interview – Resource Center https://resources.eteki.com eTeki-Technical Screening for Quality IT Hires Thu, 20 Oct 2022 14:19:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 How to Create a Top Candidate Experience for Tech Hires https://resources.eteki.com/how-to-create-a-top-candidate-experience-for-tech-hires/ Fri, 17 Jul 2020 15:22:07 +0000 https://resources.eteki.com/?p=210050 The post How to Create a Top Candidate Experience for Tech Hires appeared first on Resource Center.

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Candidate experience is always a hot topic in HR, and deservedly so. It encompasses every touchpoint across the entire recruiting process, starting from the first interaction, human or digital, and continues through onboarding. The experience your company designs and delivers can be the difference between landing a top candidate and losing them to a competitor.

Given there are many touchpoints by various parties during the hiring process, we’ve outlined some of the most significant areas that impact candidate experience in technical hiring and how you can improve them.

Start with accurate job descriptions that tell a story

Although this step happens well in advance of the interview, accurate and clear job descriptions set the stage for success from the outset. The best descriptions outline clear goals and measurements, without a lot of buzzwords which can be a turnoff (particularly to many tech candidates). Be clear on both present and future expectations for the role, painting a picture of what is expected upon hiring as well as potential for growth.

A winning job description goes beyond roles and responsibilities to tell a compelling story of what the job entails, the work involved, and the team environment. According to Katrina Kibben, “the most important thing you can do in any job posting is to translate the skills required into everyday activities.”

Reduce data entry time for candidates

Recruiters and candidates frequently end up spending a lot of time entering information into applicant tracking systems (ATS). Using an ATS with a well functioning resume parser can increase efficiency by quickly entering unstructured data from a resume into your database and enabling advanced searches. It also improves the experience of the candidate by automatically filling forms that previously required manual effort, resulting in a lower bounce rate and more registrations. So the next time your company shops for the best ATS, make sure to evaluate the resume parsing functionality actually automates data entry for your candidates.

Streamline the hiring process

It’s important to be clear on the timeline and steps in your hiring process, and communicate that to everyone involved as well as the candidate. Time to hire is a key factor in landing competitive candidates, so it’s critical to reduce delays wherever possible.

Recruiters need to function as project managers, keeping the entire process moving forward across multiple teams. Appropriate intermediary steps and deadlines with owners should be set by working backward from the date the candidate needs to be hired. Key to accomplishing this is creating accountability between the hiring team and the recruiting team. The process starts with the intake with the hiring manager on requirements, and taking a strategic approach to the intake process can streamline the entire search.

Fast track the top candidates

The recruiter should be knowledgeable about available methodologies and have a productive relationship with the hiring manager, who should articulate their hiring needs accurately. For efficiency, the process should be designed so only the most qualified candidates are seen by the hiring manager, and top candidates should be fast-tracked. This means that technical screening should be performed before the candidate reaches the hiring manager. Appropriate knockout questions can weed out inappropriate candidates early in the process, and accurate scoring ensures the right candidates move forward.

Consider prequalifying a tech candidate’s relevant skills experience with an interviews-as-a-service partner (such as eTeki), to reduce the wait time between submittal and when the qualified IT professional actually meets with the hiring team.

For more tips on how to accelerate technical screening, see this article.

Use clear and frequent communication

Frequent and consistent communication is essential. Be clear about the next steps, and let candidates know about any delays or deviations from the schedule as soon as possible. While delays are often unavoidable, transparency from your side will go a long way in continuing a strong relationship between you and the candidate. Ghosting them can ruin the goodwill created during the entire recruiting process, so be sure to communicate, whether the news is positive or negative, in a timely manner.

The information that you communicate to the candidate can reveal a lot about your organization and provides another opportunity to showcase your company as well as filtering out candidates who may not be the best fit. The best recruiters are open about salary ranges but don’t pin down fixed numbers, which can save a lot of time by making sure a candidate’s salary expectations are in alignment with the organization.

Make scheduling smooth and efficient

Disorganized scheduling sends a bad message to candidates about what to expect when dealing with an organization. It’s important to be accommodating and to respect the candidate’s time. Tech interviews should be driven by when the candidate is available, not by the bottlenecks often caused by internal interviewing capacity. Avoiding the lengthy back and forth exchange which is so common becomes more feasible when partnering with a deep pool of experienced subject matter experts.

Use great interviewers with appropriate skill sets

Bad interviewers can be a huge turnoff to candidates. Good interviewers are prepared and represent the hiring organization positively. It’s important to ensure internal interviewers have been trained appropriately. Do not assume that because interviewers are experienced, they will be good. Ongoing training is key even for your more experienced interviewers, to ensure they ask the right questions and consistently represent the organization in an accurate way.

It’s important to ensure that each interviewer is evaluating appropriate skills and not stepping outside their own area of expertise. Even experienced hiring teams frequently find this to be a challenge when it comes to evaluating skills in new and emerging technologies.

If you don’t have appropriate subject matter expertise in house, consider using an interview service with a deep pool of expert technical interviewers that are currently working in the field.

Don’t be afraid to seek help if you need it

If your hiring team has gaps in any of these areas, don’t hesitate to look for additional support, whether it be from internal teams or external partners. In addition to providing expert interviewers with deep technical skills, eTeki’s interview-as-a-service platform facilitates a tight, streamlined process that will positively reflect on your organization.

Amanda Cole

Amanda Cole

Vice President at eTeki, specializes in recruiting and training contingent resources, as well as leading organizations leveraging this type of workforce for multi-million dollar service delivery.

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]]> Pre-Screening Tips https://resources.eteki.com/whitepaper/pre-screening-tips/ Fri, 15 May 2020 15:45:13 +0000 https://qarc.eteki.com/?post_type=whitepaper&p=209343 The post Pre-Screening Tips appeared first on Resource Center.

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Pre-Screening Tips

Best Practices in Screening with eTeki partner

Download the WhitePaper
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Five Reasons to conduct a Pre-Screening Interview

Screening applicants is a great way to save both time and money by ensuring that employers don’t have to sit through time-consuming interviews with applicants that are plainly neither qualified nor suited to the open position.

One of the major recruitment problems experienced by businesses is finding employees that will end up staying on board for any serious length of time. Screening gives employers the opportunity to search out those recruits that seem to display qualities that will keep them at a job for a serious amount of time.

The screening process will give employers the opportunity to focus any further interviews on the things that matter, rather than spending valuable time asking questions that don’t really go anywhere. Any information revealed in the screening process should be put to good use and form the basis of further questioning.

Screening applicants will give employers an opportunity to send feelers out and see exactly what is happening in the recruitment world. It will give them an idea of whether they are hiring at a moment where there is a distinct lack of quality applicants or a period in which quality is exceptionally high.

Hiring the right workforce is an important part of running a business and will go a long way to ensuring future success. The screening process will help contribute to a recruitment process that helps employers find a suitable and sustainable workforce.

Download Whitepaper Now

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]]> 13 Technical Interview Failures https://resources.eteki.com/ebook/13-technical-interview-failures/ Fri, 30 Nov 2018 12:44:46 +0000 http://resources.eteki.com/?post_type=project&p=206184 The post 13 Technical Interview Failures appeared first on Resource Center.

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A Technical Recruiting

Must Have

13 Technical Interview Failures
… and how to fix them

Download the eBook
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I’d love to interview tech talent like a tech pro, but how can I speak their language?

If you’ve ever asked that question, this eBook will help you to identify common problems and solutions to interview your candidates better.

Includes insight from experts on technical interviewing

Overview

Technical recruiting is a tough game. The interviews are not any easier. Think about it, you spend 3 weeks identifying top talent, 3 days shortlisting the 10 candidates you just spent 3 weeks uncovering down to the top 3. Then, you spend 5 days trying to get them on the phone, and when you do, you loose them in 30 minutes never getting them to move them forward in the interview process.

Why?

Because your interview was bad and you were unable to speak their language.

To improve, you need to understand some of the common failures. What are those, and how do you fix them? That is what this eBook is, a guide to successful technical interviewing by sharing 13 of the most common technical interviewing failures and how to fix them.

A Technical Recruiting Must Have.
Subscribe now to get your copy

Download


Download

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]]> How can recruiters maximize the phone screen? https://resources.eteki.com/how-can-recruiters-maximize-the-phone-screen/ Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:46:23 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=2627 The post How can recruiters maximize the phone screen? appeared first on Resource Center.

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Years ago, one of my colleagues was based out of Minneapolis. He and his wife had decided they wanted to leave the area (largely because of weather), and he was looking for jobs in other cities. We all know that looking for a job somewhere you’re not currently based is a challenge, and my colleague ran into all sorts of problems when interacting with recruiters.

One got on the phone screen and assumed he was already based in Austin, Texas — even though they had exchanged several emails before the call explaining the geographic situation.

Most recruiters did the old “walk me through your resume” and when he got to his current situation, they’d say “Oh wait, you’re based in Minneapolis? Why are you applying for this role, then?”

My colleague says of this time: “It was incredibly demoralizing. It was as if recruiters didn’t do any research, didn’t pay attention to what I was saying in the documents I sent or on my resume. It was just awful.”

Finally, he did get a job — although it was a long process and unfortunately, recruiters didn’t make it any easier.

The phone screen is a dying art
First of all, we simply don’t talk on the phone as much as we used to. The landline has been in decline for a generation or more, and while smartphone usage is up, fewer are using it for phone calls. It’s more for apps and services.

Secondly, the recruiter function has become more focused on a large amount of tasks. This may change with automation increasingly getting to scale, but what’s happening right now is that recruiters are super-busy in almost all verticals — and especially tech verticals. Because of that busyness, they don’t have time to properly understand candidates before the phone screen commences. That’s why you have issues like the above that my friend experienced.

The standard phone screen is often the old 1-2 punch of, “Let me read the position description to you” and, “Walk me through your resume.” It’s hard to get a lot of quality information about a candidate that way.

How do we improve phone screens?
Here are the key ways:

Do your research: You should spend about 5-6 minutes per candidate before a phone screen going through their:

  • Resume
  • LinkedIn
  • Any Google search results
  • Anything else you can find, have, or know

Here’s one example from a few weeks ago about the power of research. One of my colleagues was rushed on an initial phone screen, and the candidate kept giving him one-word answers. Admittedly it was a bad interview, but her technical skill set was high, so she was advanced to a second interview. Before that screen, which was still with my colleague, he did more research and found that she was a dog lover and donated to dog charities often. He brought that up. Almost instantly, the one-word answers about her professional experience became longer, more context-heavy answers. The research changed the emotional connection, which changed the quality of the interview.

Read resume bottom to top: Many recruiters read top to bottom, preferring to focus on the last 1-2 positions held. I prefer reading bottom to top, and then opening the interview discussing that first role out of school. This provides an instant emotional connection to the candidate, because now the candidate feels like you actually looked at their resume, instead of just saying “Walk me through it.” Also, it allows you to see how their career progressed, when they got more responsibility, when they changed industry, etc.

Use the “dummy curve:” When recruiting for tech positions, say to candidates something like, “I don’t know all the tech specs and terms as well as you do, so I need you to walk me through some of that.” This will (a) give you a greater knowledge base, which you can then use on other candidates and (b) open them up to discuss their work in more detail, which can lead to follow-up questions and make your interview more robust.

Use the answers of previous candidates to create questions for future candidates: This is especially true in tech recruiting where you may not know about a specific technology or coding language. Ask questions of the first 2-3 people you screen. Then, in the next 10 screens, you can use their answers and language to frame questions for later-screened candidates.

Learn from sales: Because of the silo effect in most companies, many recruiters never think to go talk to sales and learn from them. But what does sales do all day? Outreach, discussion, learning more about people, researching them, trying to build an emotional connection, etc. Recruiting and sales are the same thing in many respects. In one case you need clients/customers for revenue, and in another case you need future employees to help drive that revenue. The process is very similar, however. So we need to be learning from sales. Ask if you can sit in on mute for an intro call. A sales intro call is very similar to a recruiter phone screen — both sides trying to learn about each other, connection being developed, information flying. Sit in on a few and see how the best salespeople work those calls. Then apply some of those approaches to your own phone screens.

sam

Sam Velu
Sam Velu has over 20+ years’ experience in staffing and solutions delivery of human capital for various domains. He is a highly sought-after IT recruiting trainer. Sam helps companies to strategize delivery models, validate these processes with metrics and utilize social data to make smarter and quantifiable decisions regarding talent management. The alignment of process and metrics in sharing and developing best practices within the staffing and recruitment industry are his passion. Sam was recently called upon by TechServe Alliance to serve on their Taskforce on the IT & Engineering Talent Shortage.

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]]> The Candidate’s Checklist for Succeeding at Live Video Interviews https://resources.eteki.com/candidates-checklist-succeeding-live-video-interviews/ Thu, 20 Jul 2017 11:41:03 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=1928 The post The Candidate’s Checklist for Succeeding at Live Video Interviews appeared first on Resource Center.

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It’s easy to feel uncertain about job interviews and technical screens as a candidate. Modern technical interviews bring these conversations to a comfortable setting (usually at home), rather than in the employer’s office. While convenient, it’s easy to let your guard down. Use this Candidate’s Checklist for Successful Live Video Interviews to ensure that you’re presenting yourself as a capable professional.

Before the Interview
Be prepared. For live technical interviews that mean going beyond just being prepared to discuss the job opportunity, all past projects and jobs on your resume, researching the employer, and making some notes about what you want to talk about .

  1. I’ve dressed professionally. It’s frankly quite stunning how many candidates dress inappropriately for video interviews. Just because an interview isn’t at an employer’s worksite doesn’t mean that it’s OK to wear a T-shirt or a cap.
  2. I’ve performed a complete tech check
      • I’m able to access the video interviewing system/my webcam is working properly.
      • My microphone is working properly.
      • If I’m using my computer’s built-in audio, I have a headset available in case the interviewer has difficulty hearing me.
  1. I’ve performed a complete environment check
      • My camera is positioned correctly. Your camera is facing you straight-on and shows your shoulders and up.  Also, pay attention to the background. Remove anything the interviewer might find distracting or inappropriate.
      • The lighting is adequate. The interviewer needs to be able to see your face. A common cause of poor lighting is sitting in front of a window. For best results, turn on all lights in the room and lower blinds/shut curtains.
      • I’ve done what I can to minimize background noise. Do the interview in a spot where any background noise would be unlikely or minimized. Let family members/roommates know that you need a quiet environment and can’t be interrupted. Ask them not to flush nearby toilets (we’ve heard this happen more than once). Mute any devices that might cause distracting noises.
      • I’ve identified potential causes of interruption. Be aware of situations that could momentarily interrupt the video interviews (e.g. a package delivery), and at the start of the interview inform the interviewer of the potential distraction.

During the Interview

  1. I’ve connected with the interviewer. It’s important to develop some rapport with the interviewer. There’s no need to be detailed, but be personable and pleasant during introductions.
  2. I’ve given eye contact without staring. Providing a good amount of eye contact helps make you appear confident and professional.
  3. I’ve avoided fidgeting. Nervous habits such as tapping on your computer or desk, stretching and yawning frequently can give an interviewer a bad impression of your personality and professionalism.
  4. I’ve maintained confidence. You don’t want the interviewer (or hiring manager, who will probably watch the recording of the interview) to think you’re uncomfortable or struggling. If you need more time to think about an answer to a question, restate the question, which will give you a few more seconds to process.
  5. I’ve used examples from my past experience. Telling an interviewer how you’ve done something in the past gives him or her much more confidence in your qualifications than merely explaining how you might do it. This is especially important for technical interviews, during which good interviewers are seeking behavioral examples.
  6. I’ve created maximum impact by talking about outcomes of my work and accomplishments. This is related to the past examples item above but is important enough to deserve its own item. To get interviewers and hiring managers to take notice, show how your work has benefited your employers.

The post The Candidate’s Checklist for Succeeding at Live Video Interviews appeared first on Resource Center.

]]> 4 Commitments Recruiters Need From Hiring Managers to Achieve Great IT Hiring Results https://resources.eteki.com/4-commitments-recruiters-need-hiring-managers-achieve-great-hiring-results/ Thu, 16 Feb 2017 11:52:33 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=1312 The post 4 Commitments Recruiters Need From Hiring Managers to Achieve Great IT Hiring Results appeared first on Resource Center.

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We’ve been writing recently about return on interview, a new recruiting measure. In our last post, we provided a seven-step process for recruiters to deliver qualified shortlists so that IT hiring managers enjoy a great return on interview.
Consistently achieving a great return on interview leads to benefits such as:

  • Strong time-to-hire and quality-of-hire metrics.
  • Stronger IT department performance
  • Increased company profits

But here’s the rub: as a recruiter you can’t achieve this goal alone. You need IT hiring manager to buy into the process, and do their part as well. In this post we examine four commitments recruiters need from hiring managers to achieve great IT hiring results.

  1. Set Expectations

As a recruiter, you need to know the candidate qualifications IT hiring managers are looking for. Otherwise, you are left guessing, which leads to the wrong candidates advancing to the final interview stage, and possibly even being hired.
As a result: you need hiring manager to:

  • Give you fully thought out technical job descriptions for each position that list the specific experience and skill requirements, and list preferences separately. (If they need a good primer on writing technical job descriptions, see Dave Fecak’s post “Writing Job Descriptions to Attract Technical Talent.”)
  • Take the time during intake sessions to clarify any questions you have.

It’s also important to agree with hiring manager on what’s expected of each of you during the hiring process, so everybody’s clear on what they’re supposed to do.

  1. Be Accountable

It’s easy for IT hiring manager to prioritize other demands (e.g., project deadlines) over hiring. As a recruiter, you need hiring managers to commit to being accountable in the hiring process.
Most importantly, you need hiring managers to respond quickly when it’s time to take action. For example, hiring managers can’t delay in setting up interviews after you deliver your shortlist. Given the intense competition for top tech talent, any delay could lead to losing out on potential quality hires.

  1. Collaborate on Candidate Screening

IT hiring managers need to commit to serving as advisors during the candidate screening process. When they collaborate on screening—instead of just leaving screening up to you as the recruiter—it helps the right candidates emerge on the final shortlist.
Hiring managers can be helpful during the screening process by:

  • Prioritizing screening steps. Do they want you to see if candidates have contributed on Stack Overflow? On GitHub?
  • Contributing to the technical interview process. For example, we recommend IT hiring manager to provide the areas they’d pick to cover if they were the ones to perform the technical interview.
  1. Give Timely Feedback

The recruiting process rarely runs perfectly, so it needs to be adjusted and fine-tuned. As a recruiter, you need IT hiring managers to provide quality, timely feedback to make proper adjustments. After all, you can’t read their minds.
For example, you want IT hiring managers to tell you:

  • What they like and dislike about the qualifications of the candidates on your shortlists.
  • Whether they’re satisfied with the amount of time it’s taking to deliver shortlists.

Only by knowing IT hiring managers’ insights can you properly tweak job requirements and the screening process to deliver better candidates or to deliver candidates in less time.

Work as Partners
Recruiters and IT hiring managers need to be partners. All partners have clear expectations of each other, own their own parts of the process, and provide feedback to each other.

Ultimately, the success or failure of your partnerships with IT hiring manager will go a long way to determining the success or failure of recruiting efforts. Research by Bersin by Deloitte shows that a strong relationship between the recruiter and hiring manager is the “most influential predictor” of talent acquisition performance outcomes—four times more than any other factor.

We’ve been writing recently about return on interview, a new recruiting measure. In our last post, we provided a seven-step process for recruiters to deliver qualified shortlists so that IT hiring managers enjoy a great return on interview.
Consistently achieving a great return on interview leads to benefits such as:

  • Strong time-to-hire and quality-of-hire metrics.
  • Stronger IT department performance
  • Increased company profits

But here’s the rub: as a recruiter you can’t achieve this goal alone. You need IT hiring manager to buy into the process, and do their part as well. In this post we examine four commitments recruiters need from hiring managers to achieve great IT hiring results.

  1. Set Expectations

As a recruiter, you need to know the candidate qualifications IT hiring managers are looking for. Otherwise, you are left guessing, which leads to the wrong candidates advancing to the final interview stage, and possibly even being hired.
As a result: you need hiring manager to:

  • Give you fully thought out technical job descriptions for each position that list the specific experience and skill requirements, and list preferences separately. (If they need a good primer on writing technical job descriptions, see Dave Fecak’s post “Writing Job Descriptions to Attract Technical Talent.”)
  • Take the time during intake sessions to clarify any questions you have.

It’s also important to agree with hiring manager on what’s expected of each of you during the hiring process, so everybody’s clear on what they’re supposed to do.

  1. Be Accountable

It’s easy for IT hiring manager to prioritize other demands (e.g., project deadlines) over hiring. As a recruiter, you need hiring managers to commit to being accountable in the hiring process.
Most importantly, you need hiring managers to respond quickly when it’s time to take action. For example, hiring managers can’t delay in setting up interviews after you deliver your shortlist. Given the intense competition for top tech talent, any delay could lead to losing out on potential quality hires.

  1. Collaborate on Candidate Screening

IT hiring managers need to commit to serving as advisors during the candidate screening process. When they collaborate on screening—instead of just leaving screening up to you as the recruiter—it helps the right candidates emerge on the final shortlist.
Hiring managers can be helpful during the screening process by:

  • Prioritizing screening steps. Do they want you to see if candidates have contributed on Stack Overflow? On GitHub?
  • Contributing to the technical interview process. For example, we recommend IT hiring manager to provide the areas they’d pick to cover if they were the ones to perform the technical interview.
  1. Give Timely Feedback

The recruiting process rarely runs perfectly, so it needs to be adjusted and fine-tuned. As a recruiter, you need IT hiring managers to provide quality, timely feedback to make proper adjustments. After all, you can’t read their minds.
For example, you want IT hiring managers to tell you:

  • What they like and dislike about the qualifications of the candidates on your shortlists.
  • Whether they’re satisfied with the amount of time it’s taking to deliver shortlists.

Only by knowing IT hiring managers’ insights can you properly tweak job requirements and the screening process to deliver better candidates or to deliver candidates in less time.

Work as Partners
Recruiters and IT hiring managers need to be partners. All partners have clear expectations of each other, own their own parts of the process, and provide feedback to each other.

Ultimately, the success or failure of your partnerships with IT hiring manager will go a long way to determining the success or failure of recruiting efforts. Research by Bersin by Deloitte shows that a strong relationship between the recruiter and hiring manager is the “most influential predictor” of talent acquisition performance outcomes—four times more than any other factor.

The post 4 Commitments Recruiters Need From Hiring Managers to Achieve Great IT Hiring Results appeared first on Resource Center.

]]> Understanding the “Other ROI”: Return on Interview https://resources.eteki.com/understanding-roi-return-interview/ Thu, 26 Jan 2017 13:11:03 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=1270 The post Understanding the “Other ROI”: Return on Interview appeared first on Resource Center.

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You’re almost surely familiar with ROI—return on investment—which is the gain or loss generated by an investment, or action, relative to the cost.
Today we provide an introduction to the ROI for hiring—return on interview—a new and exciting concept.

What is Return on Interview?
Return on interview is what it sounds like: the gain or loss resulting from a job interview process, relative to the cost.
Here’s the more formal definition: Return on interview is a hiring performance measure that evaluates the effectiveness of an interview and the efficiency of the interviewing process for the candidate, recruiter, hiring manager, and hiring company.

Why is return on interview important? Maximizing return on interview means you are maximizing hiring quality without sacrificing time of hire.

What Do a High and Low Return on Interview Look Like?
Understanding what a high and low return on interview are may not be as easy as understanding what a high and low return on investment are.
To make it clear, you maximize return on interview when a recruiter delivers a shortlist of candidates who are all completely qualified (e.g., education, experience and skill requirements all met) in an efficient time frame. This means the hiring manager gets the candidates when he or she needs them, and can make next-round interviewing decisions without second-guessing the candidates’ qualifications.

ROI drops when candidate quality drops or if there are inefficiencies in the process that result in costly delays. So with low ROI, the hiring manager is wasting his or her time interviewing unqualified candidates—or worse, hiring them—and/or significant delays are resulting in a lengthy time to hire.

How Do You Maximize Return on Interview?
It’s simple: you need a quality hiring process.
In a quality process, everyone who has a role in the process does his or her job promptly and properly, and the candidate moves efficiently between each stage.
This means:

  • The hiring manager quickly identifies the right job and candidate requirements and effectively communicates them to the recruiter.
  • The recruiter sources and screens candidates effectively and efficiently. Otherwise, it’s a classic case of garbage in, garbage out.
  • The steps between sourcing and candidates being delivered to the hiring manager—background and reference checking, drug testing, assessments, technical interviews (of candidates for tech roles), etc.—are conducted expertly and smoothly.
  • HR effectively manages the entire process to prevent unnecessary delays.

What Are the Benefits of a High Return on Interview for the Various Parties?
Everyone involved in the hiring process—the hiring manager, the recruiter, your organization, even the candidate—benefits from a high return on interview.

The Hiring Manager: As a result of a high ROI, the hiring manager saves time and is must less likely to have to deal with the consequences of a bad hire.
The time the hiring manager saves includes:

  • Eliminate time spent filtering through resumes of unqualified candidates
  • Eliminate time spent interviewing unqualified candidates
  • Reduce time spent making interviewing and hiring decisions

The hiring manager is less likely to make a bad hire, and thus avoids consequences—lower productivity, lower team morale, increased training and management time, etc.—that can become major headaches. The hiring manager is also less likely to have to terminate the hire for poor performance and to have to begin the hiring process all over again.

The Recruiter: A high ROI means the recruiter is consistently and efficiently delivering high-quality candidates. Doing so benefits the recruiter’s reputation and career, as well as his or her relationship with the hiring manager. Another positive impact: fewer reopened hiring processes necessitating the recruiter to invest still more time in sourcing and screening candidates. For a recruiter with a staffing agency, an added benefit is the agency is able to maximize revenue because the candidates placed are much more likely to stick with clients.

The Hiring Company: A high ROI means better hiring and better talent.
Better hiring means your HR department isn’t spending time doing orientation and onboarding for bad hires. It also means that if you use multiple rounds of interviews, your internal interviewers aren’t wasting their time discussing jobs with unqualified candidates.

Better talent, of course, means higher productivity, better morale, higher engagement, lower costs, more revenue, and ultimately a stronger, more successful company.

The post Understanding the “Other ROI”: Return on Interview appeared first on Resource Center.

]]> Meet The Experts: Surendra Pepakayala https://resources.eteki.com/meet-experts-surendra-pepakayala/ Wed, 14 Dec 2016 17:40:36 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=1187 The post Meet The Experts: Surendra Pepakayala appeared first on Resource Center.

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The success of eTeki thus far can be accredited to a collaborative effort of professional teams including advisors, marketing specialists, operations experts, development rockstars, and freelance technologists. One team in particular is very special and without them, eTeki wouldn’t be where it is today. These select individuals make up our Technology Advisory Panel. These panelists come from different technical backgrounds and are experts in their fields. Of those, we pulled one Tech Advisor aside to get to know him a little better. His name is Surendra Pepakayala. Surendra, with over 18 years of experience, serves on the panel and is also part of the core management team of eTeki. The technical connoisseur sat down with us to give his views on the industry, himself, and eTeki.

Tell us about your professional history, how you got started in IT, and how you ended up where you are today.
I first got a taste of computers during my freshman year at college. My first hands on lesson was a tutorial on ED and VI on a shared Unix system via a dumb terminal. Being an Electronics major, I had the opportunity to understand, play and program 8086/8088 and 80286 microprocessors in assembly language and developed algorithms in Pascal and C. Subsequently, I worked for the only IT company in India maintaining real-time computers from Siemens where I watched computers interface with mechanical devices. My master’s thesis focused on VLSI design (chip design) and I implemented the earliest JVM on silicon. I’ve since worked at startups in Silicon Valley, had a short stint at Microsoft, been involved in numerous tech mergers and acquisitions, founded a couple of tech companies, consulted for multinational companies in various areas including Software Development, SOA, Business Intelligence, Cloud, DevOps, IT Governance and Risk Mgmt, Program and Project Management.

What are your thoughts on the talent acquisition industry and how does eTeki fit into it?
Recruiting IT talent is a tricky business to say the least. The fortunes of an IT company rest with the talent they hire. It is due this reason, large IT companies have committed a lot of time, resources and money to put in place processes to hire the best talent. However, medium to small IT companies and staffing agencies don’t have the same leeway and rely on limited internal IT expertise to screen and hire talent. The processes around screening and interviewing potential hires is haphazard at best. For example, most times, the internal IT resources tasked to interview potential hires are either pressed for time or biased which results in a sub optimal experience for both parties involved. For the organization, this results in lost time and most times a lost opportunity to hire a good candidate. For the interviewee, this experience leaves a bad taste and aversion for the organization. The eTeki model would to a large extent mitigate if not eliminate such bad experiences. Unbiased, professional and objective interview by a third party ensures that both the organizations’ and interviewee interests are protected.

Since you have never been a thought leader in the past, what excites you about your leadership position in eTeki? What do you plan to do with eTeki?
IT interviews today are fraught with numerous shortcomings. To name a few (i) Lack of proper interviewing skills (behavioral and technical) and experience (ii) Mismatch between the interviewer’s’ understanding of the job description and questions asked during the interview (iii) Internal interviewer bias (iv) Lack of objective metrics to measure interviewees’ performance for a given job description. As a panelist with eTeki, I’ll have the opportunity to influence and the change the status quo. With help from other panelists, I hope to contribute to build an industry reference model for how technical interviews shall be conducted in a fair, objective and meaningful manner.

Due to your 18+ years of experience in the IT industry, you must’ve been through many interviews. What was your best interview, and what was your worst?
One of the best interviews I attended was a second round interview at Microsoft early in my career. The interviewer took the time to understand my background and tech exposure, helped me understand the position, team, product and technologies involved. Then he proceeded to outline a problem they had encountered. He walked me through each step while I tried to solve the problem and he added constraints and boundaries as we went along. To me, it felt more like a brainstorming session rather than an interview. We discussed about possible algorithms, design patterns and implementation details. Both sides won here because I got the job and Microsoft had one less problem to solve.

I’ve been to many interviews that I regret attending. One such interview occurred fairly recently for a freelance engagement. The interview happened in a small cubicle. The interviewer (a project manager) was pre-occupied with one of his projects. Without any intro and overview, he asked me to write an autocomplete feature using Ruby. Had he seen my resume, he would have known that Ruby isn’t one of skills. He then proceeded to get on a conference call right there. He didn’t bother to give me any writing material to solve the coding question. Needless to say, I thanked him for his time and left.

Tell us where you see eTeki going in the future.
I see eTeki changing the status quo in tech interviews and filling a void in the tech recruitment space. The eTeki marketplace is good step forward in this direction. As the platform matures and word spreads, I see eTeki diversifying into skill matching, resume screening, interview fraud detection and other value-added services not just for tech recruitment but also for other professions. Eventually, eTeki can become the one-stop shop for talent scouting, matching, screening and interviewing.

Surendra Pepakayala has over 18 years experience in implementing enterprise, web, cloud and DW/BI solutions, leading teams of 15-100 developers/software engineers, DBAs, architects, and project managers on project/product budgets ranging from $100K to $80M in revenue. His work spans startups, medium sized boutique consulting firms and multinational companies in Insurance, Telecom, Retail, Manufacturing and Education.
We are lucky to have him here with us and are very excited to see the successes his leadership will bring to eTeki.

Related Posts:- Meet The Experts: Amrut Patil

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]]> Strong Tech Candidates Can Pick and Choose. How They’re Evaluating Your Company https://resources.eteki.com/strong-tech-candidates-can-pick-choose-theyre-evaluating-company/ Thu, 03 Nov 2016 11:54:55 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=1093 The post Strong Tech Candidates Can Pick and Choose. How They’re Evaluating Your Company appeared first on Resource Center.

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It’s commonly accepted that competition for top tech talent is sky-high today. Examples of statistics that show this (there are so many) include:

  • The rate of tech job creation is growing at twice the average for all jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
  • By 2020, the BLS projects more than 1 million computer science-based jobs won’t have qualified college graduates to fill them.
  • 90% of executives in the C-suite report that recruiting IT talent is a top challenge for their companies, according to an Appirio study.

Add in that 90% of recruiters (an all-time high, according to an MRINetwork study) say we have a candidate-driven market overall, and it’s safe to say the candidate-driven market in tech is extreme.

As a result, strong tech candidates—the ones you actually want to hire—can afford to pick and choose extremely carefully. As an employer, this means that every offer, every communication, every interaction, every process, matters when it comes to landing the tech talent you need.

But there are some factors that are more important than others in candidates’ overall evaluation of your company, as revealed by the following data:

  1. According to a 2014 Glassdoor survey, the top five considerations for candidates before accepting a job offer are:
  • Salary/compensation
  • Career growth opportunities
  • Work-life balance
  • Location/commute
  • Company mission, vision, values
  1. According to a 2013 Corporate Responsibility Magazine/Allegis Group survey, 69% of job seekers would not take a job with a company that had a bad reputation, even if they were unemployed. Meanwhile, 84% would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another role with a company that had an excellent corporate reputation. And most in $75-100K salary range would only require a 1-10% salary increase to consider such a move.
  1. According to a 2015 Software Advice survey, job seekers say: the following are among the primary causes of negative candidate experiences:
  • Unclear application instructions—93% said it would significantly or somewhat worsen their candidate experience.
  • Long hiring process—83% said it would significantly or somewhat worsen their candidate experience.

Meanwhile, according to the same survey, candidates’ No. 1 suggested improvement to improving the application process experience is more communication.

When the first two elements above (compensation, benefits, growth opportunities, employer reputation, etc.) are relatively equal, which is common, the candidate experience becomes a major differentiator. Effective communication, efficiency and professionalism during interactions, well-performed interviews with relevant questions, all combined in a smooth process—help seal the deal.

With tech roles, a unique and important piece of the candidate experience is the technical interview experience. The technical interview experience actually helps answer many important questions for questions that are key in their overall evaluation of a company, and their decision on whether to accept an offer. Some examples include:

Am I a priority for this company? A quickly scheduled technical interview shows that the candidate is important to you. Side benefits: faster interviews show efficiency (your company gets things done) and help keep the hiring process brief.

Will fellow tech team members be of high quality? Having a seasoned technical interviewer asking challenging, relevant questions—along with intelligent follow-ups—reveals whether candidates have the necessary skills and experience to succeed. It’s a key indication to smart candidates that only qualified people get hired. In contrast, less-than-challenging technical interviews leave smart candidates unsure about the quality of your hires.

Is the company technologically up to date? Using quality technical interviewing tools (such as virtual code editors) shows that your company believes in using the right tools for the job. Not having such tools, meanwhile, not only creates communication frustration for candidates during technical interviews, it also can make candidates wonder what other technical tools your company lacks.

So when trying to make your company appealing to strong tech talent, pay special attention to the technical interviewing experience you provide. It can play an important part in candidates’ overall evaluation of your company. Get it right, and it will help you attract better talent. Get it wrong, and it could prevent you from acquiring the talent your business needs to succeed.

Related Posts: How-To Find the Best in Tech Across the Globe

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]]> Top 5 Tactics of Conducting Successful Interviews https://resources.eteki.com/top-5-tactics-conducting-successful-interviews/ Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:42:12 +0000 https://www.eteki.com/?p=809 The post Top 5 Tactics of Conducting Successful Interviews appeared first on Resource Center.

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Conducting successful interviews is never an easy task. It is important in the hiring process to create an agenda and an interview structure. After winnowing the resumes, recruiters should be ready to interview candidates in a timely manner. They should be armed with questions to assist with fact finding and assess problem solving and creative thinking. A well-prepared recruiter thinks seriously about the interviewing process when determining the right fit for the organization. Candidates have a number of options in the current employment market and getting the perfect candidate for the job has become increasingly difficult. Therefore, the interview process for an organization should be strong enough to attract the best talent.

Let’s check out the top 5 tactics of conducting successful interviews:
1. Set Questions by Evaluating Top Performers

Evaluate the qualities of top performers in your organization, make a list of desired attributes in your new hire and then compare the two. Think about how the top employees are executing their roles in a resourceful manner for the organization. Assessing their traits will help you to construct relevant interview questions to hire new candidates.

2. Make the Interviewees Feel Comfortable

Try to reduce the stress level for the candidates during an interview. Candidates cannot perform at their best if they are stressed by the fear of unknown questions. Make them feel comfortable by revealing the topic of discussion before the interview. This will reduce nervousness and allow you to engage the candidate in a productive conversation. Also, schedule the interview at a convenient time for the interviewee.

3. Ask Candidates to Solve Real Problems

Assess the problem-solving capabilities of the candidates by asking them to solve a real problem pertaining to the job. Explain the problem in detail, so that the candidate can identify inefficiencies and come up with possible solutions. This reveals the candidate’s power to think in critical situations and allows you to assess communication skills.

4. Adopt a Conversational Tone instead of an Interrogation

Make the interviewing process conversational rather than interrogating the candidate. Listen to the candidate carefully and speak with a professional and welcoming tone — this will allow the candidate to open up and encourages open communication. Actively engage the candidate — this shows that you are paying attention.

5. Involve 3 Members during the Interview

While making a hiring decision, try to involve trusted team members who can conduct multiple checks.  You might want to have 3 team members be a part of the interview — for instance, a senior recruiter, the HR manager and the team leader. Peer interviewers also work well in this regard, as they can assist you in hiring the right candidate and, at the same time, make sure the candidate is comfortable.

These tactics can surely help you gain a competitive advantage. Remember that an interview is not about you, but about the candidate you are speaking with. As a recruiter, your primary job is to evaluate the actual candidates, not to critique them. Create a positive interview experience, so that the candidate looks forward to working with your organization.

 

Related Post: 5 Tactics to Improve the Candidate Experience

 

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