Problem To Solution Hiring
An Overview of Our Approach Typical recruitment processes (both internal and external) look to the resume as the first step to screen potential candidates. But isn't a resume really just a subjective viewpoint of one's own career and accomplishments? Aren't the supplied (pre-screened) references that they send you for that matter as well? What good is that to any employer? None at all in most cases. They still have to take time out of their day to either phone screen or meet you to determine if you would be a good fit, and in this economy, that significantly detracts from employee productivity because of the sheer number of people who are applying for jobs. So what if employers could objectively evaluate their job applicants by having them solve actual problems or projects that they are running into in every day business life? In all actuality, it's a simple turnaround of the hiring process. Typically, the white board session for application developers usually serves as a last step with the resume being the first. Our idea is to just flip it around. Whiteboard first, resume last. That way, when you bring your development team into an interview with a potential new hire, you at least know that they have demonstrated the skill level to perform the job. Thus the impact on employee productivity through having to interview many candidates who were not skill screened, is greatly reduced.
Our Process
1. Help you formulate a problem that will adequately reflect the day to day responsibilities of your open position. During consultation, we will initially attempt to identify one of three problems: (1) Problem that you are already working on internally. (2) Problem that you are considering working on. (3) Problem that you have already solved - specifications are already created for this option and it is my recommended choice.
2. Based on the required skill sets needed, we will hand pick from our pool of quality application developers (we only staff application developers and our primary networking is done at the user groups and local events that the good ones attend - not the job boards) ones that are interested in new work and have the demonstrated the desire/capacity to solve the problem.
3. You view only the solutions that are submitted and bring in the most TALENTED developers in for the actual interview instead of the most EXPERIENCED.
4. We answer any intangible personality questions that you may have regarding the selected candidates and provide you with a resume that you can use as a talking point during the interview.
Benefits To Our Process
1. Studies done by PWC and Brainbench found that anywhere from 50-75 hours is spent pre-screening and interviewing in process candidates. Our process eliminates much of the front end screening (semantic searches/resume parsing) and assures that you bring in the most skilled applicants for the job for the in-person interviews. Reducing your cost per hire.
2. Talented developers who don't necessary showcase their true skills adequately in their resume will be presented on a level playing field and won't be screened out against others who have listed their deep experience. I've found that experience doesn't necessarily equate to the most talented. There are people out there who can learn something in 2 years that someone else will take 8 years to learn. You will find that resumes that you would typically overlook in your screening process are sometimes perfect fits for what you are looking for.
3. Only qualified developers who can perform the task will submit an actual solution. While many may apply, you only will have to look at the submitted solutions.
4. By showcasing the types of problems you actually have on a day to day basis, you assure a higher rate of probability that your developers that decide to participate will be challenged and not be disappointed walking in the door. This will increase your probability of retaining your employees by giving them an actual window where they will see the type of work that they will be doing before they actually start.
5. It's completely free until you decide to hire one of our candidates. We work entirely on a contingency basis.
6. The candidate pool that we provide to solve the problem(s) will come from our deep understanding of the talent available within the application development community here in Chicago. All of our contacts have come from actually participating in the development community here locally. All of our candidates are local and a good majority of them are active in the community. None of them were poached off of the job boards, laden with active job seekers.
7. It will attract quality candidates who aren't currently looking because it's a unique approach that gives them an opportunity to improve upon their skill set. Candidates, especially the good ones, are always looking to advance their education (regardless of whether they are looking or not). They can give you great ideas and can even be pipelined for future reference.
