According to a recent Computing Technology Business Association forecast, the IT industry will be worth $5 trillion in 2019. Every year, the IT industry gains traction, creating a demand for more technical skills.
Junior developer roles are many and varied, and the procedures for evaluating these applicants reflect this. Hiring a junior front-end developer differs from hiring a junior mobile developer. Recruiters will also want to ensure that after all the effort of acquiring and onboarding a junior developer, the applicant stays with the organization for an extended period. It needs strategic preparation and effort to maintain these highly talented and in-demand employees.
With so many variables to consider, we felt it would be helpful to guide you through the four essential stages of junior developer recruiting, providing practical advice and step-by-step instruction.
1. Purposeful Sources
Your hiring strategy should try to broaden sourcing efforts and naturally reach out to high-quality individuals.
Use a variety of efficient approaches to locate excellent junior devs. Let’s have a look at our top five strategies:
- Because it is more personal than sending an email, on-campus recruitment improves the applicant experience. Concentrate your search on a few universities. Career fairs, meetings, and industry speeches are suitable for meeting new graduates.
- Hackathons allow junior coders to demonstrate their problem-solving abilities. Use platforms like Codility to benchmark people’s code.
- To reach a large number of candidates, job boards are employed. To reduce the number of unqualified leads, look for a job board with a pre-qualification feature.
- Coding boot camps may be an excellent way to find bright, diverse junior developers who don’t necessarily have computer science degrees.
- Internships allow younger applicants to put their abilities to the test in a real-world setting, and they also allow you to examine prospective new developers before making a formal employment offer.
Use these strategies to assemble a pool of skilled candidates to fill future job openings, often known as a talent pipeline. Maintain an open communication channel with candidates who appeared like a solid cultural fit but didn’t make the final cut, and assure them that they’ll be considered for future job vacancies. Trust, open communication, and solid sourcing are the ingredients for a successful talent pipeline.
2. Early detection is vital.
A vital stage in recruiting is screening prospects before asking them to an onsite interview. Because you have the mopportunitiesects now, the filter you have in place must be effective. Always have a strategy for what you want to talk about throughout the screening phase:
- Expectations in terms of the pay range
- Coding experience (professional and recreational)
- Is there any competition for the candidate’s services?
- Soft skills in the beginning
- Technical knowledge in general
Effective screening early in the recruiting funnel provides a clearer view of candidates’ skills. Use technical evaluation methodologies to distinguish proficient junior developers from those unable to execute at the required level.
3. Interviews with Experts
After completing your first screening, check into the candidate’s behavioral fit, technical competency, and career prospects. The purpose of an interview is to see if this individual share your company’s basic principles.
To determine applicant fit, use the following interview tactics and tricks:
- Inquire about your actions.
- Use code assessment tools to quantify technical talents and compare them to other applicants.
- Pair programming may be used to assess communication skills and establish a relaxed setting for Q&A.
- Request that applicants express their short- and long-term objectives; this will allow them to reflect on their strengths and future possibilities.
- For example, if you’re interviewing react developers, for example, make sure to prepare the right questions.
4. Consider long-term growth.
Consider how to keep great junior talent once you’ve hired them. According to our Developer Report, younger developers value mentorship above everything else, and professional growth is more desirable than a higher wage. Use this information to guide your plan; for example, mentoring programs can assist applicants in achieving their professional objectives while exposing mentors to fresh ideas.
Here are a few additional ideas for long-term talent retention:
- Give positive and negative comments to younger developers to ensure that they are learning and improving.
- Encourage senior teams to field questions and be mentors to help candidates reach their full professional potential – they’ll also open themselves up to new ideas.
- Establish a consistent method of evaluating people—tools like Codility can quantify technical capabilities, making it easy to rate them.
Important Points to Remember
Junior developers with early exposure to solid management and meaningful work may add significant value to your company. Establishing a dependable and scalable recruitment process allows you to position yourself and junior talent up for success.
We’ve spent a lot of time considering how to enhance junior developer recruiting and the many tools hiring teams require to obtain high-quality insights without hurting the candidate’s experience.
