Why you should pay developers for technical interview tasks
Todays market is extremely competitive for talented developers. It could almost be called a bidding war. With large shortfalls in IT job positions what can you do to secure talent?I recommend that you pay market rates for any technical tasks that you give to developers to prove their worth. This would either be home assignments or bringing them in for 1–2 days to work on real world tickets. Nowadays its not too kosher for them to do these tasks for free as they can take hours of careful work and research.Why should you do this?
- It will benefit both parties as your recruiting tasks will more fruitful and the candidates will have more money in the pocket.
- It will motivate them to chose your task over other companies not willing to supply funds for this.
- If you bring them in to office, you will have a greater understanding of their skills. This is important as you don’t want to have the expense of several months of someone not suited to the task.
- You will impress the candidate with your goodwill.
- The candidate will not see their work as a waste of their time if they don’t get the job, leaving them more willing to re-interview should the need arise for their skills later on.
- The candidate will likely tell other developers about your goodwill, allowing you to recruit others faster, as virtually no other companies will be doing the same.
How will this work?Well its up to you, but here are some ideas.
- If the task takes 4 hours to complete at home give them half a days wages/rate at what the job is potentially offering. Adjust accordingly. Bear in mind that time researching the task should be included in the total time, please be fair in this.
- Alternatively if you wish to bring the candidate in the office to test him with real world tickets give them a full days wages due to traveling etc. But do expect them to put in a full days work if possible.
Thats it, let me know your thoughts and how it goes.
