When hiring programmers, there are so many candidates to choose from. There are a lot of resumes to scan and shortlist the right candidates for an interview. Many of the candidates that are selected for the interview are not able to write a code for the most basic algorithm. This ruins the recruiting exercise in any technology company whether small or large.
The way hiring of developers is conducted is several companies is time consuming and inefficient. There is no straight forward success formula for technical hiring. But there are various techniques which when followed can help a company to do away with the recruitment hustle.
The first step to get to the right candidate is filtering by using programmers test. Since there so many people who call themselves programmers but they cannot write even a single line code, a JS programming test will help you to filter out those people. You should not do this on the phone or by asking the candidate to come to your office since that will waste your valuable time. The test is best done online by using online tools. You only need to find an online compiler which evaluates a code automatically and gives you the results. With just a simple test, you will be able to filter out 90% of the candidates.
Those candidates that will pass that online coding test are the ones who at least know how to program. They may not have worked on huge systems, designed a project from zero or worked for any company before. But you will have saved a lot of time that you could have wasted in carrying out an interview and you will be able to perform higher lever scrutiny on the candidates who will have passed the test.
The next step is to give these candidates a small real world project. This can also be performed remotely. You can ask them to create something and share the link with you. After this exercise, you will discover that most people are able to write up to fifty lines of code but when they are dealing with several files or modules they are horrible. And this will again help you to filter the candidates.
The final exercise in hiring programmers is checking the cultural fit. At this point you will have been satisfied with someone. You can now do a telephone interview and go ahead to bring that programmer in-house for cultural fit checking. Show the candidate how awesome you are and get amazed by how awesome he or she is. Finally hire him or her.
Do not ever waste your time during the first step of hiring programmers. If candidates cannot code, that is not their problem. It is a problem in how programmers hiring is done this days in various industries. Most filtering in the first step of hiring is done based on candidates resume where they all claim to be fully proficient with all the necessary skills.