The endgame is finally here.

Seeing the heroes train themselves, evolve personalities, grow closer (or farther), and eventually reach where they are after 11 years and 21 movies has been nothing less than inspiring.

As a developer, there are plenty of things that we can learn from their stories. Each hero has a unique skill that makes them an invaluable part of the team.

But in the universe of competitive programming, where Thanos is not the only one you fight, you cannot form or rely on a team to support you.

You need to have the powers of all the heroes and let the hero inside awaken.

But what are the superpowers that you, as a competitive programming hero, require to not just reach the top, but be one of the most sought after?

Here are 6 heroes who can be your biggest inspiration to be the last standing Avenger.

Iron Man

Real Name: Tony Stark

Powers: “Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist” | Tech Genius

I guess this one is obvious.

To be the best at competitive programming, you need to fine-tune your programming skills.

Tony, being one of the brightest minds on the planet is always looking to improve his armor, add more features, build new technologies, and be a stronger Iron Man.

In the world of competitive programming, where your armor is your code, practicing more and eventually improving your coding abilities is something that is of utmost importance.

Communities like StackOverflow and Codechef, online course providers such as Udemy and Coursera, and learning/practicing platforms like HackerEarth are some ways to perfect your skills and get your first infinity stone.

Captain America

Real Name: Steve Rogers

Powers: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Durability | Super Soldier

Captain America is a superhuman with heightened stamina, agility, and durability.

He also has a strong focus and superior planning skills, making him an effective fighter.

Likewise, when a developer is exposed to a competitive programming challenge that can last from an hour to even a month, you got to put the Cap hat on (pun intended!).

What I mean is, you should have the ability to understand the challenge (focus), create a plan (superior planning skills), and develop code as fast as possible (agility).

Once you have developed your tech skills, you can start with any of the following short-term challenges to take the journey forward.

• HackerEarth – HackerEarth Monthly Challenges like Easy and Circuits
• CodeChef – Programming challenges like Cook-off and Lunchtime

Hawkeye

Real Name: Clint Barton

Powers: Tactician and Combat expert – “Turn any object into a weapon”

Barton is arguably the strongest avenger on the team.

I know you don’t believe me, but hear me out.

He is the only Avenger with a family and has no actual superpowers.

But with his amazing skill-set of using almost anything as a weapon (especially his signature bow and arrow), he does not look out of place when he stands with chemically-created superhumans and gods.

Being highly motivated, not afraid of failing, and being proud of what you do are things that can add that extra edge to take your journey as a developer to the next level.

By understanding all the available tools and bringing them into practice by participating in various competitive challenges can help you define your tactics and hone your skills further.

Black Widow

Real Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanova

Powers: Master fighter, Agile, Weapon-expert, Master Hacker

Natasha Romanoff operates at peak human capabilities due to biotechnological enhancements in the Red Room.

With extensive physical and mental training, Nat is an expert martial artist, athlete, gymnast, and resistant to aging and diseases, while also possessing enhanced healing.

Nat is an expert tactician, an effective strategist, and an overall kickass.

And what is a competitive programming challenge, if not a game of skill, strategy, tactics, durability, agility, and the perfect execution of plans?

Participating in many short term coding challenges can help you understand your skill-set, hone it further, and also build durability and flexibility in your thinking styles to conquer any problem that comes your way.

HackerEarth’s Code Arena is one of the best platforms to compete in real-time 1v1 battles against other coders and experts around the world.

Hulk

Real Name: Bruce Banner

Powers: Intelligence, Superhuman strength, Durability, “Hulk Smash!”

Banner is one of the greatest scientific minds on the planet, with expertise in biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, physiology, and nuclear physics.

His alter ego, Hulk, is a giant with superhuman strength, the ability to withstand immense force and injury while regenerating at a speed much quicker than a normal human.

In a competitive programming challenge, there are moments when all seems lost – the code might have bugs, there are other compilation errors, or you just need a break and let it all go.

In such cases, when your strategy fails, your durability has reached its limits, and your tactics aren’t working anymore, you want to just Hulk Smash!

Instead, I would suggest, let Banner win that battle, and use that genius mind to get through the situation and be the best coder out there.

Thor

Real Name: Thor Odinson

Powers: Strength, Flight, Controlling the power of thunder | God of Thunder

With all the aforementioned skills acquired, it would now be the best time to bring out Thor and be the god you are meant to be.

Thor, the mightiest Avenger, the God of Thunder can control the environment around him and strike bolts of lightning of enormous power and destructive capabilities.

Coming from a royal divine background, he has strong core values, a strong sense of loyalty, and incomparable strength.

In a competitive programming challenge, having a strong mindset, determination, and energy focused on developing the code will take your idea to the next level.

After all, a god has to be on a higher level.

Test yourself and see where you stand, or if you’re confident, conquer the biggest challenges out there. Here are some that you might be interested in.

• International Collgeiate Programming Contest – the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
• IEEEXtreme – an annual 24-hour long competition hosted by IEEE.
• Google Code Jam – Google’s longest running global coding competition.
• Facebook Hacker Cup – an annual global programming competition sponsored by Facebook.
• ICFP Programming Contest – an annual 3-day competition held by the International Conference on Functional Programming.
• Halite Challenge – an AI programming challenge, supported by organizations like Two Sigma, Cornell Tech, and Google.
• Microsoft Imagine Cup – Microsoft’s annual global competition.

Additionally, there are aggregator platforms like HackerEarth and TopCoder where you can find a list of several coding challenges happening around the world in various themes.

“Heroes are made by the path they choose, not the powers they are graced with.”

– Iron Man

Time to test your skills

Every distributed team looks different, but they all have one thing in common: they’re the future of work. Since distributed teams are set to become the norm – according to numerous recent studies and reports – it’s key that you adapt and update your management skills for this new mode of work.

A new study by IWG reveals that 70% of employees globally work remotely at least once a week – and 50% of employees work remotely half the week.

This is one of the first studies to survey professionals in 96 different countries and across a range of industries. Statistics fluctuate depending on the country and industry. (For example, remote IT workers are leading the pack.) However, this huge percentage shows that remote work – whether part-time or full-time – is a major trend worldwide.

What is a distributed team?

A distributed team is a group of individuals who work together from different geographical locations, leveraging technology to communicate, collaborate, and achieve common goals. Unlike traditional teams that operate from a single office space, distributed teams can span cities, countries, and even continents, allowing organizations to tap into a global talent pool. This model supports a variety of work arrangements, including remote work, flexible schedules, and hybrid offices, enabling team members to work from home, co-working spaces, or any location with internet connectivity.

Distributed teams offer several advantages, including access to a wider range of skills, round-the-clock productivity across time zones, and significant cost savings on office space and resources. However, they also present challenges such as cultural differences, communication barriers, and the need for strong digital security practices. Effective management of distributed teams involves fostering a culture of trust, promoting clear and open communication, and utilizing technology to maintain connectivity and collaboration.

A distributed team – comprised of both office and remote workers – will always have its own unique size, structure, processes and purpose. As the manager, your job is to make sure these diverse parts work together efficiently. To do this, we’ve put together some strategies to get you into a remote management mindset for great results with mixed teams.

1. Think remote first

One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to running distributed teams is simply using in-office management methods and then applying them to the remote space. This kind of thinking will make your remote practices clumsy and often second-rate. It’s best to think remote first, so that your processes make sense for both models.

Start with how to manage remotely – through a tool like Trello? with daily stand-ups via Zoom? – and then see how this fits into the in-office group. Most project management software are also excellent for in-office. For example, if you think Trello is the best way to track your remote workers, you can use this tool across the board with your entire distributed team. By going remote first, you’ll minimize issues and create consistent management tactics for your distributed team. (Also read: 10 steps guide on how to manage remote teams)

2. Use the same communication channels

Make sure you’re using the same processes with your in-office and remote workers. In other words, your in-office workers shouldn’t be communicating or having in-person meetings without keeping the remote side in the loop. Consistency in the way you communicate is essential. Otherwise, decisions and discussions may take place without input from the whole team. This can create confusion for remote workers and feelings of unfairness.

Try to create communication channels that are digitally documented so that all team members can access this information and get updates in their own time and location. Slack is a great solution for this, as communication is both immediate and leaves a “digital papel trail” so that deadlines and expectations are clearly agreed upon.

With a distributed team, you should also over-communicate at the beginning to make sure that your team is running smoothly. Check in with daily and weekly meetings and clearly resolve issues so that your distributed team feels confident in the communication channels you’ve set up.

3. Collaborate using digital management tools

There are great digital tools out there to boost team collaboration. If your team relies on email to collaborate, you may consider other more immediate tools. Your inbox can often get bogged down by too many messages, which you don’t see immediately. However, other tools like Slack, Asana or Basecamp can promote easy and instant communication so that your team stays connected and nimble.

If you’re not sure what digital management tools might be good fits for your teams, do some research to find more information on some of the best tools out there for remote work.

4. Create social spaces online

In addition to getting work done, you should also build relationships within your distributed team. This will make your team members feel more unified, as studies show that loneliness can be a big challenge for working remotely.

So, it’s a good idea to create social spaces for your distributed team. Some ideas include: channels or boards for sharing photos of your weekend plans, social events such as “virtual happy hours” or even a Friday email sharing stories from the week. These small steps will make your distributed team feel more connected and happier.

5. Be transparent with workflow

You should also document the defined workflow for your distributed team and share these processes with them. A good way to do this is to create a Google Drive folder with these documents that you can then update and share with your team.

By staying clear and transparent about how you expect your team to work, you’ll see big strides in collaboration and processes. Get everybody on the same page by better defining the expected workflow.

6. Create results-based evaluations for all employees

As we mentioned above, your employees – whether in-office or remote – should be treated the same way. When it comes to evaluations, create metrics that apply to both groups. Specifically, focus on the results achieved by team members, and not other elements that aren’t shared among the distributed team (such as hours logged at the office).

The baseline for evaluations should be equal and consistent. Looking at results is a great way to make constructive evaluations and motivate team members.

7. Celebrate successes publically

When remote workers feel “out of the loop,” it’s usually because they don’t see how they’re positively impacting the team or company. One way to solve this isolation is to communicate successes across the company. In fact, under any working model, this is an excellent idea. Send a weekly email of successes, or use a Slack channel to give regular shoutouts to good work! Your workers will feel appreciated and more engaged in their job.

In the end, managing a distributed team isn’t any harder than managing other kinds of team. However, these distributed team strategies will help steer you away from common problems and help you create effective collaboration and communication within your team. Whatever your distributed team looks like, you’ll be well on your way to success.

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Here is a Free trial to tech recruitment software to hire your first candidate!

When used effectively, talent assessment tools can have a major impact on key performance indicators (KPIs), such as cost-to-and time per-hire, hiring managers’ satisfaction, employee retention, performance, and engagement.” –Aberdeen Group Study (May 2015).

We could not agree more.

The same study reveals the following:

• • Businesses that use talent assessment tools are 36% more likely to be satisfied with their new hire.
  • Seven out of ten (71%) of the Best-in-Class (top 20%) companies now use tech recruitment software.
  • These companies now enjoy 15% year-on-year improvement in hiring managers’ satisfaction.

Keeping in mind these statistics, we have seen that job titles are having a moment in the last few years. And HR is not an exception to these new trends either.

At Google, HR is called “People’s Operations.” This term is very popular with other tech companies as well.

For Facebook, “People@” is the term that describes the team which focuses on three things:

Hire the best people, foster continuous personal growth, and enrich the overall Facebook experience.

Other companies have transformed HR managers into Talent Acquisition Managers.

These companies are underlining the importance of acquiring the right people rather than hiring just someone to fill an open position.

They are looking for talent!

Along similar lines, in a previous article “Why companies can’t avoid university recruitment,” I spoke about how, now more than ever, it is time for companies to decide if they will or will not enter the War for Talent.

Companies are identifying new ways to attract and retain talent.

And, they are increasingly starting to use assessment tools before making the final hiring decision.

But, why use a talent assessment tools? What does it provide you with? Is it worth it?

Well, let’s try to answer these 3 questions by looking at —

5 reasons to use tech recruitment software :

1. Accurate evidence-based information

   Tech recruitment software provides you with the opportunity to receive result-based proven information after a candidate has been first tested.

   Resumes can mislead even the most experienced recruiters. Some people tend to “fake” and exaggerate their experiences and their achievements.

   For example, Yahoo’s former CEO Scott Thompson was removed from his position after it was discovered that he lied on his resume. (Read – 5 ways to get better quality applicants)

   Another trick candidates use is to make themselves “sound intelligent” during the interview. An interview is about selling yourself (your profile) anyway, so why not?

   Unfortunately, recruiters often think that when a candidate sounds intelligent, he/she might actually be intelligent. This is not always true.

   If a candidate prepares for the interview; then the candidate can rock it. But it does not mean that he/she will do justice to the job tasks and responsibilities.

2. Enhance candidate experience

   Using a pre-hire assessment can make a candidate’s experience more interesting.

   By answering questions or by testing themselves on different exercises or projects, candidates have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with their capability to perform well or not in different situations.

   They receive real-time feedback after completing the assessment, and therefore, they get an idea of their possibility of getting to the next level.

   Tech recruitment software can be even more attractive via gamification features.

   A great example here is Heineken’s hiring process. Before even sending the resume, applicants are asked to go through a virtual journey with Heineken’s executives from different areas of the business.

   To complete the journey, the candidate should first answer some questions related to several soft and hard skills.

   After which the candidate will receive his/her feedback to identify strengths and areas for improvement. This helps the company filter out unqualified applicants.

   What does it mean in practice?

   It means lesser time spent screening CVs and more quality candidates.

3. Test on real tasks

   The best indicator of future job performance is to give the candidate a work sample test; a task that the candidate will be doing the job.” -Iris Bohnet, author of “What Works: Gender Equality by Design

   Say, you take a tech recruitment software like Recruit from HackerEarth.

   Create a test for all candidates, which may be a coding project similar to what they might be required to do the job.

   Thus, the recruitment team and the Hiring Manager will get more accurate insights into the candidates’ ability.

   Only successful candidates will be shortlisted and suggested to the company. Candidates who do not perform well will be disqualified from the hiring process.

   Therefore, well-qualified candidates only will make the longlist that recruiters will need to screen. Definitely makes a recruiter’s life easy, doesn’t it?

4. Reduce biased-recruiting decisions

   Recruiters are not machines but human beings, and as humans, we often are vulnerable to biased decisions.

   Sometimes we look for candidates who are “like us,” and at other times we use our intuition (sixth sense) based on experiences, feelings, and intellect to make a decision while preparing the shortlist.

   Therefore, our decisions are not always accurate and they will never be, but what we can do is reduce bias and wrong hiring decisions.

   As a recruiter, you can avoid biased decisions in the recruitment process by making use of talent assessment tools for pre-screening.

   Reduced bias in the recruitment process is positively related with higher performance of the new hire, as the hiring decision will only be based on skills, knowledge, and abilities of the candidate and not on your intuition about candidates’ future performance.

5. Minimize fill time and hiring costs and improving employee retention.

   Maybe it is not a completely representative sample, but in a case study conducted by Self-Management Group, adding an assessment tool in the recruitment process of a large communication organization reduced the fill time from three weeks to one-and-a-half weeks.

   Enriching the process in such a way provides the recruiters with the opportunity to focus and dedicate more time to “high potential” candidates and reduce the time spent on unqualified candidates.

   It gives recruiters the opportunity to become strategic partners of the team and the business.

   In addition, the organization saw a 40% reduction in their turnover.

   This happened because the talent assessment tools made candidates familiar with the type of key task they would be dealing with if hired.

   At the same time, the company ensured through this process that the candidates matched the required skills and job requirements.

   Moreover, hiring a proven-to-be-qualified candidate by first assessing him/her means lesser time recruiting for the same position a few weeks down the line.

How to pick the right tech recruitment software

Today we have a huge pool of pre-assessment tools varying from those who aim to test for cultural fit (cognitive ability tests, personality tests, etc.).

To those who are more specialized for testing particular skills or knowledge such as sales, coding, time-management, etc.

Before choosing the tool, it might help to first consider the following points:

• Take some time to think with your team about what would you like to test the candidates for

If you want to test their personality or their stress management skills, then recruitment software which measures soft skills should be used, but if you want to test your candidates on their ability to code for instance, then you should use the relevant tool such as Recruit.

• Think about tools which will provide your candidates with great experience throughout the application process.

Candidate experience is important as it is directly related to your ability as a company to attract talent.

It affects your employer branding. If you make the application process interesting and enjoyable, then you also increase your chances of becoming an even more attractive employer for other potential hires.

Think smart!

• Compare the quality of their reports.

An assessment tool is all about providing you with deep insights into candidates’ ability to score high.

If the feedback you receive from the assessment tool is not well-structured and detailed, then there is no reason for you as an employer to include such a tool in your recruitment process.

Research, benchmark, ask, and use trial versions before you decide which one to include in your hiring process.

• Make your life easier.

Before choosing a pre-hiring assessment tool, test if this tool and the information it will provide you with can be integrated with your ATS. It will save you much time and effort in aligning the two software.

[Read – Top 10 recruiting software platforms ]

To summarize, the aforementioned five reasons help answer a question asked in the first part of this article:

“Is a tech recruitment software worth it?”

Well, the answer actually is very simple.

If you care about the quality of your candidates. And if you want your recruiting team to become more of a strategic partner for the business, then yes, it is worth it!

Including tech recruitment software in the recruitment process of your company may lead to a higher performance of the new hire.

More engagement for the candidates through a more attractive recruitment journey, and more time for strategic decisions from a recruiter’s perspective.

Also, it also can save you money by making a decision faster and by minimizing the chances of going through cycles of recruitment.

However, more than one out of three companies (36%)

“cited the lack of urgency by senior management to be the biggest barrier to implementing scientifically-based employee and pre-employment assessments.”

Hopefully, this article will help senior managers to better understand the benefits of a talent assessment tool and its effect on the quality of their hires!

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Here is a Free trial to tech recruitment software to hire your first candidate!

Recruiting top-class talent is challenging in itself and doing it on a low budget can be quite a daunting task!

Startups and mid-sized companies that typically operate on a shoestring (small) budget (before they catch the eye of the big VCs and make it to the big league) are commonly faced with the predicament of how to recruit the right candidate with their limited budget.

At a time when big companies lure top talent with generous salaries and bonuses, VMware, Splunk, and Cadence the top three paying companies in America pay their employees in the range $160k according to Business Insider.

What chance do the smaller players have?

According to a study by Deloitte, employees reported work-life balance as being the most important factor apart from salary.

In another finding, a whopping 42% of those surveyed by Towards Data Science was willing to choose a lesser paying job with fewer working hours than a better-paying one with more working hours!

The attractive perks and benefits offered by tech biggies to their employees to keep them interested in more evidence supporting the finding that salaries aren’t everything.

For instance, Netflix offers its employees unlimited maternity and paternity leaves in their first year of parenthood.

Airbnb, on the other hand, offers its employees an annual stipend of $2000 to travel!

While the latter may not be applicable to a firm with budget constraints, a flexible work schedule can be very attractive to many employees. (Also Read – Employee onboarding: Looking at the bigger picture).

So what should startups do to hire developers and other tech talents on a small budget? While everyone is looking to get that developer worth million dollar bucks, there are few creative recruiting strategies to hire great talents, let’s discuss them below

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9 creative recruitment strategies for hiring top talent

1. Appeal to their emotional side

   While salary and bonuses may be more appealing to the logical side of the brain, there is another way to attract a potential hire – by appealing to their emotional side.

   At the core, all of us are driven towards finding a sense of purpose.

   If you can get candidates invested in your company’s mission, then it can go a long way in shifting their focus from merely looking for a well-paying job to one where he/she could make a difference in the larger scheme of things.

2. Additional perks never hurt

   Maybe you have a fancy cafeteria with unlimited snacks and all your employees are equipped with MacBook Pros. Or maybe not.

   One thing we need to understand is that not all employees seek these fancy perks.

   Quality bonding time with everyone over a piping hot cuppa and some munchies to go around may be just as appealing!

   Most companies tend to overlook certain easy-to-implement and highly effective perks that would appeal to the employees, such as

   1. Flexitime

      A flexible work plan empowers employees to plan their work around their own schedule, which in turn leads to a more productive workforce that is self-motivated and doesn’t need constant reminders or supervision.

      The flexitime can be in the form of late clock-in time or early clock-out time. Since the flexiwork applies to everyone involved, employees are more willing to pitch in for a colleague in case of emergencies.

   2. Healthy meal options

      Promoting a healthy workplace is also in fashion these days, with cafeterias serving all kinds of healthy and nutritious food for the employees.

      By adopting a healthy food policy, not only are you offering your employees a healthier alternative but also positioning yourself as an employer that cares for its employees’ health and well-being.

   3. Convertible or standing desks

      Emerging as one of the fastest growing and in-demand employee benefit across companies, the humble standing desks or sit-to-stand desks can be an inexpensive yet attractive perk to offer to a prospective candidate.

      These desks, apart from making the workspace more robust and dynamic, ensure better collaboration among employees.

   4. Discounted neighborhood membership

      Most startups operating on a tight budget would not be able to afford a fully functional gym in their workplace, however, a group discount at a neighboring gym can be an excellent alternative.

      This would promote a healthier, dynamic work environment.

   5. Travel or holiday allowance

      An excellent benefit to add to your list would be a holiday allowance that can boost the happiness quotient among employees in your office to new levels.

      A dash of creativity coupled with some well-thought out and relevant benefits can empower you to not only retain your current crop of employees but also galvanize them into becoming brand ambassadors for your company.

      Referral hires who are well versed with the dynamics and work culture of your company, thanks to this band of brand ambassadors, would be willing to take a pay cut because they know they would be a good fit here. (Also Read – How employee wellness affects productivity: four fundamental pillars)

3. Work-life balance

   Whether you’re running a bookkeeping side hustle with a team of two or managing an enterprise with a dozen headcounts, you must prioritize the work-life balances of your employees .Employees today do not prefer to be tied down to their desks for long work hours and require time-off to socialize, follow their passions, pursue higher education and lead a fulfilling life.

   It is imperative for employers to understand this need, and offer employees an excellent work-life balance. Such a workforce tends to be more productive and infuses robust energy to the workplace.

   A study by Deloitte reports how employees revealed that work-life balance was one of the most important factors while considering a job.

   There are limited hours in a day and demanding that your employee work for longer hours not only builds resentment but also affects productivity!

   An unhealthy lifestyle with irregular meals of unwholesome food, lack of adequate exercise, and the absence of stress-relieving activities can potentially lead to life-altering or fatal lifestyle diseases!

4. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose

   Experiments in the 1970s by well-renowned psychologist Edward Deci studied how money and motivation derived different results from its subjects.

   In these experiments, a group of people was divided into two sets, one that was asked to solve a puzzle with money as the reward and the other who was asked to solve a similar puzzle without any monetary rewards.

   He found the second group that was simply offered a challenge without any monetary compensation to be more motivated than the one that was offered compensation.

   This example is in no way to suggest you withdraw monetary compensation for your employees from the table! On the contrary, the lesson we could perhaps learn from this is that humans have an intrinsic need to succeed, which can be leveraged by offering them an environment that is conducive to attaining such a goal.

5. Potential for growth

   Some of the best hires are often looking for an excellent opportunity and a challenge as well!

   They are keen to know about the company’s growth prospects and their own professional advancement and career prospects.

   In a poll by Gallup, 87% of the millennials reported career advancement was very important in a job.

   A candidate who understands his current role, as well as the career prospects within the company, is much more likely to take a salary cut in lieu of career advancement.

6. Stock options

   Several companies offer equity or stock options as part of the compensation.

   This would mean that the salary that the employee gets in hand would be much lesser since he gets to have greater skin in the game.

   This is an excellent way to align the company’s interests with that of the employee.

   The employee who chooses to take a lesser salary in lieu of equity believes in the company’s potential and is incentivized to grow the company so that her own shares also increase in value.

   Microsoft is one of the early companies who offered stock options to its employees and created 3 billionaires and over 12,000 millionaires in the process!

7. Sell them on your technology

   A very effective way to attract players to your team is to sell them on the hot technology you are working on.

   People, from entry-level to senior-level employees, would take a smaller paycheck if they get to work on cutting-edge skills. (Also Read – Automation in recruitment and why it is a necessity for HR)

8. Show them you only hire the best

   Compelling stories about your team and their superior industry knowledge would persuade a talented hire to be part of your team.

   The reason?

   An A-player prefers to work with other A-players and would be willing to take home a few dollars less for the opportunity to be in the company of great talent.

9. Job vs. Career

   The best hires are not merely looking for a job to earn money!

   Instead, they are looking for a workplace that has the potential to grow and offers similar growth prospects to its employees.

   In short, a lucrative career is what a top-class talent is looking for.

   To convince a person such as this, you need to play up your company’s mission, its goals, its potential for growth, its team, and its work culture.

   It is imperative to find a dedicated team of talented employees to boost your company’s success and without lucrative paychecks, these above-mentioned ideas can serve you well in attracting great talent.

Conclusion

While finding new ways to retain employees through exciting perks and keep them engaged with new challenges, remember to not tweak the hiring process to such an extent that you have to make do with less than the best talent.

There are other ways to cut costs— employ novel tools to identify talent, streamline the evaluation and interviewing processes, and manage employees— and weed out under-qualified candidates.

Automation can save several man-hours, which means you save lots of pennies too, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your recruitment strategy.

Read how start-ups like GyanMatrix & global NGOs are using Technology Recruitment Software for hiring technical talents on budget.

Take a 14-day FREE trial for HackerEarth Recruit to see if the software is a right fit for your organization.

This post was originally published on The HR Agenda Magazine’s blog on March 1st, 2019

Hackathons are a logical solution to addressing the unique challenges of hiring the ever-elusive top tech talent.

Talent acquisition has been the biggest concerns for the C-suite year after year. According to the latest PWC survey, 63 percent of the CEOs are increasingly concerned about finding talent with the right skills.

To combat the serious shortage of skills, companies are resorting to innovative means of hiring. For example, Volvo turned the Brussels Motor Show into a recruitment ground where AI-powered cars interviewed and recruited technicians. This led to Volvo filling the 200 vacancies in no time.

One of the recent recruitment trends gaining momentum is for companies to use hackathons for hiring quality talent. Although hackathons are predominantly a crowdsourcing tool, in recent times, they have proven to be an effective hiring mechanism.

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon is a competitive and competitive event in which teams of designers, developers and subject matter experts create solutions for a specific problem within a defined time frame. The goal is to build a working prototype in the form of a website, an app, or a robot to solve a given problem.

Why hackathons for hiring?

When it comes to recruitment, the following five important parameters or metrics ascertain its effectiveness.

• Quality of hire
• Time to hire
• Cost of hire
• Candidate experience
• Diversity and inclusion

Hackathon as a hiring tool serves well across the parameters mentioned above.

May the best man/woman win

Hiring through hackathons is a truly meritocratic process. If a candidate is skilled enough to solve a complex problem you pose or build something extraordinary, all that is left is to assess if the candidate is culturally fit for the organization. Most hackathons will have at least 10 percent of ideas that exceeds your expectation. Interestingly, these ideas also tend to come from people who would not have been shortlisted through the traditional process on the basis of experience, pedigree, etc.

48 hours of rendezvous

According to studies, the average time to fill a position is 36 days. Whereas, hackathons reduce this time to 28 days (organizing, inviting ideas, and shortlisting) including the 48 hours of intense hacking. Also, companies get the opportunity to interact with the candidates and mentor them.

Cost of hire

According to the Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report, the average cost of a hire is $4,425 whereas the average cost of hackathons for hiring is $4,000, with the advantage of hiring multiple candidates. If four employees are hired by conducting a hackathon, the average cost per hire boils down to $1,000 ($4,000/4) as opposed to $4,425 (conventional hire). Hackathons help in building a pipeline of talent as well. For example, if your company predominantly works on Django/Python tech stack, you can easily build a pool of talent by conducting a hackathon focused on Django/Python.

Candidate experience

The number one reason for candidates to participate in hackathons is “because I find it enjoyable,” says a survey by StackOverflow. Moreover, 20 percent of the hackathon participants believe it “helps me find new job opportunities.” In contrast to the traditional screening and interview process, hackathons provide a conducive environment that can bring out the best in a candidate.

Diversity and inclusion

Companies that are focused on improving diversity and inclusion turn to hackathons for hiring. For instance, women-only hackathons have proven to be an effective way to recruit female tech talent.

Emerging Technologies and Niche Skills

Data scientist scarcity – In the U.S., data scientists are the most sought-after professionals. However, there is a significant shortage of data scientists globally, and the demand is 50 percent more than the supply. In such cases, machine learning (ML) and data science hackathons have been tremendously effective in spotting and recruiting skilled data scientists. On the average, an ML/data science challenge gets 1,500 to 2,000 participants. Corporate giants such as Accenture and banks such as Societe Generale regularly conduct such hackathons. In fact, some companies have set up a data science team in just 10 days through ML hackathons.

Blockchain, AR/VR, full-stack, and cyber-security experts are a few other niche skills that companies hire through hackathons.

How to Conduct a Hiring Hackathon

1. Decide the role and list the desired skill set for a particular role.
2. Craft problem statements that would assess the skills encompassing the role.

For example: If you are hiring a full-stack developer, the problem or task should be designed to evaluate:

• Understanding of front-end programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript
• Command over middle-ware such as PHP, Python, and Ruby
• Knowledge of databases and OS
• Experience in deployment and hosting
• Knowledge of third-party APIs/services

3. Invite participants. This could be challenging for most companies. Partnering with hackathon management companies with a vibrant developer community will help attract a large number of participants.

4. Evaluate and shortlist candidates. Invite the shortlisted candidates for an in-person interview and roll-out offers. Using hackathon management software makes the job 10X easier as submissions, judging, and shortlisting are streamlined.

Tech-oriented recruitment for top tech talent

Hackathons can be an effective tool for hiring, especially when attracting niche and rare talent.

It shortens the time to hire, brings down the cost, and also ensures an unbiased assessment. If you believe hiring the right talent is important for your business, then hiring through hackathons is something you should explore. After all, a company is only as good as its employees.