The conventional methods of recruiting can no longer keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of the tech world. With it becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled talent, recruiters have to think out of the box to attract and retain the best candidates out there.

How can that be done? Technology, of course. It is the one-stop solution for most of the challenges in the tech industry. There are automated tools for every step of the recruiting lifecycle, from sourcing to onboarding.

However, there is a lot of noise in this space, and it can be hard to tell what’s real from what’s simply a good marketing pitch. You may not need tech recruiting tools for all the stages of hiring. Depending on your requirements, do your research and choose wisely.

Tech recruiting technology tools for each stage of the hiring process

Job aggregator tools for sourcing

Talent sourcing takes up a huge chunk of time for recruiters. Without the help of sourcing tools, it will be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. Automated job aggregator tools make it easy to grow your talent pipeline. There are plenty of avenues like job portals, placement agencies, social media, and hiring challenges to source candidates from.

Job boards and job aggregators are fundamental to the recruiting ecosystem because direct applicants make up 48% of all hires. Let’s take a look at the key features of this recruiting tool for recruiters:

• increases the visibility of your job postings across a wide range of job boards/portals
• carry out an in-depth search of candidates using filters like skills, experience, location, etc. to spot the best ones
• find resumes, contact information, online portfolios, etc., and gather the data under one profile for each candidate. These profiles can be quickly added to your pipeline and you can engage with them over a period of time
• make a quick assessment of the candidate based on their portfolio and projects
• All the data related to a candidate can be stored on one platform with easy accessibility to the entire HR team

Job aggregators to keep in mind:

• Indeed is said to be the largest platform for external hires with 75% of job applications coming in and 47% of all hires in the US
• Glassdoor has its own job board where 83% of its 64 million monthly users are currently looking for a job
• LinkedIn provides a Job Search Tool with advanced search capabilities and can filter out results based on location, skills, industry, and recommendations

Standalone applicant tracking systems (ATS)

Using numerous job boards and portals for posting your job vacancies can quickly become exhausting if you have to do it manually. A study by GetApp shows that 86% of recruiters say using an ATS has increased the speed at which they hire candidates.

A good ATS, recruitment technology tool offers capabilities like:

• job opening posting across multiple job boards and websites
• automated screening of candidates, and their resumes, which also decreases human bias and errors
• database assistance where you can store all applicants’ information
• view the status of each candidate throughout the interview process
• send out assessment invites from the ATS itself to the selected candidates and prepare a performance report in real-time
• initiate offer letters directly from the ATS, get them signed by the candidates and save the documents digitally on the cloud

Offering most of the features listed above, we have some good ATS options in the mix like:

• Lever, a San Francisco startup, focuses on diversity and metric-based recruiting
• Naukri RMS, automates the hiring process from end-to-end
• LinkedIn Talent Hub, allows customers to source, manage, and hire in one integrated platform

Recruitment CRM tools for engagement

Waiting for a role to open to begin scouting for skilled developers is not a good idea. Instead, build and maintain a talent pool of passive candidates. Keep them engaged with company updates and relevant content so that you know exactly whom to approach for any role when the time comes. This is where recruitment CRM tools step in. They help in:

• building a personal connection with the candidates during the hiring process
• keep your candidates in the know by sending timely updates at each stage of the process
• reduce time-to-hire by eliminating manual data entry and increase productivity with collaborative hiring
• effectively engage prospective candidates through social media
• nurture and engage candidates who were not hired in this phase but can be given an opportunity in the future

Recruitment CRM tools that need to be tried out for yourself:

• Zoho has a cloud-based CRM platform that offers diverse solutions for building a relationship with your candidates
• Yello provides an automated talent acquisition platform with a variety of services
• Beamery, a London-based startup offers self-styled recruitment marketing software

Tech screening and assessment software

With scores of applications coming in, it is a huge task for recruiters to identify the ones worth talking to. Do the applicants with great resumes possess the skills that they say they have? The technical screening round is designed to filter candidates who exhibit the skills they listed on their resumes. Leveraging speech-to-text technology can streamline the documentation of candidate interactions, making it easier to review and share insights with hiring stakeholders. Additionally, assessments are an effective way to test the behavioral and technical skills of developers. Coding assessment tools provide features like:

• create highly accurate coding assessments or even custom ones based on the job role/skills/experience with minimum technical knowledge
• make use of an extensive inbuilt library of questions across programming languages and skills with a robust proctoring system
• set standard benchmarks for performance to shortlist candidates easily
• sync seamlessly with your existing ATS to keep candidate information in one place

Screening tools that make the lives of recruiters easy:

• HackerEarth Assessments helps you to objectively evaluate developers with a rich library of 13K+ questions across 80+ skills and shortlist candidates based purely on their performance
• DevSkiller provides an automated technical screening platform that assesses candidates based on their skills
• CodeSignal offers coding tests and assessments for hiring at scale

Further Reading

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Coding interview tools

HackerEarth’s recent developer survey showed that 40% of developers preferred to be interviewed on interview tools that are equipped with code editors and video conferencing. For a fair and objective screening and evaluation of the applicants, coding interview tools are the best choice. They offer features such as:

• conduct structured interviews with standard evaluation parameters
• have real-time code editors with built-in compilers (doing away with whiteboards)
• allow pair-programming
• have AI-powered functionalities
• provide real-time feedback and automated summary of each interview
• enable blind interviewing to combat bias in the process

Coding interview tools that come with most of the functionalities given above:

• FaceCode allows you to invite and conduct coding interviews on a collaborative, real-time code editor that also automates your interview summaries
• CoderPad offers an intuitive programming interface that enables you to leave the whiteboard behind
• CodeBunk provides an online real-time editor and compiler for interviewing developers

Background check tech recruiting tools

You are ready to roll out the offer letter as the selected candidate has excelled in all the rounds of interviews. It is advisable to conduct a background check before that to avoid making a bad hire as well as for additional security purposes. Some advanced features of such tools include:

• an applicant’s ID verification, credit check, drug screening, and social media check
• an applicant’s civil court records, motor vehicle records, and fingerprints for a more detailed verification
• recruiters can create custom screening packages according to job role or department

This helps create a fuller picture of the candidate to deem whether they will be a good fit for the company. Some useful tools to try out include:

• GoodHire provides an easy employee background check experience with its pre-bundled and custom-designed packages
• Sterling helps create safer environments for your employees with its myriad background check services
• Verified First enables accelerated background screening of candidates with its platform

Onboarding and core HR management software

Onboarding tools

Recruitment doesn’t end once the candidate signs the offer letter. There’s still the matter of onboarding. You are given one shot to make a great first impression on your new joiner and you do not want them to be blinded by paperwork.

With nearly 58% of organizations focusing their onboarding programs on lengthy processes and paperwork, only 12% of employees feel that their organization does a great job of onboarding. This is a wake-up call for organizations to switch to suitable tools for onboarding.

Now, let’s help make onboarding enjoyable for you and the candidate with the latest tech recruiting tools in the market. They have automated capabilities to:

• help new hires self-onboard themselves with a checklist of tasks
• finish filling out paperwork like offer letters, tax forms, and company NDAs ahead of time
• customize the onboarding workflows like creating email addresses, allocating company devices, etc. for different candidates
• introduce them to the rest of the team with welcome emails

HR management tools

Now that you have onboarded your new joiners, the next step is to ensure they have an easy and hassle-free employee experience. An integrated HR management tool allows you to manage the entire employee lifecycle from a single platform.

• has self-service options for availing leaves, travel reimbursements, and timesheet entry
• takes care of performance management and employee engagement
• provides payroll and tax filing services
• encourages internal collaboration among employees
• maintains a database of existing employees’ profiles

Tools that offer services for the complete employee lifecycle:

• BambooHR takes care of onboarding, compensation of employees, and building culture at the workplace with its integrated platform
• Leapsome enables companies to carry out performance management, personalized development, onboarding new hires and so much more
• Darwinbox provides an end-to-end HRMS Suite and provides services for all stages of the employee lifecycle

Your employees are the foundation of your company. Therefore, the onus falls on you, as recruiters, to give them the best possible experience. Armed with this toolkit of tech recruiting tools, you can simplify your entire hiring process and keep your employees happy, at the same time.

FAQs on tech recruiting tools for recruiters:

#1 How can tech recruiting tools benefit my hiring process?

Tech recruiting tools can save time and increase efficiency in the recruitment process. Additionally, they also provide valuable data and insights into the recruitment process, helping businesses make informed decisions about their hiring needs and strategies.

#2 What is the difference between an applicant tracking system (ATS) and a recruiting tool?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a specific type of recruiting tool that is designed to manage and track resumes and job applications. While all ATSs are recruiting tools, not all recruiting tools are ATSs.

#3 How can I integrate tech recruiting tools into my existing recruitment process?

Integrating tech recruiting tools into your existing recruitment process can vary depending on the tool you choose and your current recruitment process. Some tools offer seamless integration with other HR and recruitment software, while others may require more manual setup and configuration. Be sure to consider the level of integration offered by each platform when choosing a tech recruiting tool.

#4 How to use social media as a recruiting tool?

Using social media as a recruiting tool can be an effective way to reach and engage with potential candidates. Here are some tips on how to use social media effectively for recruiting:

• Choose the right platforms: Consider which platforms your target audience is using and focus your efforts on those. For example, LinkedIn is ideal for professional networking and job postings, while Instagram and Snapchat can be useful for reaching younger candidates.
• Create a company profile: Establish a company profile on the social media platforms you’ve chosen and make sure it’s professional, up-to-date, and provides a good representation of your company culture.
• Post job opportunities: Regularly post job opportunities on your social media profiles and encourage your followers to share the opportunities with their networks.
• Engage with your followers: Respond to comments and messages, and share content that your followers might find interesting or relevant to the job.
• Utilize employee advocacy: Encourage your employees to share your job postings and company culture on their personal social media accounts. This can help expand your reach and increase the credibility of your company.
• Measure your success: Use analytics tools to track the success of your social media recruiting efforts, including the number of job views, applications, and hires generated from each platform.
• Keep it professional: Remember to maintain a professional tone and image when using social media for recruiting. Avoid making any discriminatory comments or posting anything that could damage the reputation of your company.

#5 What tools do tech recruiters use?

There are several tools and platforms that can be used in tech recruitment to make the hiring process more efficient and effective. Some of the important ones are:

• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): An ATS is a software tool that helps to streamline the recruitment process by automating many of the tasks involved, such as tracking resumes, scheduling interviews, and generating reports.
• Job boards: Recruiters use job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn to post job openings and search for potential candidates.
• Video conferencing software: With the increasing trend of remote work, video conferencing software such as Zoom, Skype, or Google Meet has become an indispensable tool for conducting virtual interviews.
• Employee Referral Programs: Such programs encourage current employees to refer friends, family members, or acquaintances who they think would be a good fit for the company.
• Pre-employment assessment tools: Employ pre-employment assessments to determine a candidate’s skills, personality, and work style, which can be useful in making hiring decisions.
• Social media: Use social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to connect with potential candidates and promote job openings.
• Chatbots: Integrate chatbots into a company’s website or career page to assist with frequently asked questions, schedule interviews, and collect candidate information.

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“Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.”
– Bill Gates

In college, I wanted to learn to build things that would have a significant and positive impact on mankind. I looked around and saw that there were people and organizations out there that were doing this on a daily basis. They were pushing the human race forward with their numerous contributions to society. But unfortunately for me, I was not able to find anyone/anything that could show me the path to these organizations or offer me the necessary guidance toward cracking their coding interviews. I discovered how to ace coding interviews the hard way, by getting knocked from one resource to another, finally securing offers from HackerEarth, Microsoft, Airbus and GeeksforGeeks in my final year. This was why I wanted to share my learning with whoever’s now looking for that guide. They can invest their time and energy in the right direction from the very beginning.

A lot of people who are job hunting want to know just how to land a great job at a swanky company. They want to know what are all the types of questions asked in their interviews and the topics that they should prepare for. If you are one of those people, you are in the right place. We hope that we will be able to help you prepare and ace your coding interviews!

So, you want to hold a cool job as a Software Engineer in FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google), eh? Not that it’s wholly impossible but let’s backtrack a bit.

You first need to know everything that your interviewer wants to know about you. To be able to crack their coding interview, you need to broadly exhibit these 3 important skills:

1. Problem Solving Ability (Data Structures and Algorithms)
   These make up the bulk of the coding interviews. The intent here is to assess your problem-solving skills and the questions are typically around concepts of Algorithms and Data Structures. A rookie mistake to make during these interviews is to start coding too soon. In the first 10 minutes of the interview, try seeking more clarity on the question. For example, try asking details of the expected input with questions like “Will there be any negative inputs?” and explaining the solution approach. It also helps to think out loud, that way the interviewer gets to understand your thought process and, if you are lucky, gives you hints early on if he/she sees you going in the wrong direction. Only begin writing code once you and your interviewer agree that this is the best possible approach for the solution.

2. Domain knowledge (includes core subjects of CS)
   It is a no brainer that if you are interviewing for the role of Frontend Engineer – then you will, without a doubt, be questioned on basic technologies like HTML, JavaScript, React, etc. These are the domain skills specific to the job role that you are applying for. So, be sure to read the job description thoroughly and prepare yourself for these questions.There are a few skills that are common across the majority of software job roles and are, in fact, the core concepts of Computer Science. These include, but aren’t limited to:
   Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), Operating Systems, Databases, Computer Networks, Caching and Web Technologies.

3. Communication skills
   This might seem like a cliche but trust me it is not. A large part of what developers do daily involves effective communication and collaboration. Communication is not just knowing what to say – it is about the how, the when, and the where, as well. You need to know how to put your point across with just the right level of detail; you need to know when to ask for help and not be the cause for decreased levels of productivity; and finally – you should know where, i.e, in which channels you need to communicate in, so your information doesn’t get lost and reaches the right people. In a nutshell, you need to communicate in a way your job gets done in the most simple and quick manner.There is also a 4th skill to know and master – systems design –but that’s something only for more experienced job-seekers applying for senior software engineering positions.

Approach based on time left for the interview.

Before giving you the scoop on the hot topics in interviews and their associated questions, let us discuss our battle strategy to tackle it. It’s usually beneficial to prepare for interviews according to the time you have left before it. Makes sense, right? Well, let’s jump right in!

1-3 months to interview:

Oh boy, less than 3 months to showdown. Since we can never actually know which data structure or algorithm might be asked, here it is a good idea to get a working knowledge of as many topics as you possibly can. What this means is, we are going for a ‘jack of all trades’ approach rather than ‘master of one’.

if ( !agreeWithThis )

{

For the people who disagree with this point of view, let me try and convince you – suppose you spend the bulk of your prep time and ace one of the most asked topics: arrays. Now imagine you show up to the interview and the interviewer asks you a question from graphs – bonkers, right? However, if you have the basics down, maybe you can somehow work on a solution, which will be much better than thinking about X-Y axes on hearing “graphs”.

}

Convinced? Great! You should go for a Breadth-First approach on topics and just prepare enough questions from each topic to get a hang of the concept. Do not spend a lot of time on any one specific topic. What this means can differ from person to person. One might take 8-10 questions to get the topic straight, while another might do it in 4-5. What’s important is that you do not cross the 10-12 question threshold, or else you’ll be eating into the time of another topic.

Resources to definitely follow: Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle McDowell

3-6 months to interview

This can be one of the most ideal timelines. You have enough time to get a good grasp on the topics while you’re still not so far along from the interview that you’re not motivated enough. You should follow the breadth-first approach described above and spend more time on topics to get a good grasp on them.

Simultaneously, try building small projects alongside. My recommendation is that you start with your web portfolio. Besides the benefits of having a personal portfolio, it will also give you an idea of how to build and publish a website on your own. You can add other projects in here as well.

A good way to get hands-on experience with cool projects is to participate in Hackathons. They are short tech events in which teams of developers get together to build a solution to a proposed problem. They are a great way of learning how to collaborate, working well in a team, and to upskill yourself. You can find all Hackathons going on at HackerEarth here.

Would you like to get updates once a month on our latest articles? We won’t spam, we promise. Subscribe now to The HackerEarth Blog!

6+ months to interview

Boy, oh, boy, are you gonna nail this interview or what? Since you have a lot of time to prepare, we suggest that after getting comfortable by doing the above things, you can start contributing to open source projects on GitHub. You can Google “good first issue” to start with. Repository maintainers put this tag on issues to make it easier for freshers to start contributing to open source. Also, give another go at the questions. You will refresh your memory and might even come up with a better or more concise way of solving them.

The Problems:

Without further ado, let me present to you the most commonly asked topics in competitive interviews. Each topic will have one tutorial article and a few questions associated with it. You can directly attempt the questions if you are comfortable with the topic. The questions have been chosen to help you solidify your understanding of the topic and also serve as a test. Ideally try and maintain a healthy ratio of 3-6-1 of easy, medium and hard problems.

1. Arrays:
   • 1D
   • Multi-Dimensional
2. Binary Search:
   • Basic
   • Discrete
3. Sorting:
   • Merge Sort
   • Quick Sort
   • Heap Sort (This requires the heap data structure)
4. Stacks:
   • Tutorial
5. Queues:
   • Tutorial
6. Hash Maps and Tables
   • Tutorial
7. Linked List
   • Tutorial
8. Trees
   • Binary/ N-ary Trees
   • Binary Search Tree (BST)
   • Heaps/Priority Queues
9. Dynamic Programming (DP)
   • Intro to DP
   • DP in 2D
10. Strings
    • Tutorial
11. Graphs
    • BFS & DFS
    • Shortest Path
    • Minimum Spanning Trees
    • Topological Sort

Some tips on interviewing w/ special note on remote interviewing:

1. Go to the company’s careers page and read up on their job description. They do tell you everything that you need to know about that role.
2. Create mock interviews by yourself by pairing up with friends who are also interviewing for a similar job. Try to simulate real interviews as much as possible by interviewing over a video call and perhaps use a shared doc to write code. Give each other pointers on what went well and what did not.  
3. When applying, make sure that you don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Apply to a whole range of companies and job roles to significantly increase your chances of receiving an offer.
4. Most companies have a distinct pattern in which they take interviews. For example, Amazon conducts 5-6 rounds of interviews and they like to emphasize a lot on their leadership principles (LPs). In this case, it would be prudent to be well prepared and research beforehand about the same, so you know exactly what to expect.

Last but not the least, go communicate with people and read about their past experiences of interviewing at the companies that you are now applying for. And remember to give back and share your experiences too, so that that might help someone in need!

So, all the very best, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Developers Interview tips

I am a SWE in the community team at HackerEarth. I enjoy building things with code, reading books and playing the occasional sport.

Vaibhav Sharma

‍Product marketing manager