240704 Customer Update

Conventional hiring asks the “does s/he have skills and experience?” But the real question for someone who is hiring is “Can s/he do my specific job - and do it well?

Author

Shourov Bhattacharya
July 04, 2024

Welcome to your Polynize update - training, certifying and acquiring the best talent for business through the power of competitive gaming.

CEO Insight
Can Your Candidate Do The Job?

“Conventional hiring asks the question “does the candidate have skills and experience?” But the real question for someone who is hiring is “Can the candidate do my specific job - and do it well?” - Shourov Bhattacharya, CEO

Skills and experience are not enough.

When I was hiring my first software engineers, I thought I had it all worked out.

I went online and found the most skilled, qualified engineers in the world. Great resumes and experience and references, verified technical skills. The top of their profession.

Screened, interviewed and hired. I felt good.

But then came the real job. And I discovered something that really shook me up - they couldn’t do the job.

Working in an early stage start-up is not easy. Requirements change fast, resources are thin, communication is rapid, timelines are tight. And my hired engineers just could not perform.

Technical skills were not the problem (they never are). It was the other “soft skills” that they were lacking e.g.

  • Adaptability - dealing with changed requirements

  • Communication - precise communication in remote teams

  • Problem Solving - independently solving complex problems

Real job scenarios for engineers

It’s not that they didn’t say that they have those skills - those words all appeared in their resumes. But I found out that they could not execute those skills within the context of my specific job.

In the end, I had to let them go. But because I had no way of qualifying candidates for my specific job, it cost us $100K.

It’s a simple problem - how do you know that your candidate can do the job - and do it well? Only by “test-driving” them before you hire.

My painful experience all those years ago gave me the drive to solve this problem.

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