A guide to everything you need to know about finding, assessing, hiring, and retaining talented junior developers.

A recent report from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) suggests that the tech industry is on target to reach a value of $5 trillion in 2019. The tech industry continues to pick up momentum every year, spurring demand for more technical talent.

While demand grows, the pipeline for talent has a serious bottleneck – lack of teachers! Universities throughout the US struggle to adequately staff their computer science programs, with students from Haverford college publishing an open letter in the independent student newspaper, The Clerk, saying “[a] dire shortage of faculty has created what can only be described as a crisis for students interested in computer science, lotterying us out of required introductory and upper-level classes.”

Similar concerns have been echoed at other institutions, such as Bryn Mawr, Princeton University, and Harvey Mudd. So, while the number of students choosing to study computer science has been increasing since 2006, the boost in enrollment is first, inadequate to the hiring demand for skilled developers, and second, overwhelming the resources of higher education institutions.

All this to say, recruiters seeking junior developers have the cards stacked against them… and then there’s the matter of assessment and retention.

The positions for junior developers are many and varied and the methods for assessing these candidates reflect that. Hiring a junior mobile developer won’t be the same as hiring a junior front-end developer. And, after all the effort of hiring and onboarding a junior developer, recruiters will want to make sure the candidate stays with the company for a good amount of time. To keep these highly skilled and in-demand employees takes strategic planning and care.

With all these factors to consider, we thought it would be a good idea to walk through the four key phases of junior developer recruitment, with practical advice and step by step guidance.

1. Source on Purpose

Your hiring strategy should aim to diversify sourcing efforts and reach high-quality candidates in a natural way.

Deploy multiple effective methods for finding talented junior developers. Let’s dive into our top five methods:

• On-campus recruitment improves the candidate experience because it’s more personal than sending an email. Narrow your focus to a few universities. Career fairs, meetups, and industry talks are effective ways to connect with recent grads.
• Hackathons give junior developers a chance to show off their problem-solving skills. Utilize code testing platforms like Codility to benchmark people.
• Job boards are used to reach a high volume of candidates. Find a job board with a pre-qualification function so that you don’t get as many unqualified leads.
• Coding boot camps can be an effective channel to recruit talented, diverse junior developers who may not have a traditional computer science background.
• Internships give junior candidates a chance to test their skills in a real work environment—this is also a chance for you to assess potential new developers prior to extending an actual job offer.

Use each of these methods to build a group of qualified individuals to fill future job opening – this is also known as a talent pipeline. If a candidate seemed like a good culture fit but didn’t make the final cut, maintain an open line of communication, and ensure them that they’ll be considered for future job openings. Talent pipelines are the product of trust, open communication, and excellent sourcing.

2. Screen Early

Screening candidates before inviting them for an onsite interview is a crucial step in the hiring process. You have the highest volume of candidates at this point, so the filter you have in place needs to be efficient. Always go into the screening phase with a plan to discuss:

• Expectations around salary range
• Professional and/or recreational coding experience
• Whether the candidate has competing offers
• Upfront soft skills
• General technical skills

Effective screening creates a clearer picture of candidates’ capabilities earlier in the recruitment funnel. Use technical assessment strategies to separate the skilled junior developers from those who can’t perform at the right level for the position.

3. Deep Dive Interviews

Once screening is complete, look deeper for the candidate’s behavioral fit, technical competence, and career potential. Your goal in an interview is to determine whether this person aligns with your core company values.

Follow these interview tips and tricks to gauge candidate fit:

• Ask behavior-based questions.
• Quantify technical skills and benchmark against other candidates by using code assessment tools.
• Use pair programming to test communication skills and create a casual environment for Q&A.
• Ask candidates to share their short-term and long-term goals—this is also a chance for them to reflect on their own capabilities and future potential.

4. Think Long Term Growth

Once you’ve hired strong junior talent, think about what you can do to retain them. Research from our Developer Report shows that junior developers are looking for mentorship first and foremost and that professional development is more appealing than salary. Use this data to inform your strategy – for example, mentorship programs can help candidates reach their professional goals and also opens mentors up to new ideas.

Here are a few more ways to retain talent for the long-term:

• Provide both positive and negative constructive feedback to ensure junior developers are growing and are in high spirits
• Set clear performance expectations – our data suggest that a majority of developers’ jobs don’t turn out as they expect after getting hired
• Encourage senior teams to field questions and be mentors to help candidates reach their full professional potential – they’ll open themselves up to new ideas too
• Create a standardized way of benchmarking people—skills testing tools like Codility can quantify technical skills, making them easier to stack rank

Key Takeaways

Junior developers who experience good management and meaningful work early in their career can bring immense value to your organization. It’s important to set both yourself and junior talent up for success by having a reliable and scalable recruitment process.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to improve recruitment for junior developers and the different tools hiring teams need to get high-quality insights without sacrificing the candidate’s experience. Check out The Complete Guide to Junior Developer Recruitment for more information.

Discover the most recent developer hiring trends based on real customer data.

The demand for software developers is rapidly increasing, with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting a 24 percent growth in the need for these skills between 2016-2026. Globally, developer positions are the fourth hardest to fill, and the problem isn’t just quantity – it’s quality. With HACKERNOON reporting, “The software engineering shortage is not a lack of individuals calling themselves ‘engineers’, the shortage is one of quality – a lack of well-studied, experienced engineers with a formal and deep understanding of software engineering.”

According to Stack Overflow, 90 percent of developers are employed at least part-time, with about 77 percent employed full time. And, only five percent of developers are unemployed and actively looking for work. So, how are top companies engaging with these in-demand candidates to get the right skills onboard? It’s hard to know if you are an internal recruiter, that’s where Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019 comes in. This developer screening platform has gathered data from 112,654 coding tests from developers in 121 countries within the last year, in order to bring talent acquisition (TA) practitioners the latest in best-practice and trends for technical recruiting.

This report unique in that it doesn’t rely on self-reporting surveys. All the data flows directly from real tests. So, let’s break down our findings into five actionable takeaways teams need to know now!

1. It takes an average of three days for a developer to take a coding test  

Developers wait on average 2.88 days or approximately 69 hours to take a coding test. Tests sent on Tuesdays tend to get the fastest response, while those sent on Wednesdays usually take the longest to be completed. This probably means that devs prefer to keep their weekend free for other projects and leisure, rather than recruitment.

Here’s a graph of the Monday to Friday data with the average wait in days.

2. Candidates tend to take the coding tests recruiters send 

Tech recruiters fear candidates will drop out of the hiring process if asked to complete coding tests. Some technical interview techniques do receive negative backlash – whiteboard tests, anyone?

But…

We found those concerns may be inflated, as 73 percent of candidates do take the coding tests sent to them. Coding test completion rates are the highest for Latvia, Armenia, New Zealand, Denmark, and the UK.

3. The overwhelming majority of candidates complete a coding test once started

Ninety-two percent of all candidates who started their coding test on our platform took the time to finish it.

Here is a breakdown of the finish rate by continent: Europe leads the pack with 93 percent, followed by Oceania 92 percent, Africa 91 percent, and North America 91 percent.

4. 70 percent of companies worldwide are looking for JavaScript developers

JavaScript is the most sought after technical competency from companies across the board. JavaScript also has the most integration capabilities. Interestingly, when we look at tech stack tested together, we’ve found that most developers get a database technical skills assessment, regardless of their main focus. This means that for both front end and back end roles, database skills are clearly very important.

5. Java is by far the most tested language

Although most companies are looking for JavaScript skills, Java is the number-one language tested on our platform based on test invites, with 37 percent of companies testing for Java.

Bonus Findings:

• Top three drivers of international technical hiring: The US, Poland, and the UK
• Highest average scores on coding tests: New Zealand
• The most high-scoring candidates:  Serbian companies
• Most selective companies: Singapore

For more information, check out the online version of the report with interactive geographical insights: Devskiller Global Technical Hiring & Skills Report 2019.

Interviewing.io studied over 20,000 technical interviews. Here’s what can make one great, or really really bad.

Don’t let nerves and lack of preparation keep you from finding the right engineers. A good technical interview allows you to evaluate a candidate based on what they do, not just how their credentials look on paper. The tricky part is to create an environment where the applicant can showcase their skills. If your questions are unclear or too rigid it throws off the whole interview and you miss out on great talent.

No one is saying technical recruiting is easy. It’s actually pretty nerve-racking. You want to appear smart and collected when you’re really just as nervous as the candidate. Even finding the right questions is a struggle. You may think you’ve found the perfect problem, but then the candidate takes it down some unexpected rabbit hole.

That’s why we talked to Aline Lerner, an engineer turned recruiter who recently founded interviewing.io – a platform for recruiters and candidates to practice technical interviewing skills to assure the best candidates get hired. After each interview, of which the platform’s hosted about 20,000 to date, both parties evaluate the other’s performance. From this heap of feedback Lerner distilled the four most important steps a recruiter or hiring manager can take to become an effective technical interviewer, with quotes from candidates about what works and what doesn’t.

• Sell your team: A technical interview isn’t just about vetting candidates, it’s a chance to sell your company! It’s a myth that you need a big brand behind you to nab great engineers. In fact, a brand is useful to get people to the door and not so important after that. So whether you work for a big-name company or a no-name startup, what matters is how you connect in the interview. First, put that candidate at ease. Start with some small talk, let them know the structure of the interview, and try to understand what they want. Share with the interviewee why you chose to work for this company. If possible, before the interview, gather all the hiring managers in your interview loop to practice sharing the story of why they work there too. The more you practice telling your story, the more organic it sounds.

“[A] little but of friendly banter – even if it’s just ‘how are you doing?’ –  at the beginning of the interview would probably help a bit with keeping the candidate calm and comfortable.” – Candidate 1

• Ask good questions: Create a brain dump for the engineers in your company to contribute interesting problems they come across in their work. These problems don’t have to be “cool” per say,  just something that made them think. Use this shared material as inspiration for creating interview questions that are unique and applicable to the job for which you are recruiting.

“Question was not straightforward…Spent a long time figuring out what the question was even asking…” –Candidate 2

• Grow like a pro: The first time you ask an interview question will always be bad, always!  You should practice asking a new question five to 10 times before using it on a real candidate. This helps you clarify your delivery and familiarize yourself with all possible solutions.

“The question seemed very overwhelming at first but the interviewer was good at helping to break it down into smaller problems…” –Candidate 3

• Collaborate: There is no correlation between how well the candidate did and how well they think they did. There is, however, a correlation between how well they think they did and whether or not they take the job. That means candidates are more likely to accept an offer when they feel good about their performance in the interview. Identify areas that may be confusing, and formulate hints to help candidates arrive at an answer or spot their own mistake. Remember, it’s not about tricking the interviewee, but seeing how you can work well together.

“I’m impressed by how quickly he identified the issue (typo) in my hash computation code and how gently he led me to locating it myself with two very high-level hints…”  –Candidate 4