Developer testing and ranking community, HackerRank, came out with their verdict on tech hiring and it wasn’t pretty. Their take? A resumé doesn’t tell you anything.
They go further into detail -- when hiring for developers and highly technical positions, it's better to skip through the resumé stage altogether and jump into skills-based assessments in order to move through the hiring process. While skills-based testing is a necessary step for technical hiring, HackerRank is misguided in their judgment on the supposed meaningless resumé.
Tweet This: .@hackerrank4work is misguided in their judgment on meaningless resumés for #tech #recruiting. See why:
A Baseline Comparison
It all starts with the traditional resumé. One cannot reasonably and equally compare a powerpoint, a personal website, a portfolio and anything else an applicant sends in as their digital CV. A resumé is the baseline, the ubiquitous method to compare and contrast where apples are apples. Without a basic comparison tool, everyone is on a different playing field.
A resumé reveals career and role progression and the experience performed through different projects and accomplishments. For example, by knowing the prospective candidate has been working as a developer for 2 years, then started contributing as a Designer and over a period of time, progressed into an Architect role but continues to work with business teams tells a lot about the candidate. It shows the candidate has been focused on his or her career growth but also has developed good interpersonal skills. This can lead to a better match for a role where the project involves working closely with business teams while fulfilling multiple roles and responsibilities.
“[Resumés] are a universally accepted tool because it’s easy for recruiters to absorb, compare and contrast. Employers have created entire systems to manage and evaluate resumés quickly, they have a vested interest in keep them.” -Elena Bajic @elenabajic, Founder of Ivy Exec and Contributor on Forbes
Tweet This: .@elenabajic says resumés make it easy for #recruiters to absorb, compare & contrast. Read more:
Analyze More in Less Time
Resumés are a mainstay in recruiting, but the way in which they are handled is where recruiters can improve their processes. Recruiters spend an average of 6 seconds reading a candidate’s resumé. When jobs were once applied to by mail, time would be taken to truly understand the role. Now, a job can be applied to in seconds. With resumés coming in droves, the sorting, screening and ranking has become a painstakingly long and cumbersome task like never before. In a matter of seconds, the burden is put on the recruiters to make sense of the candidates.
This concept is further multiplied when hiring for tech. Jargon, technical talk and specific job requirements aren’t always easily understood by the recruiters tasked to fill the opening. There are not many tools that empower recruiters to quickly match, map and assess candidates that address these issues. Fundamentally, understanding the candidates by the recruiter or talent acquisition professional is the most essential to match, map and assess the candidates.
Tweet This: What if we told you there's a tool for #tech recruiters to help with technical talk & jargon?
Learn the Mad Girlfriend Bug, Hooker Code and Other Programming Jargon You Need to Know
New tools (like Pomato) cognitively analyze each resume to ensure accuracy and fit in seconds. Using smarter solutions for candidate ranking, and not just keyword matching, is how the resumé can be brought into the new landscape of recruiting. Pomato scans each resumé providing a ranking report and showing which candidates best match your job requirements. The groundbreaking technology matches based on skillsets, roles, and level of expertise, and then ranks all your candidates. Recruiters can rely on tools that understand the role, jargon and expertise instead of bearing the weight on their shoulders.
Skills Tests for Vetted Candidates
HackerRank was wrong on resumés, but almost right on one thing: technical skills-based assessments should be used to validate skills. Given after a resumé screen, these skills tests can be a powerful and easy way to gauge talent. However, a simple one test fits all concept won’t do. Implementing the wrong skill level assessment like sending an expert level java developer assessment for a mid-level java developer, for example, will leave you with unclear results and the candidate with a poor perception of your experience or brand.
Always gear the assessment for the job skills needed and analyze the results with context in mind. If the candidate is a recent college grad with no real world experience, then yes coding skills will probably be a major contributor of the candidate screening, but for someone who has real-world experience, be it a junior level, has something to share about his or her background. Let’s say a criminal record shows up in a background check in the recent past but behavior as of today is ok, would you ignore it?
Vet only the best with Pomato’s skills testing tool to find how your candidate scores in development, design, programming and other critical IT skills with clear, at-a-glance reports. It takes seconds to save yourself hours from manually clawing through mountains of entries and paperwork.
“Cloud-based hiring tools will allow recruiters and hiring managers to easily and affordably find, evaluate and organize top job candidates, while innovative assessment and filtering techniques will help provide a 360-degree holistic view of top applicants." - Business News Daily’s Future of Recruiting
Read how artificial intelligence is empowering tech recruiters.
The Future of Tech Recruiting
Resumés aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. These necessary tools allow recruiters to compare and contrast the same specs side by side. Ramp up the way resumés are read, analyzed and ranked using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence built for technical recruiting.
With a click of a button you’ll have a clear, colorful, at-a-glance report on a candidate’s skills, experience and profile information. Demo Pomato today.