Shroud of Secrecy
There is a general shroud of secrecy around the interview process , hiring decisions and compensation offered. When you don’t communicate, people tend to lose trust. No wonder a recent survey by Team Blind shows that 70% tech employees don’t trust HR. In Part 2 of this 3 part article we saw the lack of transparency in the early parts of the tech hiring funnel. Viz. Resume completeness, job description and technical screening. In this part we will take a peek at what the candidates think about the end of the funnel- technical interviews , hiring decisions and compensation offered. From the results of the survey, it will become clear that lack of communication leaves the candidates guessing and left to themselves they aren’t kind to the IT companies. Remember talent is the primary driver of revenue and profits in the IT industry.
Candidates impression 1: Buzzwords score well in the technical interviews.
Buzzwords & Presentation score well
In the same survey more than 70% candidates said that interviewers do go into details of past experience giving more importance to analytical skills and problem solving abilities. About 44% also say that the frequently face deep dive technical interviews involving hands on coding exercises. But an overwhelming 70% surprisingly felt that companies give more importance to presentation skills and ability to use buzzwords. Companies can easily correct this impression by communicating their rationale behind choosing candidate A over candidate B. This information is never explicitly captured in the hiring process.
Candidates impression 2: Technically weaker developers can do better.
Technically weaker candidates can do better
There is a feeling among candidates that technical abilities don’t translate into higher pay. It could be because there is no formal measure of technical ability. Every candidate thinks that she is technically better than the others. This impression can be corrected if companies adopt and widely share a metric that allows them to justify why someone deserves better pay as compared to others with the same level of experience. Interviewers’ individual opinions lack objectivity. Often competing candidates aren’t interviewed by the same panels leading to further deterioration of objectivity. A metric of technical ability can help the companies to reach more rational and objective decisions.
Candidates impression 3: Job hoppers get better deals.
Job hoppers do better than loyal incumbents
Some candidates become proficient in their interview skills. There are several resources on the internet like Glassdoor which give fair insight into the types of questions that are likely to be asked for specific jobs in specific companies. As a result those who switch jobs more frequently tend to do better in their interviews. Loyal incumbents lag behind. Companies maintain confidentiality and secrecy about the negotiated and offered compensation. The loyal incumbents get upset when the secret becomes widely known . Companies should realize that employees tend to freely share their compensation numbers among themselves. You can’t expect well performing cohesive teams without this level of informal communication. Companies should reward loyalty by correcting their pay structure to match the levels ruling in the market. Companies can use services like paywatch for effective pay corrections.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that there are many problems with technical hiring that need to be fixed. Lack of transparency reflects general apathy of the IT companies towards what candidates think. There will be a few companies who will see this as an opportunity and fix the problem by becoming more progressive and communicative. Software such as the Rezoomex Assessment and Ranking System will help these companies to measure technical ability and set compensation levels based on hard data to bring objectivity to the decisions. May be these progressive companies will get a headstart over others.
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Vinayak Joglekar is a technology & recruitment expert with around 40 yrs. of experience. He is a distinguished thought leader who has changed trends in recruitment and futuristic software development. He is acclaimed for recruiting and developing great talents in IT.
Vinayak believes in empowering IT recruiters with technical knowledge so that they can earn their due respect. Currently, he is the CTO of Synerzip and Director of Rezoomex.