Engineers hiring Engineers @Travelstart
By: Jaipal Reddy
Tags: Hiring, Management, Agile, Software Development, Recruiting

First chat!

In this short article I would like to share the current recruiting process we follow to hire Software Engineers.

We know that Engineering candidates prefer to engage technically instead of dealing with recruiters/marketers when looking for a new job. Because of this, our goal was to get our Engineers to talk to them as early as possible in the process so we don’t waste their time, while also preventing us from interviewing the wrong candidates for the role.

Let’s take a look at the steps that we are following at Travelstart below.

Step 1. Including the Senior Team Members in Screening Process

It’s very important that team members get to know who are we hiring. Senior team members in IT validate CV’s and short list them since we know what skills we’re looking for and who will fit in best.

Step 2. Making the candidates feel comfortable

You get to know more about the candidate upfront, and if they are going to fit in your current team(s)/culture. In the end you want the candidate to choose what they want in their next job.

Invite the pre-selected candidates for quick chat. We do this instead of an “interview” to discuss what the candidate wants, and expects, from their next job and company.

Try to find out what Travelstart can offer in this chat and also go over what kind of engineering culture, teams and processes/tools we have here.

The important thing about this chat is that we allow the candidate to feel comfortable to speak freely.

It should be very clear if you are talking to the wrong candidate and it’s good that both sides agree on if things should progress or not.

Step 3. Give ownership to the candidate to choose the time slot

Do not dictate the time for the chat. Ask the candidate what time they prefer coming to fit best in their own schedule.We have seen candidates coming for chat during the office hours, thinking about work back of their mind while they are in the room. We want this first meeting to be informal and relaxed. If a candidate so prefers, we do enjoy a beverage or two during this chat :)

Step 4. Ask for self assessment

This give us better understanding for salary range that we can offer and at the same time make sure the existing Engineers are treated on the same scale.

Ask for a job profile survey to be completed to determine which Travelstart Engineers should be present in the technical interview. This survey is a set of questions focusing on Technical and soft skills(EQ). The candidates rate themselves on a scale of 1–4 where 1 is Junior, 2 is Medior, 3 is Senior and 4 is Principle.

Snap shot of survey sent to candidates

Step 5. Tech round “Juicy step”

Tech round is very chilled since we know what the candidate’s interests and strong areas are. We generally mix two Engineers to assess level of skills in the areas most valuable to us at Travelstart.

Assess how accurately the self-assessment of the candidate is.

To achieve this, we defined a set of questions that vary from different complexity levels, so we can dive deeper into questions based on the candidates understanding.

We ask questions that give opportunity to talk about tech opinions, programming language fluency, thought process, solution iteration, assumptions and approach.

To achieve this, we defined a set of questions that vary from different complexity levels, so we can dive deeper into questions based on the candidates understanding. We ask questions that give opportunity to talk about tech opinions, programming language fluency, thought process, solution iteration, assumptions and approach. We take into consideration their confidence (without software assistance), honesty, humility, recovery (when they stuck on a problem). And finally, we also analyse what methodologies they have used, what sort of learning and knowledge sharing they have been involved in.

Final ceremony

Once the tech round is completed, We will have quick chat among the Engineers in the interview process. We ascertain whether the given answers match the expected seniority and whether we should proceed with offering a contract? Yes/No (most Yes will make the call) and make verbal/email offer.

Once the offer has been accepted we send the full contract!!!

Post hire : Give them choice

We ask for preferred work station(Mac/Windows/etc) instead of enforcing a specific choice.

Extra monitor(s), keyboard and mouse

At the end of the day, this is always a personal preference and we do our utmost to respect this.

Conclusion

Engineers show interest in the actual tech stack being used and prefer finding a culture that they are comfortable with in the first place instead of marketing and company profile. The above process makes it really easy for us to get the right team members on board. Most importantly, we get the first impression right and don’t waste time dragging candidates through a tedious process we had before. We also feel that we do not miss out on many good candidates as several of our IT team members are involved in the process from step one.

“The Team choose their own teammates”

Thank you for reading, and please let us know what can you share from your experience hiring process that we can include?