There's something that has always annoyed me in the tech industry.
Most of the time, the first step for tech candidates is to fill a boring form. First name, last name, CV, Linkedin, Github profile, a few usual questions, etc. Then the classical : "We'll be in touch soon if your profile interest us" final sentence 😐.
It does not matter which software is used by the Human Resource team, it's most of the time the same kind of form and same questions for everyone.
Being an engineer, I don't remember how many job forms I've filled...
Recently I had to work as a CTO and decided to do things slightly differently. The Human Resource team did not want to change the job ads software, so I was kinda locked. But at the end I simply added to the workflow a small "secret" API that I developed.
This API would simply "pre-screen" the public accounts given by the candidates. By screening the profiles sent by the candidate, the API would detect things like : high activity on public Github repositories, answers on Stackoverflow, etc.
Then the system would send an email to the candidate thanking him or her for the contributions and engaging a small discussion about those.
Of course this kind of system works better for senior or experienced developers with public contributions. But at the end, it was mostly a success for both us and the candidates 👏🏼.
First, this system helped us filter the spam and the agencies. Secondly, most senior engineers were quite happy to discuss about their public contributions and we had more engagement. This lead us to more quality discussions with good and motivated candidates 🚀.
I've decided to release the API on https://wisedev.io. You can try it on your own profiles if you want to see what could be your scoring.
What's your opinion on this kind of technique? What are your biggest pains during the traditional tech hiring process? What would you disrupt?
Top comments (4)
Specifically for the technique used for pre-screening, automating the process of having to manually look up stackoverflow, github, twitter activity etc is quite nice. I think it can be achieved through regular application forms as well via e-mail scraping and whatnot.
I think if you actually asked someone to read API docs and successfully send an API request...that might make it more interesting as it would be an actual demonstration of skill. Though I'd just come along and build a service that will send the requests for them...so maybe it might not be as effective.
As a product or service for generating leads and building a brand, I think it's pretty clever lol. I tried it and received 1 out of 10 for twitter (not much activity) and github (I don't do open-source). Guess I'd probably get weeded out quickly based on this lol
Hey thank you very much for your feedback 👌🏼
What happens if the applicant doesn't have a public facing Twitter or isn't active on GitHub/StackOverflow?
In that case it does not change anything from the usual and traditional workflow right?
I only wanted to change the flow for candidates who show some experience online already. Of course for the others, the workflow cannot be really changed.
Or you can setup the system to ask the candidate more about his/her previous experiences...