Solving the tech recruitment problem: The code test

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The tech team at any company spends a great deal of time hiring developers. Senior developers spend a good 2-3 hours per candidate, reviewing their code and interviewing them. Only to make an offer to <5% of the candidates interviewed.

This low offer rate is because very often, a candidate’s resume doesn’t paint the right picture of their skills. And when companies conduct coding tests, the tests are designed to assess certain skills like DSA or getting the output right within a certain deadline. These tests fail at reflecting the overall skillsets of the developer on the actual project they’ll be working on.

On the other side, candidates also end up spending a lot of time going through multiple coding rounds at every company they apply to. Sometimes the position gets closed after a candidate has solved the coding test, resulting in a poor experience and leaving a poor impression about the company.

For both companies and candidates, the coding test is a big point of friction. This is one part of the tech recruitment problem that Geektrust is solving. We redesigned fundamentally what skills of a developer are tested, made the experience better for both sides by removing the repetitiveness and wastage, and introduced a more well-rounded assessment of real-world coding skill.

Because:

Code with Geektrust
From our first ‘Code With Geektrust’ event where devs signed up to spend half a day to write code and interact with our tech team

Real-world coding isn’t competitive or only about DSA

When we started Geektrust, we wanted to develop a system that makes it easier for developers to find interesting companies and connect with them. And vice versa. Today, a developer applying for a particular role has to crack a DSA test or win a hackathon. For each and every company.

On the other side, a company goes through 100s of resumes to find developers that meet all eligibility criteria, only to later see that the majority are not a match in terms of skill. This, combined with other factors, leads to a huge drop-off at every stage.

Part of the problem with skill-testing is, a basic code test or hackathon doesn’t give the developer the opportunity to show their real-world coding skills. The other part is that the skills required to win a hackathon or finish a DSA test within a short deadline are entirely different from the skills required to write readable, maintainable code that works in real-world coding on the job.

So we developed coding challenges that test all aspects of a developer’s programming skills. We review developers’ code to give them detailed feedback. We used to do this manually, and have built Codu.ai since then, which gives a detailed report and recommendations to both developers and companies.

Often we get feedback from developers, that this is the kind of review they can learn from, that stays with them for life. There is no time limit, competition or leader boards. They need to take any one challenge that tests skill at multiple levels. One code that gives insight into a developer’s skill and approach.

With the all-round improvement in experience and results for candidates and companies, we see that code works better as a resume.

  • It helps developers stay focused on improving their skill rather than spending time chasing after companies
  • Saves companies a lot of time and effort spent in getting each candidate to take a code test, review it and shortlist candidates

10K+ developers have taken the challenge, improved their code through it, and 150+ companies have hired developers with this new way of tech hiring that starts with Skill rather than Resume.

A Developer’s Review of Geektrust

My resume was a Java code that ticked the boxes on the “Geektrust checklist for clean code” and that’s what got me an interview with Thoughtworks. The entire interview process and onboardings later on were absolutely smooth and well coordinated. My experience with Geektrust was not that of a job hunt but a journey of learning, improvement, growth and rewards.
Nandagopal Nambiar, Developer, Thoughtworks

A Company’s Review of Geektrust

Geektrust played an important role in helping us build the core tech team at Zomato Bangalore. I should say the best amongst all the external recruitment partners I have worked with at Zomato. Super flexible and open to experimenting with innovative ways to bring in the best talent. One thing I can certainly call out is that the quality of the candidates interviewed was far better when compared to others, and hence a much better conversion, which was our biggest challenge.
Abubacker Siddique, Sr. Engineering Manager, Zomato

If you’re a developer who wants to get your real world coding skills assessed, and perhaps find a company that cares about your code, see jobs here.

If you’re from a company looking to build a world-class tech team, and want to give us a trial, do
visit the Hire page or write to us at . We can show you code-vetted developer profiles in 10 minutes.

About Geektrust

Geektrust is a tech hiring platform founded in 2015 with a vision to build a world of potential. Today, we make this happen via our job platform for developers, and our tech hiring product and solutions for companies. We’ve helped over 1000 developers find amazing jobs at 150+ companies like Thoughtworks, Intuit, Target, SocGen, Zensar, Capgemini, Zomato, Deserve, Simpl, Terrapay and Scripbox.

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