What are the best performance evaluation methods for hiring software engineers?

Resume screening is an important step in the hiring process while also being the very first step. One advantage which resumes provide is that they give the interviewer a lot of basic info about the candidate such as education, skills, professional experience, projects, etc. Based on the resume, the interviewer can decide if or not the candidate would be a right fit for the role and if they feel that the candidate is a right fit, they can get started with the hiring process whereas if they think that the candidate is not right for the role, they might reject the candidate. This saves a lot of time for interviewers. The drawback of resumes is that the candidates might lie on the resume which might mislead interviewers and hiring managers.

When sifting through loads of resumes, they go beyond just the basics. Sure, they check if folks can work by throwing in some real-world problems to solve. But there's more to it. They can chat with them, maybe in groups, to see how they work with others. They can check non-technical scenarios to see how they handle tricky situations – you know, how they think on their feet. It's like peeling layers to get to the good stuff, making sure we don't miss out on the gems in the sea of resumes.

I actually agree, though lately professional networking as enable organization to have opportunity of poaching talents and promising big offers. Traditional resume screening is still great because recruiters are able to choose from a wide pool of candidates just from the very basic needs required as per the job design

I agree to this. Resume writing is a skill and help candidates to be picked from the rest. However, Resume can be hyped and falsified and hence this should be followed up with a quick 20-30 mins discuss to quickly evaluate

I'd share a different angle to screen a resume, focus on how they prepare it. For example, is it exported from some platform like LinkedIn? then that platform might have more candidate's information. Is it too less or too much information? then the candidate may not ready for interview. Is it ordered on purpose? some experienced candidate kept Education at first section either means: 1) their most proud experience remains with their education; 2) less awareness of prompting the most important stuffs. Is the resume looks clear? random organizing or typos would result a not-so-good impression. At current moment, if it's generated/or decorated by GenAI would be a plus.

Coding test is very important. In my career have seen many resumes written up/cooked up, customized for the Requirement shared. But when candidate is asked for code/algorithm starts blabbering. This is very critical phase for any candidate to be picked. Ask for code snippet or alogorithm or flowchart to explain the solutions.

Most coding tests don't mirror real on-the-job tasks. Incorporate actual problems you've faced into screening tests. For instance, if it's buggy code, ask candidates to write tests and fix the code. If it's an architectural issue, provide a skeleton for them to enhance, gauging their creativity. Forget about timed, isolated screening tests. Encourage questions and adapt future tests based on candidate inquiries, fostering a more collaborative evaluation process.

When evaluate a candidate's coding skills, my focus is more on their thinking process, communication and translate ideas to code per discussion. During their coding process, it's great to see how they deal with bugs, familiarity with the language APIs and when to seek guidance or confirmations. The final code should be reasonable clean and clear. There are question banks so practices help candidates, it add some blur to recognize the good coders from good candidates.

Reviewing portfolios of candidates is another excellent way to judge their caliber. Candidates who have a vast and diverse portfolio instantly make themselves stand apart because they have taken the initiative to learn tech stacks, plan the project and create the project. The projects could be personal projects, academic projects or even freelance projects. But one drawback is if a candidate just takes some project from the internet and shows it as their own work, then this would be very dishonest and misleading to the interviewer. So interviewers must shrewdly ask questions about the portfolio projects in order to ensure if the candidate actually made the project or not. Other than this, portfolios are a great way to showcase your skills.

Yes reviewing portfolio will help to some extent.If the candidate has already worked on a project similar to the one which is he is planned to be hired then we can save a lot of effort in training. So this carries some value in hiring.

When behavioural interviews are clubbed with portfolio and sample work, they can work wonders. In my experience, the best work isn't produced by those who have the most shining resume, but by those who are the most curious. Curiosity can triumph anything when it comes to software development.

This is true. Attitude of candidates make a major difference in any interviews. I have come across many candidates who didnt do so well with technical coding etc but approach to solve the problem were really nice. They are in our project even today and performing really well without any major issues. Other way just tech gigs with lot of book knowledge clearing all coding tests are still struggling because of approach of solving. This makes a lot difference.

Technical interviews can be used to correctly evaluate the potential of a candidate if: - Rather than expecting the right answer or result, the interviewer tries to see if the candidate is able to think of the right approach to solve the problem. - Rather than expecting perfect code with correct syntax from the candidate, the interviewer sees if the candidate is able to provide the right logic to solve the problem. - Rather than expecting the candidate to remember everything that they have learnt, the interviewer tries to see if the candidate is familiar with important concepts, terms, etc. Many interviewers are having such open minded approaches while conducting technical interviews and I think this is the way moving forward!

Technical interview is like a test drive in case of purchasing a car. Showing a lot of advertisements , in short time trying to impress with explanation of experience, past roles, explaining issues faced and problem solving techniques. This is important for both candidates and hiring technical faculty to judge candidate/ company standards in interviews.

Work samples are one of the most accurate ways to judge a candidate. Because the actual work will be very similar to the work sample rather than being similar to any other kind of interview. The way in which the candidate does the work sample project can give the interviewer an idea of the skills of the candidate. Also, from the perspective of the candidate, creating a work sample project is much less intimidating than attending an interview. So it is a win-win situation. Moreover, work samples are better than portfolio projects for judging the skills of the candidate because the portfolio projects were done using languages and frameworks chosen by the candidate whereas the work samples are done using languages chosen by the interviewer.

By discussing work samples during an interview process with Software Engineers, clients can gauge the candidate's orientation towards the product or user. Candidates who articulate not just the technical aspects but also emphasise how their work directly impacted the business showcase a deeper connection to the product's role and user needs. Conversely, those who solely focus on technical aspects might indicate a narrower view.