Technical skill tests can be a recruiter’s best friend, but only if they’re designed right. A poorly designed skills test will fail to successfully evaluate candidates, and you might end up hiring someone unfit for the position. This is why it’s crucial to use the right technical screening tool – we’ll take a look at the best ones in this piece.
Changes In The Engineers Hiring Process
Two components in the Builtin engineering hiring process had significant changes: assessment and interview.
Assessment
Builtin created a standardized assessment rubric to streamline its engineering hiring process. By doing this, they were also able to mitigate potential biases. In their assessment, recruiters evaluate candidates based on a predetermined set of criteria. For Builtin, these are the criteria that they used in their assessment:
⦁ Skills
⦁ Experience
⦁ Wisdom and Problem Solving
The rubrics are filled out by each team member independently so that others do not influence their choices. The rubric is then given to the VP of engineering for further evaluation.
But, the question is, why is it important to mitigate bias in the engineering hiring process anyway?
Everybody has their own set of biases. Even when others try to be fair, their biases are sometimes unconsciously manifested. Some recruiters might find themselves saying, “I like this candidate,” in terms of hiring engineers. Although they still consider others, their biases are given an unfair advantage.
Interview
Another major change that Builtin made in their engineering hiring process is in how they interview candidates. The first stage of Builtin’s interview is quite traditional; candidates are invited for an in-person or video interview which begins with a technical interview. During this stage, the candidate is given traditional coding problems.
The technical interview is crucial because it depicts the day-to-day tasks of the role. Not only will this help assess whether a candidate is a good fit moving forward, but it also enables candidates to get a better idea of what the job will be like. With this knowledge, they can determine if it’s the right fit for them so they can decide to continue their application or back out.
At Builtin, what they pay close attention to during the traditional interview is the applicant’s knowledge and approach to how they solve problems. Interviewers look at the questions they use to come up with answers and how they can answer difficult questions.
Once the traditional interview is done, the next phase is the discussion-based question. This approach allows interviewers to better understand the working process and style of a candidate when solving technical challenges.
Job simulations, also known as work simulations, require candidates to perform tasks that the role requires in the workplace. These simulations are an effective evaluation tactic to understand how the candidate will perform in the real work environment.
Structured interviews are also an effective evaluation method, and they include a scoring system similar to that of skill assessments. The common denominator between the two methods is that they are both quantitative and can thus be reliably compared and contrasted. Moreover, recruiters can extract useful insights from the collected data.
Technical skill assessments have the added benefit of providing recruiters with the opportunity to reliably screen out candidates pre-interview. Thus, when it comes to tech hiring, skill tests take the cake to justify reliability, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.
The Impact of the Changes
The changes that Builtin made have the following impact on their engineer hiring process:
It Creates Balance with the Objective and Subjective Approach
Creating a balanced objective and subjective approach is difficult to achieve. However, Built-in was able to do this with the changes that they made with their engineer hiring process. As a result, bias is mitigated, and the overall process efficiency is improved as well.
Streamline the Process
The hiring process can be quite time-consuming. Letting candidates undergo numerous assessments and scheduling multiple interviews can be tedious. In the worst-case scenario, a good candidate might not want to push through their application because it’s a major hassle on their part, and there’s no certainty whether their efforts will be paid off with a job offer hence why a streamlined hiring process is important.
Built-in’s straightforward interview and assessment process are a win-win for both the candidates and the company. The company can gather necessary data and information without unnecessarily taking up time which can attract more high-quality candidates to apply.
Takeaway
By revamping the assessment and interview process, Builtin has transformed how they hire engineers into a more efficient process, allowing them to find talented individuals who are an excellent fit for the company. The process of improving their engineer hiring methods did not happen overnight; Builtin went through trial and error to find the right fit for their company.
However, you have to remember that each company is unique. With such knowledge, Builtin’s changes might not work the same way for you. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that the engineer hiring process requires a well-thought-out approach to be effective.
What we can get from the transformation of Builtin’s engineer hiring process is how important the assessment and interview aspects are in the process. Unfortunately, making these changes can be difficult for companies that have no access to tests and evaluations that can improve their engineering process. The good news is there are now tools and solutions like WeCP that make things easier for you. It is a tool designed to help hiring managers, and technical recruiters make their workflow more efficient.
Are you ready to revamp your hiring process?
Get in touch with us today for more information on how we can help improve your assessment and interview process to attract high-quality candidates every time.
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