My post from a few weeks ago talked about the evolution of my recruiting strategy. Since then, there have been more evolutions to make the process better. There have been improvements in two main areas. One on candidate inflow, the second on interview process.
To start, I worked with our consultant and created a much better (and attractive) job description. Then I got the thumbs up to hire technical recruiters to find candidates, which really helped.
The improved interview process is now like this:
– I review resumes and determine if candidate moves to phone screen
– Phone screen consists of booking an hour with a senior engineer and me. I do the company and job overview in the first 30 minutes. If we like the candidate, then the senior engineer does a 30 minute technical evaluation. Otherwise, we end the interview after that, and the candidate doesn’t know there was a technical evaluation that normally follows.
– If we still like them, then we invite them in for an in-person interview
– The in person interview has been improved so that it is only 2 hours. It consists of 30 minutes with me. Then I bring them to a conference room with engineers on the team, and I stay for the first 30 minutes. Then they have 30 minutes with just the team. They end with 30 minutes with just me.
To the interviewee, there are only 2 steps – a one hour call and a 2-hour in person interview. And everyone gets a really good feel for the candidate – and they get a good feel for the company.
I really like this new process. The thing I like best is that we now have 2 new hires starting September 6. Very needed, as Symplified is signing many more deals and there is a lot of work to do.