Tech recruiters need to look beyond resume and pedigree

BANGALORE, INDIA: Developers have been quite on the rise in the recent past and needs a potential way to be assessed and it is quite significant in order to skim them. Vivek Ravisankar, the CEO and co-founder of HackerRank, where programmers participate in a number of coding challenges every month, says its not easy for the coders and the developers too. They face quite challenging situations during which they need to be prompt, accurate and even more speedy. There are ways to help them improvise and help companies to assess them as well.

CIOL: What do you think are the biggest challenges for technical recruiters?

Vivek Ravisankar: Understanding that resumes don't correlate much to the actual performance and ability to attract programmers to the kind of work you're doing.  Today’s tech talent market is extremely competitive and its increasingly important for recruiters to cast a wider net beyond the top CS programs - brilliant talent comes from a diverse array of universities. Tech recruiters need to look beyond resume and pedigree to stay competitive in the war for talent.

CIOL:  How can coders overcome their hurdles and what should they emphasize more on while programming?

VR: A coder needs to be perfect and accurate in what he is doing, because the entire technical platform would be built on what he does and it becomes efficient and effective based on his skills. Passion to work is a key component for any coder as it is a job which needs a lot of concentration and effort. People who are passionate about coding take every coding experience as a challenge.

In addition the three main parameters any coder should focus on is:

Accuracy: The ability to provide the right output all the time without any fail. Accurate output decides the skills of a coder.

Speed: In any job, speed is essential and inevitable. Who can provide the best result within a limited time frame is considered as a good resource.

Elegance: Once you had worked on a coding and its not done. It becomes elegant when someone else is able to understand what you have done and can improvise the same if required. You should provide room for others to work on it.

CIOL: How does your platform, HackerRank For Work check the skills of the coders and on what parameters?

VR: HackerRank is a platform developed for programmers to hone their coding skills. They come to the platform to learn, solve code challenges, win prizes and find jobs. We also have an offering for companies, HackerRank for Work, which helps companies attract programmers, identify the best talent, and make great hiring decisions in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

It provides coding challenges to aspirants and based on the performance of applicants, the platform automatically evaluates and scores the applicants. Our primary products are around code challenges that can be delivered in a number of different ways – on websites, invitations from recruiters and/or real time code pairs with hiring managers/candidates. The products allow you to quickly identify who’s capable.

The challenges vary in difficulty and are crafted by a team of ace developers, thus ensuring a robust and growing set of questions to choose from. The platform currently supports 25+ languages in 8+ domains e.g. Algorithms, AI, functional programming etc. Based on the scores, it is easy for tech recruiters to objectively assess the skills of a programmer and allows them to go beyond GPA/ pedigree.

CIOL: There are many such platforms; how does it differ?

VR: We are the pioneers in building a platform for both the audiences:

Developers who enjoy learning and competing on code challenges: We are unique in the # of domains of Computer Science we support (AI, ML, functional programming, Distributed systems, etc.) and we have an actively engaged community of 850K+ developers.

Companies that hire developers: Our entire enterprise offering allows companies to both source and assess candidates. The platform is a far more robust offering.

CIOL: Can you name a few customers who have deployed this platform?

VR: HackerRank For Work is currently being used by 1000+ customers and is rapidly expanding its footprint. A few companies that use our platform are VMWare, Bloomberg, Yahoo, Yelp, Evernote, Quora, RiotGames, Walmart, Box.