How companies find and evaluate graduate computer programmers

Abstract

How do companies of today hire computer programmers? Within existing research we find that social media now plays an important part when companies are searching for and evaluating talent. We also find multiple studies who describe technical evaluation tools that may be necessary in a screening process when many candidates are fighting for the same position.

Through semi-structured interviews with 10 companies, we find that these companies use multiple channels when they search for candidates. We propose a model with four steps to explain the recruitment process: Discovery, Contact, Screening and Selection. Online and physical presence is important for our companies fighting for the attention of talented students. They arrange hackathons and competitions to get to observe candidates, and not just their programming skills. They will attend different student events within university campus, and they will give guest lectures.

The ideal situation for a company is when a talented student seeks out the company out of her own interest. The candidate is especially interesting if she may document her knowledge and skill-set through an online presence. If so, a candidate’s code will be a natural topic within an interview. The interview is still an important part of the recruitment process. To place a job advertisement is still common, but it creates a lot of overhead. We find that the companies are reluctant to place themselves in a situation where screening tools become necessary.