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1. 

   Ian Pinto September 19, 2014, 8:26 pm

   Rajat, I develop and manage Android and iOS content for my tech startup iPnova: https://ianpinto.com/ipnova

   If you have someone that can interpret the test results of an coding interview manually and wish to do the same online, you may want to try https://www.interviewzen.com/ This is one cool and experimental online way of understanding your potential coder.

   I personally prefer if the hiring is done in person, where you get to analyse the thought process by asking pointed technical questions. Let me know what are your views on this feedback.

2. 

   Kamal Tripathi September 20, 2014, 11:01 pm

   It should be easier to do that for app than a backend coder. Forget coding, you need to hire someone who can get it done. I am assuming you would want to hire someone who’s experienced or someone who has the potential to do it.

   Give someone to code relatively tricky app idea (keep this idea a little unique so that readymade online solutions are not available) to code and install and play around and ask them to explain their thought process. Based on that it should not be that difficult. You can give feedback as a user and see if he/she is able to work thru and improve it. Give full freedom to find answers online. If he/she has worked in app dev, one would know what works and what doesn’t.

   I am in the process of expanding my app team and conduct interviews day in and day out. Although we have a full fledged team and process consists of taking interviews on code as well as app exercise but if I were in your position and I can’t afford to do the code assessment round (either because I can’t judge it well or it would take a lot of time), I would just do app exercise round and get it done based on that.

   If you still want to include the code round one way would be to read up quick and prepare bank of 30-40 questions. Use an interview platform like HackerRank, interviewstreet and have candidate give the test at your premise. However this method is mostly used as screening round so you can’t be sure that the candidate is THE person you want in your startup team.

   Hope it helps. You can talk to me on kamal.tripathi@gmail.com. I can share more tips on what you can assess them on.

3. 

   Ian Pinto September 21, 2014, 9:01 am

   Hi Kamal Tripathi, I agree with your views on how using just coding assessment to screen candidates for a tech position may not be the most pragmatic one for most employers.

   I also like your idea of using a tricky app idea screening process.

   Personally whenever I have recruited people to work in my team, I have relied mostly only their ability to improvise a solution for a problem scenario that would closely mimic what they would be required to do on the job, and this has helped me hire some team members who have contributed critically in my work team.

   I feel an individuals ability to know solutions to most technical questions from his working memory may be overrated in todays age, where information is always accessible at your fingertips. For instance how much more time would it take for me to google up a solution through some quick research that some one has learned previously and regurgitates it instantly.

   From my viewpoint the best solution to most problems might not be the ones that you are sure are standardly accepted, but may be the ones that are being innovated by someone on the planet and revealed altruistically over the internet. We definitely live in an era we could call the era of ubiquitous collective online intelligence!

   Therefore for an interview, I prefer analysing an individuals improvising, problem solving ability and interactive thought process itself rather than their ability to regurgitate a standardly accepted solution. Also an open ended interview is as much a learning experience for the interviewer as it is for the interviewee, due to the fact that the process itself is open that it may trigger an unforeseen insight.

   On the other hand innovative ways of utilising online screening tools can be improvised too. I will try to share any of my experiences about this.

4. 

   Rajat September 23, 2014, 8:35 am

   Thanks Ian for your reply. InterviewZen is really cool. I will try it 🙂

5. 

   Rajat September 23, 2014, 8:42 am

   Awesome reply Kamal. I totally agree with you on all points. I really want to hire someone experienced but at the same time I am also open for a new app engineer who has the potential but might not be 100% skilled in app development. 

   But i think combining a list of 30-40 good questions along with a small app coding test followed up by an interview should do the trick for me. 

   I want to ask you something. If an analytically sound candidate is skilled in Java/J2EE (with little app knowledge), I should go ahead with evaluating him in Java right? and hire him on the basis of that. 

   Thanks again for the reply. 

6. 

   Rajat September 23, 2014, 8:43 am

   Hello Ian, please do share how you have utilized online screening tools for evaluation of candidates. 

7. 

   Ian Pinto September 23, 2014, 9:15 am

   Hi Rajat, I am glad that my input on interviewing prospective candidates struck a chord with you.

   Let me first disclaim the fact that I have used online screening tools extensively. They could be sort of convenience factor when dealing with maybe overwhelming response that may be triggered by a certain attractive open position.

   My viewpoint remains that if you are strategically hiring specifically for long term association, then no online sophisticated process can beat the personal face to face interview where you have an improvised dialogue with the candidate to gauge whether they are a best fit for the job profile.

   Currently I do not have any noteworthy online hiring experiences to share, but will definitely share if something works out in that context.

   I like your idea of a short questionnaire and app coding exercise followed by a personal interview. Also with regards to hiring an analytically sound candidate with an alternate skill set like J2EE instead of maybe iOS, I would advice you to understand whether the candidate also would genuinely want to make such switch and not just as a stop gap gig or compromise due to some reason. All the best with your hiring and if there is someway we could connect professionally let me know.

8. 

   asha chaudhry January 8, 2015, 5:02 am

   hey rajat,

   pls connect with simranjit – https://www.therodinhoods.com/profile/SimranjitKaur

   and check out what her company does 🙂 

   ps: i met her at an event in b’lore and told her about your post – so do connect with her!

9. 

   Rajat January 8, 2015, 7:51 am

   Thanks Asha. I already checked out hackerrank a few months back. But what caught my eye while checking Simranjit’s profile is the work that she did before HackerRank. Am going to connect with her for this 🙂 

   Thanks so much for the message.

   Rajat

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