How to hire programmers. Interview with Katerina Gavrilova from DigitalHR

Recruiters are rarely asked about how their work is arranged: it is usually more interesting for candidates to get an interview about projects, where they will go. It is right. But one Friday, DigitalHR CEO Katya Gavrilova, in an interview with Hexlet, answered the flow of questions from the developers: why Eucary did not call back, how they became recruiters, and how they generally look for candidates. Some topics did not have enough time, so we will try to answer here:

EDUCATION

If the candidate has a higher education, but non-core?

Developers are happy people. If only because employers do not have strict requirements for the education of candidates. Important: the experience of commercial development, possession of a specific framework, knowledge of a specific database. We rarely receive requests from companies for a candidate to graduate from MSTU, MEPI or MAI, but if there is a request for higher technical education, these universities will be named. This question is important if you consider relocation in the future and you will be invited to work abroad. In this case, it is important that education be specialized.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYER

How important are recommendations from other companies?

Very important. Because of bad recommendations, at best, additional interviews will be held with you, at worst - they will not be taken into the company. Recommendations are usually taken from several companies in order not to draw a conclusion on just one review. Suddenly some manager or colleague decides to take revenge on the candidate for personal reasons? HR and recruiters love to take feedback from previous clients. For example, if a programmer was working in a studio and would give contacts to clients for whom he developed projects, it would be only a plus.

How are people who jump by company, for example, work for one year?

By year, working for the IT industry is generally not bad, but is a reason to think. Typically, recruiters are worried if a candidate has worked on one project for less than a year - and this situation has been repeated many times. Recruiters look more closely at the developer’s resume - often start-ups that IT-specialists go to work for are closing down, not having even survived for three months. Some lucky ones can score 3 such projects in a row. But if before that the work experience was sustainable, the developer will be considered for the position.

What is the best answer to the question of why he left the company N. Rather not what to answer, but HOW better to answer that you grew up from this company.

Trite, but you need to answer the truth. We are people, not cars. Sometimes a specialist really grows out of tasks and cannot advance in his company. Sometimes he is not allowed to grow horizontally and try to develop the company from different angles. And sometimes the scope of the company is so annoying for 2 years, that neither a good team, nor great tasks will keep it in place.

I can give the only advice - it is necessary to respond without discontent, aggression, to avoid ambiguity.

SALARY

How should the salary grow over the years?

Salary should not grow over the years, but with the level of complexity of the tasks that you perform. In many companies there is a practice when the salary grows by 5-10% every year. This is due primarily to the retention of a specialist and increase his loyalty. For example, you go to the Junior Frontend Developer in Moscow in a young company. Your salary is 50 thousand. But after 2 years of experience in the market you will cost 120 thousand.

MOVING

About employment with relocation, as this hr and employers

Common case: first, remote cooperation, and then - assistance with the move. So companies reduce their own risks and disclaim responsibility for a non-resident employee. The ideal situation is when a candidate is going to move to a new city, regardless of whether a particular company will take it or not; who will be able to go through several stages of the skype interview; and, if it turns out to be passing through Moscow (for example), it will be able to glance to a future employer for a personal interview.

About relations to regions vs capital

Some companies bring the development to the regions: Ulyanovsk, Perm, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Voronezh. It is cheaper to maintain an office and pay lower salaries compared to Moscow. But in the regions it is more difficult to search for developers (and it is even more difficult to call them there for relocation from the capital), but they are more often and more willing to train people, because you can take promising students for a small salary and bring them to production in a very short time.

On the other hand, not everyone is ready to rush to Moscow. Here is what the developer from St. Petersburg responded to our recruiter when we hanted him for Moscow companies:

“I am very sad about the vacancy in Moscow) I like my rain and gray sky)
But thanks for the invitation. ”

HOW THE RECRUITERS WORK

How do recruiters select candidates in various areas, in which they themselves don’t understand what they are targeting?

Crossing occurs by keyword and in thematic communities. Questions for an interview with a recruiter are coordinated with the team leader and only then the candidate is invited for a technical interview. The recruiter does not make an assessment of the candidates' professional skills, only if he does not own the technology - this is met a little more often than an albino whale (they recently found only one in the world).

We also try to be in constant communication with our candidates. Therefore, the question “How are you” never answers us with a duty phrase:

“Anna, good day! Things are so-so, broke my leg ... ”

How is the selection done if the resume comes very, very, very much? Lottery?

When you are looking for a developer, you are spared the need to sort a huge stream of incoming resumes. But let's consider the situation with incoming resumes for the Junior position ... Some of them studied a language while studying at a university, someone helped with courses, and someone learned at home. But to be a developer means to engage in self-education. Usually the company takes such guys. There should be interest, there should be your own projects, the code laid out on GitHub is easier for you than for the humanities to show interest in the work!

What does the recruiter's opinion mean? If the team leader is for the candidate, and HR is against, then what will they decide in the end?

In order for HR to be opposed to a candidate, you need to have a good reason - a couple or a few bad recommendations, optional behavior during the interview (systematic delays, overdue test tasks, skipping interviews without first calling), and the fact that the candidate will not fit into the corporate culture (all for a healthy lifestyle, he smokes). But all this Timlid can put into question, if the developer of his charm and is ideal for the task. In this case, make an additional meeting: introduce the developer to the team. If the team has no questions, the developer will get down to business.

OTHER

If the developer has no accounts in the social. networks is bad?

Social networks are necessary for PR managers, marketers and sales managers. If the developer is not in Facebook or VK - this is not critical, but recruiters have many more questions. Some of our clients ask to send a photo of the developer (if he is hiding, he hasn’t completed the project of the previous customer), they look at common friends (to get additional recommendations), and at the same time they can find out whether you can be an evangelist of a company, technology or methodology (this will be a bonus).

We also reach candidates in Telegram and other instant messengers. The developers praise us for this and sometimes give unexpected comments:

“You wrote this in a telegram a huge plus + you don’t have a shellac on the photo for the campaign) is also a plus”

How much detail do you need to describe your background in a resume, if the profile experience is ~ 10 years

Point out your accomplishments, not responsibilities. At the last two places of work, indicate both achievements and responsibilities, so that the recruiter will understand more clearly what job to offer. Remember: with rare exceptions, your resume will first of all be viewed by a person who does not know the technical details.