People working in a software development company are problem solvers, inventors, troubleshooters, investigators, etc. So, while hiring a developer, it isn’t enough to review their portfolio and resume. These documents may showcase an individual candidate’s past experiences and skill set. But it won’t show their ability to collaborate, investigative skills, or problem-solving methods.
You can reveal their capabilities through some skill-based tests. There are several types of testing methods, and they all are popular and useful for companies around the world. However, the following are the methods you can apply in your hiring process to test the skills of a developer;
- Questionnaires
The effective way to identify a smart skill-full developer is through programming questionnaires. Another big asset in the whole test process is that you evaluate a candidate with his/her coding abilities and problem-solving skills.
Platforms like FizzBuzz bring an excellent way to identify the highly-skilled and experienced programmers. It will look simple, but actually, the questions are pretty challenging. Only smart developers can get high scores on the test. The deadlines for every test might vary, but it doesn’t require more than a few hours.
- Give Candidate a Programming Challenge that Focuses on a Solution, not Language.
One suitable method to get the right developer for a project is to examine the overall ability to think logically and problem-solving skills. In this scenario, don’t look for coding language skills; instead, you can inquire about coding solutions for a certain problem. It also allows you to check the approach to overcome challenges and find errors. Once they are done, make sure to review their coding logic and style.
An excellent professional and expert always develop present work most creatively or efficiently. The solutions are smart and dependent on the project. When none of them is restricted, they can demonstrate their skills better. Successful candidates will bring great advantages to your remote team.
- Check Portfolio Thoroughly
Experienced, responsible, and talented developers always have a creative portfolio of their current or previous work. You can always ask for a link or list of work and open-source projects. Or simply ask them to indicate their part of the job in a project. However, not every developer is a good writer, but you may rarely find someone expert in writing and developing.
Once you have seen the portfolio, you can prepare more relevant questions about the styles, language, patterns, required tools, and decisions made for the project development. Indeed, profile and project review will allow you to know about the deeper insight into personality and skills.
- Take Trusted Tech Recruiting Advisor, If Needed!
You can save plenty of your time and resources while working with a tech recruiting advisor. With an expert IT consultant, your recruiting process for a developer will become easier. Instead of spending a week finding rare skills, you can now have candidates with the top tech personnel.
The same tech advisor can help you with tech testing, portfolio evaluation, pre-screening, background checks, etc. Additionally, an advisor will also allow you to ask immigration and legal questions for international candidates. An expert tech recruiter can help you relocate an experienced resource with unique skills from overseas.
However, IT consulting management advisor’s services are not too expensive. Some agencies have flexible payment ways; this way, you can avoid unnecessary expenses because they don’t bind you with long-term contracts.
Whether the candidate is working in a similar industry or not, it doesn’t matter. What matters the most is that the candidate can adapt to a different environment with different opinions.
- Arrange Technical Test Online
To evaluate a developer better, employers use written assignments, personality tests, and coding challenges for skill assessment. The best way is to arrange a test in person, but after the COVID-19 virtual assessment process, it is smarter than others. You can now have effective and reliable test tools for online assessment.
Online tools and your unique question are effectively reducing the potential for dishonesty and showcase the actual potential of a developer. You can also ask your expert team of developers to create an evaluation challenge or moderate the candidate’s existing one.
All the developers may work at the same time, which means one of the existing ones can tell you whether the candidate is a suitable fit for the team or not. The candidate must fit perfectly in both personally and technically right away. Or at least they are capable enough to point out the challenges they face in the assessment.
Online coding tests can display many elements, including communication within a team, problem-solving methods, and the ability to collaborate. However, you can start by introducing the candidate to the relevant project or any other similar. Now ask them to identify any flaws or issues roughly.
To monitor and observe a candidate’s approach to solve a problem, you can share a screen. Typically, 15 to 30 minutes are enough to perform a live coding test.
- Ask for Referrals
Your company must be a member of many national and international associations. You can always ask them to refer to some highly skill-full and qualified candidates. Make sure that these referral candidates for a manager or lead position can attend local events.
Plan before execution; once your planning is ready to evaluate a developer’s skills, don’t waste time holding interviews or reviewing portfolios. In many cases, a test is the most significant part of the recruiting process. So, inquire about unique questions and give challenges for greater results.
Challenges related to programming or coding save plenty of effort and time for both recruiter and candidate. There’s no big difference between online technical tests and in-person paper or whiteboard tests. Both of them give a chance to developers to demonstrate their capabilities, skills, and expertise.
Summary
To hire a developer, you have to test every candidate’s skills and expertise. Do you have enough time to do so? Why not ease your workload? We bet you already have plenty of tasks or goals to accomplish.
Connect with Aspired; they follow all the necessary steps to test a developer’s skills and get you the best candidate. For the past few decades, Aspired has been delivering the best remote employee’s team to many companies worldwide. Hence, they all are running successfully and smoothly.
