To find and hire a good developer can be a challenge. The most common problem people need to deal with is the skills shortage and the competitors. The tech shortage receives a lot of attention from the media and does not show any sign that the situation will change.
But the skills don’t seem to be the bigger problem, HackerRank 2018 Developer Skills Report came to the conclusion that 60% of the companies reported that the evaluation of their candidates’ skills is the real provocation. The CV, which is still the most used instrument in making an employment decision, is not very effective when it comes to hiring a developer.
Even if the CV is a good first method to shorten the candidates’ list, there are a lot of skills one might have or not, that are not commonly listed in the CV. This leaves the HR specialists to wonder what they should do to discover the developers with more potential.
We have a few suggestions of methods one can use when making such a decision.
The first thing would be to check the candidate portfolio and/or coding samples. The most skilled developers usually have a portfolio where you can see his previous projects. You can also check if they have written any articles on their personal site or blog, even if this is not always the case.
This kind of digging helps you formulate better questions when it’s time for the interview, as you can ask them specific questions about their past works and how he handled the challenges he encountered in the past and make an idea about their innovative capacities.
When you give the candidates a technical test is better to make him do it on-site. This will make the process easier and faster for both parts involved, eliminate the possibility of cheating and helps you make an idea about how a candidate acts under pressure.
To eliminate the possibility of the candidate feeling humiliated in case he gets stuck is best for the candidates to do something small together with the technical hiring manager.
Another important aspect you should take into consideration is using the social media, this will help you to make the right decision more than the traditional methods and the time invested in it will likely pay off in the future.
LinkedIn is one of the best instruments in this case because it provides evidence of the technical skills of the candidates. You should always compare the CV they handle you with the information from their LinkedIn portfolio and investigate potential differences. The LinkedIn profile can also provide you some feed-backs from other clients or past employers about the person in question. On the other hand, the Twitter account can help you make an idea about their personality to help you decide if they are a good fit for the company.
Another option you have is to ask a good IT staffing company for advice. This will make the whole process a lot easier for the company because the specialist already knows the techniques to find the best developers available at the moment. This might be a very good method when you are in need of hard-to-find talent in the shortest time possible. The staffing company does not cost as much as people usually think and you are not obligated to a long-time contract with them if you don’t wish for it.
