Technical tests are costing you good candidates
Do you still do technical tests in your interview process?
The data shows they are significantly narrowing your candidate pool and making it harder to hire in what’s already a tough and highly competitive market. This can really cost you good talent! In this article I’ll show you the data I’ve collected and how you can adapt your process to avoid this problem.
The data:
Over 1/3 of developers flat out won’t entertain a technical test, by having a test as part of your process you are ruling out 1/3 of an already small candidate pool from the beginning.
Most candidates would consider them depending on the role, but this is no guarantee either. In a fast-moving market where candidates always have multiple options, they will tend to prioritize the roles without a test. If a candidate has 4 opportunities on the go and yours is the only one with a test you can be sure the other 3 will take priority.
Only 14% of the developers I polled openly welcomed a technical test, meaning you are significantly less attractive as a company to 86% of the candidate pool by including this in your process.?
From personal experience I typically see about a 50%-60% dropout rate on roles with a test, meaning around half of the candidates in the process will choose to pull out once presented with a technical test.?
How can you combat this?
1-????? Ask better questions: If we need a test to determine whether someone is good enough for the job or not then perhaps we aren’t asking good enough or detailed enough questions. One of my clients has built a development team of 16 devs without ever using a test. They do a 1-hour technical interview where they ask candidates about how they would approach a problem, how they would write the code, the structure of the code, the tools/techniques, development methodologies, design patterns … you can find out a lot from asking open ended questions that are well structured.
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2-????? Examples of work: Many developers have work either commercial or personal projects they’ve done which they can share with you. This can give you a chance to see their code and how good it is without asking them to invest a load more time into the process. Consider asking for examples of work or GitHub links as a way to review a candidates work.
3-????? Consider paired programming: Another approach is a paired programming session, 30-45 mins of approaching a problem together with one of your lead developers, this gives you a chance to see the candidate in action as they approach the problem. It’s also a nice 2 way street as they get to see how you would typically work and get a feel for what the role might be like on a day to day basis.
4-????? Pay each candidate that does the test: If you’re adamant that you need a formal technical test in your process then you need to show candidates that you are serious about hiring for the role. It’s difficult juggling work, home life and interviewing so show you value the candidates time. I’ve seen companies pay ￡100 or ￡250 to every candidate that completes the technical test. This means you’ll only take candidates you are serious about to this step of the process. There’s a significantly lower dropout rate for technical tests when this is implemented.
In summary
Technical tests are damaging your hiring process and losing you good candidates but there are multiple ways around a technical test. If you’re struggling to hire for these roles and getting frustrated with candidates dropping out at the test stage, then reach out. I can help you build a smooth and slick process that candidates love and that allows you access to the top talent out there.
Reach out to hear more
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Ontological Matching, Entity Resolution and Data Integration Consulting
1 年A properly administered well designed technical test provides excellent protection from interviewers that see a technically proficient new hire as a threat to their position. If there's a test and both sides know the candidate nailed it, it deters the interviewer from giving a BS reason for the non-hire.
Christian | Polyglot Engineer | AI Enthusiast
1 年Run the same poll for paired programming sessions, I expect you will get the same results. For a lot of us, they’re even less desirable than take-home tests which we at least don’t have to do in exam conditions completely unrepresentative of the role. Please stop suggesting this as an alternative.