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A robust candidate vetting process is essential when you want to assemble an S-class team for your software project. But how can you make sure you get the right fit if your applicant is in the other part of the world? Blame or thank COVID for this, but remote hiring became a new norm, as well as remote vetting, making many business owners reconsider their strategies for acquiring new employees.
At Bridge, we have a decade of experience in sourcing and vetting technical talent for IT companies like Obvious.ly and Jasper.ai. In this article, we’ll tell you how to overcome challenges related to hiring remote technical talent and what the vetting process for employment looks like in today’s fast-paced digital age. Let’s dig in, shall we?
Challenges of hiring remote tech talent
Let’s start with the basics. What is a vetting process? Simply put, it involves evaluating a candidate’s skills and qualifications to ascertain their alignment with your project’s requirements. Vetting remote tech candidates can be resource-intensive for companies trying to manage it on their own, as it requires specialized expertise and a significant time investment. Additionally, traditional hiring methods are often not enough for remote hiring, mainly due to its unique challenges. Here are some of them:
- Self-motivation and independent work capabilities. For remote candidates, high-level self-organization and ability to work independently is a must. If you don’t want your project to fail, you have to make sure your candidates are capable of coming up with their own decisions, especially when it comes to tasks that require creative thinking.
- Security considerations. Remote work requires a high level of employer-employee trust to protect sensitive data. Additionally, you’ll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to safeguard your project from potential data leaks.
So rigorously vetting a candidate is not a good-to-have, but rather an obligation. Luckily, when it comes to vetting remote engineers, there are some automated tools that can help you streamline the process.
Automated tools for vetting tech candidates
According to research, companies spend more than 30 hours on recruiting a new engineer. To optimize the process, consider using automated tools for vetting. Not only do these tools help you save time and effort in the initial screening process, but also let you automate a number of manual tasks, such as data entry, scheduling, reporting, and so on. For a better understanding of how to vet candidates using automated tools, let’s consider some examples.
Codility
Codility is a well-known platform used for screening and interviewing remote developers. Having assessments in over 40 coding languages, this tool can help you hire a number of technical roles, from full-stack developers to data scientists.
Codility’s features include a built-in anti-plagiarism toolkit for ensuring the assessment results reflect the candidate’s real coding skills, CodeLive for organizing a live coding interview with candidates, and CodeChallenge for running close-to-real coding challenges your applicants might have to deal with.
HackerRank
HackerRank is a tech hiring platform for assessing developer skills for over 2500 companies around the world. Focused on what matters – code, it offers skill-based coding tests that reflect real-world developer challenges.
With a rich library of developer-friendly content and numerous skills assessment tests, HackerRank lets developers study and prepare for technical interviews, while recruiters can use the platform to hire skilled talent.
CodeSignal
CodeSignal lets you create customized coding tests tailored to your personal job requirements, and organize live video interviews in a collaborative coding environment. Trusted by well-known companies such as Uber and Lenovo, CodeSignal is a great tool for simplifying the hiring process and identifying the best technical professionals for your project.
ChallengeRocket
ChallengeRocket is a pioneer in technical talent assessment and recruiting that offers solutions for identifying, engaging, evaluating, and hiring exceptional candidates. With real-world tasks that replicate development challenges, candidates can demonstrate their skills as if they already joined your team.
What sets ChallengeRocket apart from the rest is its use of advanced AI technology that assesses candidates and gives them automated feedback. This way, even non-tech recruiters can benefit from the solution and save time on candidate evaluation.
Notably, leading organizations such as Nvidia and ING trust ChallengeRocket to find and engage with tech candidates.
CodinGame
Unlike other tools in our list, CodinGame offers a set of interactive coding games in 25+ languages for developers to solve tricky puzzles and improve their skills.
From the recruiter’s perspective, CodinGame is a great solution for verifying a candidate’s technical abilities, regardless of what their resume says. Instead of long and tedious technical vetting, you can ask your candidate to play a quick coding game against one of your employees and see what they’re truly capable of.
Coderbyte
Coderbyte is an advanced technical assessment platform, which offers more than 300 coding tests in ten different languages, including React, SQL, and Swift. With features like a built-in anti-plagiarism tool and a robust code editor with detailed reports, Coderbyte is the platform of choice for industry leaders such as Nokia and HBO for streamlining the hiring workflow.
Codeassess
Codeassess is the world’s first service to rate programmers through coding assignments. Developed by ExpertRating, a well-known leader in online skills testing since 2001, Codeassess offers an online platform to create coding challenges and programming tests and engage with matching experts.
With features such as test reporting, virtual interviews through CodeViews, and the ability to compare programming capabilities of different applicants, Codeassess sets the standard for the vetting process. Trusted by industry giants such as Walmart and IKEA, it has become an indispensable resource for organizations seeking to develop effective IT staffing strategies.
Vetting tech talent without automated tools
Of course, automated tools are not something you can’t live without. If your project has very specific needs, you can do everything vetting-related on your own, but be aware that this process takes much more time. To vet tech talent without relying on automated tools, consider the following methods:
- Technical interview with a skilled programmer from the team. Engage an experienced programmer from your in-house team in technical interviews to evaluate and provide feedback to new candidates.
- Pair programming. Implement pair programming during interviews where candidates and interviewers code together on the same computer. Just like in the previous case, the interviewer has to be a battle-tested developer with experience in vetting tech candidates.
Alternatively, you can engage with a third-party agency like Bridge for vetting new employees. Our team consists of qualified sourcers who will become a part of your recruitment team. We embed technical vetting into the process and validate candidates using semantic search, making the outreach process five times faster. We search for candidates in 14 locations, assess candidates based on their work history, experience, technical skills, and interpersonal attributes. After verifying that the candidate is a good fit, we schedule an interview for you to meet your future employee-to-be. The final decision on whether to hire the candidate is totally up to you.
Popular tech skills and best practices to vet them
In today’s dynamic technology landscape, certain skills are in particular demand and entail a very unique approach to vetting. To help you out, we’ve picked some most sought-after tech skills and ways you can test them.
Database management
It is a fundamental skill in the technology industry that ensures informed decision-making and improved business operations. To effectively store, manage, and organize data, you have to find a very strong expert in the field.
Testing methods: Database design and SQL coding assignments are particularly crucial for assessing candidates’ proficiency in this field.
Security
Cyber security is another vital thing when it comes to developing software solutions. To safeguard sensitive data, protect users against cyber threats, and maintain user trust, you have to find an experienced cyber security expert to make your solution impossible to hack.
Testing methods: To effectively vet candidates in this case, it is important to assess their knowledge of security protocols, including authentication, access control, and encryption. A reliable method to assess a candidate’s skills here is to give them tasks that involve implementing security measures in an existing program.
Cloud computing
If you want to develop a software solution with a scalable, flexible, and cost-effective infrastructure, finding a professional to maintain cloud applications should be on your to-do list.
Testing methods: You can assess a candidate’s cloud proficiency by asking them to explain their experience working with cloud platforms, their experience in deploying applications on the cloud, and any cloud-related certifications they might have.
Agile methodology
Agile methodology is probably the most popular approach to software development today, as it allows teams to respond quickly to changing requirements and deliver software in a more efficient and customer-centric manner. Naturally, finding a candidate who has experience in working on Agile projects is something you might be looking after.
Testing methods: Potential candidates should demonstrate experience working in agile environments and demonstrate proficiency with tools such as Jira, Trello, or Asana. During the evaluation process, be sure to ask about their previous experience with Agile methodologies.
AI vetting
Today, companies are increasingly turning to AI-based solutions for efficient and effective vetting of remote candidates. For example, using AI and its Intelligent Talent Cloud, Turing seamlessly connects companies with the best engineering talent from around the world. It simplifies the process, helping companies transform and grow in a remote environment.
Similarly, Arc uses AI technologies to enable companies to accelerate the hiring of remote developers. By automating outreach, job postings, and resume screening, Arc’s AI-driven platform ensures that organizations can quickly connect with the world’s best talent without wasting any extra resources.
But should we trust AI when it comes to vetting? At Bridge, we use our own proprietary engine to source candidates. Our engine is built specifically for engineer recruitment and allows us to significantly cut time for candidate acquisition, but when it comes to vetting, we believe that humans should be responsible for the job. For example, you can use automated tools similar to the ones we mentioned earlier, but those only help you assess candidates’ hard skills. If we’re talking about soft skills, on the other hand, only humans can decide if the candidate is the right fit for your project.
Bottom line
In today’s competitive job market, where hiring decisions have a lasting impact on an organization, sound vetting practices are essential, especially when talking about hiring remote talent. Best practices for vetting long-term candidates involve a holistic assessment of both hard and soft skills, and can include AI-driven tools. But to ensure you get the right engineer for your project, we highly recommend collaborating with an experienced service provider who can take care of your hiring needs. And Bridge can become this partner.
Recognizing the complexity of assessing technical skills, we offer pre-vetted candidates who are carefully selected according to your project requirements. Within our sourcing-as-a-service offering, you can gain access to a vast technical talent pool, ensuring an efficient hiring campaign.
Unleash the power of effective technical talent acquisition with expertly vetted Bridge candidates tailored to your project requirements.
Send us your requirements and we’ll get back to you shortly to discuss the details.
