CoderPad’s Tech Hiring Survey Finds 60% Of Recruiters Are Ready to Ditch the CV; 40% Looking Internationally to Find the Best Candidates in Tough Job Market

“It’s clear that skyrocketing demand for developers is forcing companies to evolve and adjust so they can fill critical roles with the talent they so desperately need. We’re truly entering an era where it’s less ‘who you know’ and more ‘what you know,’”

“It’s clear that skyrocketing demand for developers is forcing companies to evolve and adjust so they can fill critical roles with the talent they so desperately need. We’re truly entering an era where it’s less ‘who you know’ and more ‘what you know,’” said Amanda Richardson, CEO of CoderPad. “These are long overdue changes that will benefit both candidates and employers in the long run. Hiring based on skills instead of factors like college name or the candidate’s geographic location will bring stronger, more diverse talent to the table.”

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More Money; More Jobs

Recruiters recognize that they must adapt to a market where candidates have the advantage by ensuring a positive applicant experience, which is their number one priority for 2022 (41% of respondents), followed by talent retention (38%) and expanding the talent pool (35%). More than half (53%) of recruiters will have more budget to recruit software developers in 2022 and 35 percent of recruiters say they plan to hire more than 50 developers in 2022 (up from 28% last year). There’s also a significant uptick in mass recruitment (hiring for more than 200 developers):

• The percentage of recruiters hiring 201-500 developers has more than doubled (2.9% in 2021 vs. 6.7% in 2022).
• The amount of recruiters hiring for more than 500 developers has increased by 50% (4.9% in 2021 vs. 8.2% in 2022).

Ch-Ch-Changes

Nearly half (47%) of recruiters cite finding qualified candidates as their number one challenge when hiring developers. In response to a tight labor market that shows little sign of improving, recruiters are pulling out all the stops to fill open positions and many are rethinking typical hiring processes or requirements as a result.

• Ditching the CV: 57% of recruiters are open to removing the CV from the recruitment process.
• Skills Over Schools: The percentage of recruiters hiring developers from non-academic backgrounds has almost doubled, from 23% to 39% in one year. Instead, recruiters are relying on technical assessment tests and live interviews as better indicators of skill during the interview process.
  • This trend will open the talent pool, as 40% of developer respondents didn’t learn to code at engineering school or university.
• Global Talent Pool: 40% of recruiters are hiring internationally for roles in other countries.
• Flex Comes First: 42% of recruiters have started hiring or hired more contingent workers in the past year.

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Bias and Diversity

65 percent of recruiters believe that bias is an issue in technical recruitment. Consequently, there’s a clear move to turn towards more objective and fair hiring methods, including practical technical assessments and live coding interviews, which improve candidate experience and more accurately identify strong talent. 42 percent of recruiters use skill-based hiring assessments as their number one measure to improve diversity, followed by:

• Implementing equal pay (32%)
• Proactively sourcing diverse candidates (29%)
• Implementing a strict anti-harassment policy (28%)
• Increasing awareness on unconscious bias and/or training (28%)

What’s Hot…

Full-stack developers (36%) and back-end developers (35%) are recruiters’ most in-demand profile for 2022. The top three skills recruiters wish to hire for are Web Development, DevOps, and AI/Machine Learning, while the top three skills developers are most interested in learning are AI/Machine Learning, Web Development, and Game Development.

…And What’s Not

Recruiters and developers agree that white boards are the least preferred interview format (developers gave an average score of 2.41/5 for this method and recruiters gave an average of 2.64/5). Instead, 77 percent of developers prefer technical tests with practical coding questions, while 76 percent of recruiters prefer live coding interviews. Both also agree that technical tests with practical coding questions and live coding interviews are the best way to showcase/assess technical skills.

CoderPad acquired CodinGame, a first-class candidate assessment platform and global developer skill building community, earlier this year. The combined companies’ offerings will help employers strengthen their technical talent process to identify the most proficient candidates faster and easier, while reducing unintentional hiring bias, in today’s competitive labor market.

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