Try me: is a test assignment really needed in the IT market today?

One of the main keys to success in the harsh realities of IT recruiting is speed: it is important to interact with candidates promptly, because a long wait for feedback or slow approval of interview dates can lead to the fact that a specialist will lose interest in the company - he will simply choose to communicate with those who will be faster.

So, in our practice, there was a case recently when a client, due to a busy schedule, was approving the date of an interview for a very long time, and also often postponed it. This led to the fact that, despite the market conditions of the vacancy and an interesting product, the company lost a promising candidate.

There is another important point that affects the rate of vacancy closure — this is a test assignment.

While communicating with several employers, specialists more often make a choice in favor of those positions in which there is no test task. We focus on the current conditions of the IT market, so we usually do not work with job openings that involve the fulfillment of test assignment.

However, it is worth noting that we had a case when the customer took into consideration our advice and corrected the recruiting processes, simplifying the selection stages and refusing from the test assignment — this played an important role in filling the vacancy.

The fact is that if the use of a test assignment was widespread earlier, today it is possible to test the candidate's necessary skills in other formats.

For example, you can check a specialist's skills using life coding, when a candidate performs a small task in real time during the interview.

Test assignment is really not the only way to test a candidate's skills: for example, IT companies are now actively using a technical interview with the head of the team for which the candidate is applying, or simply with a senior specialist who already works in the company.

This interview allows you to check the candidate's level of knowledge, adequately values his strengths and weaknesses, as well as determine how successfully this specialist will be able to solve the tasks that are assumed within a specific position. In addition, during a technical interview, you can refer to the candidate's past professional experience, which allows you to assess the level of his expertise.

In general, most companies stop using a test assignment in the selection stages, as the IT market is changing, realities and conditions are changing too, and in order to remain competitive with the current changes, IT companies are also updating their recruiting processes. Especially when there is a real hunt for each specialist and there is no time to give a test assignment, it's time to recruit!