Hiring Process for software developers

Hiring the right talent is a challenge, but that doesn’t restrain many employees from turning every stone to get the best talent in the industry. Software development is a multi-faceted skill, and while standing at the crossroads to hire the best one, you’ve got to use the best skills in hiring process like social media marketing, process management, intuition and technical acumen. Often employers are terrified because they spend a lot of time and money to go through the complex process of hiring, and they don’t want to make a mistake with the final selection.

Here are some tips to help you with the hiring process for software developers.

Hire open source developers

Generally, hiring managers are quite wary of open source developers. Managers have this feeling that if developers are competent with open source then they would not concentrate on the real job but tamper with their proprietary stuff or get them publicized. However, most of these fears are unaccounted for. Developers aren’t unethical, they are brilliant people who love to write software.

There are other options besides hiring a general recruiter

Don’t go for the stereotype method of entrusting the task of hiring to a general recruiter. There are other methods that you should explore. As long as your company is projected as a good and ethical one, you will find talented developers knocking at your door. Sponsor a local ‘hackathon’ event or have user groups in your city where developers can come and join (you would have to treat them every once in a while). These moves would definitely show results in the long run, and if you are not using a recruiter, then you can save money on their commission as well.

Avoid pre-screening software

There are software’s that help with the pre-screening process. Avoid them like the plague because they are not reliable. The screening filters may not work well and you may land with a developer who may be technically good, but doesn’t have the other attributes that you are looking for.

Seek the assistance of a professional developer if you not technical

If you already have technically competent developers in your team, then include them in the hiring panel to ensure the potential hires are equally good.

Payment: It all boils down to it

There are big companies with deep pockets who can afford to pay top salaries to their developers. It is next to impossible to compete with them especially if you are a start-up, or run a small-medium business. However, if you advertise “the remuneration would be the best in the industry” then the potential hire would expect exactly that. If you are not able to pay top salary, then you can compensate with paid vacations, bonus, perks and all.

Mistakes made while hiring

Stop! You are doing it wrong

In spite of all the precautions taken, hiring software developers can run into various glitches. Have a look at the common mistakes made during the hiring process.

 Hiring a technical recruiter

There is nothing wrong in hiring a technical recruiter. Everybody does that, but ensure the technical recruiter does his job well. He cannot afford to waste your time fishing around for developers. The technical recruiter has to do a lot of networking and social marketing to get hold of prospective employees. His main aim would be to tap talent and place them in a good company. While technical recruiters have to be pushy, being too pushy would have the opposite effect.

Not being active in the hiring process

While entrusting the task of hiring can be better left to the human resources department or a recruitment agency, you should be active in the hiring process as well. Or you would go through interview after interview and not find the intended talent. In spite of living in a vibrant community where you have passionate and young software developers around, you need to hire a hiring manager who would be able to make a proper assessment of the talents that can be found outside. Ensure the manager is proficient technically, especially if you are not good at it. Make sure your team of hiring managers has at least one developer in its team.

Making the wrong kind of interview

Every hiring process goes through a series of steps where you ask potential candidates to introduce themselves, and then get into the technical aspect where you ask them questions about their job. Finally you ask them about their goals and how they see it in relation with the future of the company. In order to ensure all the aspects of the interview are covered, divide the interview into several segments.

  1. General interview – where you get to know the candidate in their personal and professional nuances. Remove them from the general setting of a closed room and take them outside for a cup of coffee perhaps; it would loosen them a bit.
  2. Technical interview – All technical questions can be posed here.
  3. Practical – Where you can ask the developer to develop a code, or ask him to solve a problem that you faced in the recent past.

Remember the 3 mistakes mentioned above, and avoid making them in the future because the magnitude of the mistake would be reflected only when you are half-way into a project, and retracting the steps would prove to be time-consuming and costly.

Conclusion

Hiring can be a stressful process, but if you remember the rules and tread carefully, you can hire the best developer. The interview and the hiring process should be in such a way that the potential hire’s strong points are highlighted and you get the one who is really fit for the job.

Interesting Links:
Hiring the best software developers
Right way to hire a software developer

Pictures: Flickr.com/ Cleaver/ COD Newsroom


The author: Reema Oamkumar is engaged as a thought leader at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.

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