Indicators of Technical Competence in the Hiring Process

In the last 3 months, we’ve doubled the size of AccelerEyes, and we’re still hungry to grow more. Our intense focus on hiring has yielded many insights. One of these insights was captured well in a post I came across last week entitled, “Side Projects are the New Resume.”

Many Classic Indicators are Flawed

We care so much more about what can employees do and who can the become than we care about college degrees, previously “prestigious” employers, previous job titles, extracurricular “organized” activities, publications/patents, or smattering of skills in a comma separated list on a resume. None of those things are very indicative of actual competence.

Side Projects are a Good Indicator

However, when we find someone who has done interesting side projects in our field for fun, we know we have found something special. You have to really be passionate about something to engage in a side project. It’s a good indicator of competence.

Reputation can be a Good Indicator with a Caveat

We often look to places like Stackoverflow and other community forums to find highly rated developers. Having high reputation can be a good indicator with the following caveat: We’ve found that many people have a high rating because of their low-hanging fruit contributions, not because their depth of knowledge. Also, it is possible that they gained their reputation answering posts in one area, while claiming to be an expert in another area.

You Have to Test Competence Yourself

Unfortunately, there is no way to use pre-existing indicators to properly vet incoming hires. We’ve found that we have to test competence ourselves. I’ll write more about our process tomorrow.

What indicators do you use to evaluate job applicants?

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