Growing a Series A startup in a Recession - how coding evaluations and resume revision techniques help to identify the best software engineers

Recessions are ideal times to grow engineering teams at Series A startups. At the onset, we're delighted with the surplus of available candidates but we collapse under a mountain of job applications with resumes - the increased workload can throw us for a loop. Candidate optimism abounds, but so few applicants are a direct match to your job requirements. How many startup companies post a job for senior software engineer and discover dozens of applicants are college students and new grads? Applying for jobs that are vastly above a person's experience level is like sticking a fork in the toaster.

Great candidates are easy to spot - but an intrepid Technical Recruiter can use the following vetting techniques to find the diamonds in the rough. During the screening telephone call with the candidate, I often share a sample technical resume and discuss how the important sections of the resume clearly organize their qualifications. I also describe at length the objective of my company's coding evaluation, what specifically is expected of them while coding, and the advantages of doing this at home versus a sit-down coding evaluation in a cold conference room during the onsite interview.

Coding Evaluations can quickly convey and highlight the depth of a candidate's technical skills and creativity to Hiring Managers.

The Series A startup Engineering Managers I work with don’t have time to read resumes, but they get excited about moving straight into code reviews. Candidates who get the coding solution done are able to communicate in the language of a busy Software Development Manager and can unlock a 30-minute telephone interview time slot more swiftly than those with a static resume.

Each company varies on what specific skills they find important to evaluate using these coding tests. Web Performance companies might select a pattern-matching exercise to see how a Software Engineer uses creativity to solve the problem, and how many different angles this engineer takes to understand and solve the problem.

Stay away from brain teasers which can be frustrating for the majority of candidates because they don’t relate directly to the actual work the candidate will be doing if they join the team.

Each Recruiter will have a unique way of selling the coding evaluation to technical candidates. I've been very successful in getting completed coding evaluations back from most candidates. My success lies in the fact that I coach the candidate on how to complete the test according to Hiring Manager expectations. I also provide search services that are both relevant and helpful to candidates. Candidates are much more willing to get the coding test done when I promise to help them with resume presentation and detailed interview coaching.

Resume revisions are often necessary to quickly evaluate and understand the candidate’s qualifications. Below are critical sections found on the top 2/3rds of the first page.

1.      Summary: This section could also be called "Strengths." Have the candidate use a resume format that requires them to identify 2-3 main strengths or accomplishments and list them at the very top of the resume. To get a callback, the candidate’s strengths must closely match the job responsibilities on the job description.

A "Machine Learning Developer" summary might look like this: Experience in building deep neural networks, decision trees, predictive data analytics, learning-to-rank, customer service chatbot development for eCommerce platform and object detection/segmentation

2.      Education: Place the educational credentials under the summary near the top of the resume. The graduation date is somewhat important. The big 5 tech company GAFAM interviews are easier to pass when the candidate still remembers and can articulate computer science principals. It is fine if senior candidates (10-12+ years experience) don't reveal the date the degree was earned.

3.      Technical Summary: Ask the candidate for a technical skills summary that illuminates their existing technology stack and quantifies the amount of time they used certain technologies listed in the job description as follows:

Languages: Golang (2 years), C++ (7 years), C (10 years), Python (5 years), Javascript - NodeJS runtime (2 years)

Infrastructure: AWS (EC2, Lambda, Batch), Serverless, Terraform/Terragrunt, Docker, Jenkins 

OS: Linux/DOS (high-level scripting), Low-level Linux (2 years)

Networking: L1/L2 decode/analysis (3 years), TCP/IP (some familiarity)

In conclusion, these two practices of coding evaluation and resume revision are excellent approaches to reduce your job applicant inbox, vet great candidates, and add value to the candidate's search process. If you wind up with 6 strong candidates, the Hiring Manager will be much more enthusiastic about getting the code reviews done and progressing to onsite interviews.

Good luck growing your startup. Reach out to me with your questions at the email address below. Let me know if anyone needs a good Recruiter.

Vinesa Blackwell

[email protected]