PUNE: Last month, when IDeaS Revenue Solutions went to the
College of Engineering, Pune to make its annual recruitment pitch, MD KS
Prashant stayed silent for most parts of it. Instead, he let Sid and Kiara do
most of the talking.
Sid and Kiara – who? They are two personas the Pune-based
company has created, who embody the ideal IDeaS employee.
In addition to regular interview process, IDeaS also put out
a puzzle on social media and students who could solve it within the stipulated
time frame directly made it to the final round.
“The product world is non-linear and revenues per head
count. So, how we get an individual has to add more value. The answer lies in
getting smarter about how we recruit people and get to the talent pool that
will yield returns.
The quiz was an attempt to attract curious and
analytical tech enthusiasts,” said Prashant. Mark-sheets, written
tests and interviews, while helpful, don’t provide much to go on,
especially in terms of understanding how committed or passionate they are about
coding or programming.
Most engineering programmes aren’t really relevant to what companies need from their employees, which is why coding contests, puzzles and hackathons are emerging as popular ways to assess whether the student truly has the skills or the mindset the company requires.
Most companies want people who fit in with the organisation and can get to work right away.
Setting challenges like this automatically whittles down the final number of students in contention for the spots, which saves the companies a fair bit of time.
A few years ago, half the team from Pune-based Josh Software ended up spending 15 hours at one college for their campus hiring.
“It was worth it because those people are still with us, but we lost a lot of businesshours,” said cofounder Gautam Rege.
After trying methods ranging from open-book problem-solving challenges to puzzles, it is attempting to do things differently this time.
To start with, Rege is reaching out to the 2nd and 3rd year students to educate them about CodeCuriosity, an open coding challenge they run. “We need people who have the potential to code and have a passion for it.
Marks only tell me how hardworking you are, but nothing about your programming ability,” he said.
Tired of receiving templatised resumes that said nothing, Rege has decided to use the students profile on github, an open coding platform, and CodeCuriosity to assessthem.
“When we see their github profiles during recruitment, it will immediately tell me five things – their willingness to learn, initiative, confidence to commit to something, being proud of completing something and passion,” said Rege.
Students, he said, have been enthusiastic about this so far, but it remains to see how many remain committed to building their profiles.
Most engineering programmes aren’t really relevant to what companies need from their employees, which is why coding contests, puzzles and hackathons are emerging as popular ways to assess whether the student truly has the skills or the mindset the company requires.
Most companies want people who fit in with the organisation and can get to work right away.
Setting challenges like this automatically whittles down the final number of students in contention for the spots, which saves the companies a fair bit of time.
A few years ago, half the team from Pune-based Josh Software ended up spending 15 hours at one college for their campus hiring.
“It was worth it because those people are still with us, but we lost a lot of businesshours,” said cofounder Gautam Rege.
After trying methods ranging from open-book problem-solving challenges to puzzles, it is attempting to do things differently this time.
To start with, Rege is reaching out to the 2nd and 3rd year students to educate them about CodeCuriosity, an open coding challenge they run. “We need people who have the potential to code and have a passion for it.
Marks only tell me how hardworking you are, but nothing about your programming ability,” he said.
Tired of receiving templatised resumes that said nothing, Rege has decided to use the students profile on github, an open coding platform, and CodeCuriosity to assessthem.
“When we see their github profiles during recruitment, it will immediately tell me five things – their willingness to learn, initiative, confidence to commit to something, being proud of completing something and passion,” said Rege.
Students, he said, have been enthusiastic about this so far, but it remains to see how many remain committed to building their profiles.
No comments:
Post a Comment