptitude.
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DOWNLOAD CASE STUDYManager interview: determine if the developer has the right cultural fit
It’s common for hiring managers to schedule separate meetings for HR, the CTO, the tech lead, and even the CEO. There is no doubt that this will take a long time. Having everyone meet simultaneously is the most effective way to ensure everyone is on the same page. It can be difficult to find a time that works for everyone, but it’s worth the effort. It can not only speed up the hiring process but ensure that you retain the right people for longer.
Final stage: perform the last interviews and choose your champions
The current job market is flooded with job offers for developers. As companies search for their preferred candidates, developers also compare and narrow down jobs that suit their needs. To speed up the hiring process, you should write a compelling job offer. Provide a candidate with answers to all their questions about your company and projects. Getting the potential candidate’s attention is your goal. You have only one chance to capture the candidate’s attention and interest.
Speed up the hiring process: wrapping up
Many companies now need to replenish their engineering team quickly. It’s quite challenging and time-consuming to interview software engineers. Companies and developers should optimise recruitment to speed up the hiring process. The purpose of this article is to help you speed up your hiring process.
Hiring new employees quickly requires reducing the number of interview steps and bringing all the right people together simultaneously. As a result, it’s vital to engage developers as much as possible. Using these tips, you can quickly and effectively conduct interviews and expand your team.