Leadership and Management

Technical Hiring Managers Ask These 15 Questions during Interviews
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

Technical Hiring Managers Ask These 15 Questions during Interviews

Looking for software developer jobs? Here are 15 interview questions that technical leaders and engineering managers love asking during the recruitment process.

Are you nervous about an upcoming technical interview? If so, this post can make things a little easier for you. Here are 15 technical interview questions that hiring managers from different companies love asking their candidates.

Table of Content:

  1. Technical interview questions hiring managers ask:

  2. How to successfully answer these technical questions?

  3. How can hiring managers use the OCEAN personality test in an interview?

  4. Interview questions to ask your hiring manager

  5. How to ask about layoffs and the current financial situation of the company?

  6. Summary

 

Technical interview questions hiring managers ask

Could you tell us about a time you failed?

Starting with this question might come as a surprise for many. But, according to Megan Gray, team operations manager at Marxrent, this helps the interviewer analyze how the person overcame their past failures. He says: “Employees who hide behind failures waste time and cause confusion.” A true professional will admit to their mistakes, and more importantly, learn from them and move ahead.

  1. Technical hiring manager interview questions: How does the Internet work?

    “While this may sound like a straightforward question in a technical interview, the answer can tell you a lot about the candidate,” says Robert Gibbons, the CTO of Datto. For example, some candidates may choose to explain it as: “It’s like a post office. You send a letter and get a response back. Others will start with intrinsic details, like defining IP addresses, DNS servers, and so on. And thus, the answer gives the interviewer an insight into the candidate’s areas of focus.“ 

  2. What qualities do you want in your manager or leader?

    According to Margaret Freel, a recruiter at Tech Smith, this unorthodox question helps interviewers understand what management or leadership style is ideal for a particular candidate. Such technical interview questions also help to identify if the candidate is self-aware and engaged in the job. Moreover, the interviewer can assess whether the company’s leadership aligns with the candidate’s expectations. After all, it’s the leadership that motivates employees to do their jobs effectively. An effective manager will always be keen to know more about the potential candidate.

  3. Technical interview questions: What are the recent exciting challenges you’ve overcome?

    Tim Julien, VP of Engineering at Bonobos, says that this question can help calm down an otherwise nervous candidate. As the interviewer asks about the candidate’s problem, the latter controls what they say and reveal, making them more comfortable. Julien adds that the interviewer should dig deeper and learn more about the challenge faced by the candidate and not just the gist of it.

  4. Questions to ask during recruitment: How would your last coworkers describe you?

    A question like this one forces the candidates to analyze themselves according to how their coworkers view them. Michael Boufford, VP of Engineering at Greenhouse, says that the answers vary from dependable to opinionated. This way, the technical hiring manager delves deeper into why the candidate’s coworkers thought so about them. In addition, knowing about the candidate from a different perspective can help the interviewer analyze the latter’s compatibility with the peers.

  5. Technical interview questions: Why do you get up every morning?

    This question gives insight into how the candidate’s passion aligns with their career goals. According to Miguel Quiroga, Head of Digital at Verizon Fios, startups have rapidly growing teams. And thus, this question explains whether the candidate will be a good fit for the fast-paced work culture.

  6. Technical hiring manager interview questions: What, according to you, makes an ideal coworker?

    This question helps Nate Smith, co-founder, and CTO of Lever, analyze what the candidate thinks about the people they want to work with and whether they can differentiate between the strengths different coworkers bring to the team. A great candidate will answer this question with many details, while a good candidate will only offer skimmed information. Therefore, the interviewer can analyze if the candidate will be an exceptional or challenging coworker.

  7. Technical interview questions: What is the first thing you do if you are not able to solve a problem?

    Annette Stone, Senior Manager of Recruiting at Wayfair Engineering, says that this helps analyze whether the candidates can manage a problem by themselves. For example, will they try to search for the answer independently or directly bring it to their managers? This question aims to help the interviewer determine if the candidate is good at solving problems.

  8. What is your dream job?

    If a candidate is not excited to talk about their dream job, how can they be keen to work on the job they are interviewing for? This question has no correct answer; it’s more about how honest the candidate is while answering it. It tells you a lot about the candidate [than their resume], says Sara Hetyonk, Talent Acquisition Manager at Ontraport. It also reveals the candidate’s long-term plans and goals.

  9. Have you been working on a side project?

    Brain Pugh, VP of Engineering at Lucid Software, states that if a candidate is working on a side project, it is a good indicator of their passion for coding. And as the code is often public, the interviewer can check the quality of the code written by the candidate.

  10. Technical interview questions: When you start a new project, what is your process for doing it successfully?

    Matt Doucette, Director of Global Talent Acquisition at Monster, has six P’s that he looks for in a candidate through this question, Purpose, Plan, Process, Persistence, Persuasive communication, and Pride. He wants to know why the candidate chose what they do, how they plan to do it and involve others, how they will deal with success and failure, etc.

  11. When did you start programming, and what was the first thing you built?

    This question is not to check the candidate’s skill level but to gauge how excited they are to describe a significant moment in their career. Harj Taggar, co-founder and CEO of Triplebyte, says that he checks the candidate for fundamental communication skills through this question. He also adds that this question allows the candidate to shine in the best way possible.

  12. Have you gone through our website? What can be improved?

    Kenn Peters, Director of People at Vettery, says that the above question is crucial as it shows how much the candidate is interested in the company. It also highlights whether the candidate can think about the product from a builder’s perspective and not just the user’s perspective. Frequently, candidates fail to look at the website. Failure to look at the company website should be a red flag for the interviewer.

  13. Technical interview questions: What has motivated you to take out time to talk to me?

    Tech jobs are always in demand. Hence, top-tier tech professionals have the option of choosing their pick of employers. Thus, it is essential to know what the candidate is looking for in the organization. Emoke Starr, Head of HR at Prezi, says that asking the candidate about their motivation helps them match the company’s offering to the candidate’s needs.

  14. What have we missed about you that you want us to know?

    Through this question, Courtney Graham, Senior Director of HR, ReadyTalk, tries to understand why candidates want the job and not just their qualifications. According to Graham, everyone—even the most technical people—should possess selling skills as they are critical in real life. So, candidates who are passionate about the job can always answer this question up to the interviewer’s expectations.

Related Post: Six Mistakes Hiring Managers Should Avoid 

Engineering manager interview questions: How to successfully answer these technical interview questions?

The above technical interview questions will test your soft skills such as communication, confidence, and ability to work under pressure. That way, engineering managers will be able to analyze how well you can fit into their team. It is common for candidates to feel nervous during these interviews. 

Remember, technical interview questions for hiring managers related to previous projects, experience with previous management, motivation, ideal coworkers, dream jobs, career challenges, etc., analyze your personality and abilities. 

The best way to easily course through such technical interviews is to communicate properly with the engineering manager or the hiring manager. If you’re not sure about the question or the answer, don’t hesitate to ask for an explanation. A hiring manager will surely be interested in you if you show a similar interest in the job you’re applying for. 

Last but not least, in a technical interview, you should also ask a few questions about the role you’re applying for, the team you’ll be working with, and the organizational goals. This step will help you decide on the job offer. Moreover, this will also show the technical hiring manager that you’re interested in the role.

But what about the employer and company-related questions to ask during recruitment? Keep reading to find out! 

How can hiring managers use the OCEAN personality test in an interview?

The OCEAN personality test is an acronym for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. The OCEAN test can help hiring managers analyze crucial insights about the candidates before hiring them. Such insights can be crucial in decision-making to hire the right candidate.

Let’s take a look at the questions candidates can ask a hiring manager during interviews. 

Interview questions to ask a hiring manager

The hiring managers will ask you different technical and analytical questions to analyze you for the role they’re hiring. Similarly, you’ll also have different offers from different companies. So, here’s a list of interview questions to ask hiring manager in order to know more about the company:

  1. What will my day-to-day responsibilities look like in this role?
  2. What projects can I expect to come my way?
  3. What is the company’s roadmap for the coming months, or maybe years?
  4. Can you help me to explore your company’s work culture?
  5. If the company is working remotely, what are the ways that managers use to boost the productivity of their remote workers?

How can you ask hiring managers about layoffs and the financial situation of the company?

It’s understandable if you have concerns about the financial stability of the company and the possibility of layoffs. Raising such sensitive topics during an interview can be tough, so it’s important to approach them with tact and professionalism. Here are a few ways to approach the subject:

  1. Ask about the company’s performance: Bring up the company’s recent performance and ask about the challenges it has faced. This can provide insight into the company’s current financial situation and may open up a discussion about layoffs.

  2. Ask about the company’s plans for the future: Ask about the company’s plans for growth and expansion, and how the position you’re interviewing for fits into those plans. This will tell about the company’s stability and potential for layoffs in the future.

  3. Ask about the company’s track record with layoffs: If the company has a history of layoffs, it’s important to understand the circumstances under which they happened and how they handled the situation. Ask about the measures taken to protect the remaining employees and the members who were impacted.

It’s important to remember that the hiring manager may not be able to provide specific details about the company’s financial situation or layoffs. Still, they should be able to give you a broader perspective on the company’s current performance and position in the market.

When asking these questions, make sure to use a neutral tone and explain why you’re asking them. After all, you’re just trying to understand the company better and make an informed decision about your future.

Summary

The above technical interview questions for hiring managers help them analyze candidates on a level deeper than their technical skills. Preparing for these technical manager interview questions can help boost your confidence and avoid uncertainty before the interview. Remember, these technical interview questions analyze your life skills and ability to adapt to the work environment, so, it’s always a good idea, to be honest with your answers. Also, interview questions to ask hiring manager can help you know more about the company and the role you’re applying for.

Are you an engineering leader or hiring manager looking to hire skilled, pre-vetted developers? If yes, try Turing. Turing can help you spin up your engineering dream team in just 3-5 days. Head over to the Hire Developers page to know more!

FAQs 

  1. What does an interview with hiring manager mean? Is hiring manager interview technical?

    In an interview with hiring manager, you’ll be asked about your skills, past experience, qualifications, your ability to fit in a team, and how well you can work under pressure. You can expect hiring managers to ask you technical questions to analyze your technical skills.

  2. How many interviews does a hiring manager do?

    A hiring manager can conduct one to three interviews per candidate depending upon the level of position that the company is hiring for.

  3. Does hiring manager ask technical questions?

    Yes, hiring managers will definitely ask you technical questions as well as analytical questions to analyze your skills as well as your ability to fit in the company’s culture.

  4. What kind of questions do technical recruiters ask?

    Technical hiring managers will be asking questions to assess your technical, soft, and hard skills. These may include:

    • How do you approach problem-solving and debugging in your work? 
    • Can you walk me through a project you worked on from start to finish, including any challenges you faced and how you overcame them?
    • How do you stay current with new technologies and trends in your field?
    • Can you provide an example of a successful project you led and how you ensured its success?
    • What experience do you have with the specific technology or programming languages mentioned in your resume?

  5. What are examples of technical questions?

    As a technical hiring manager, you can ask various technical questions to judge the technical skills of the candidate. Here are some examples:

    • What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?

    • Can you explain the concept of cloud computing and its benefits?
      Can you describe the process of debugging a complex technical issue and the tools you would use?

    • How would you approach scaling a web application to handle increased traffic and demand?

    • Can you explain the concept of DevOps and its role in software development and deployment?

      You can also ask questions to assess the soft skills of the candidate. Here are some examples:

    • Can you describe a time when you had to work collaboratively on a project? What was your role, and how did you contribute to the team’s success?

    • Can you provide an example of a time when you had to work under pressure or meet a tight deadline? How did you manage the situation?

    • How do you ensure that you continue to learn and develop your skills in your field?

    • Can you describe a time when you received constructive feedback? How did you respond to the feedback and what did you learn from the experience?

  6. What are technical interview skills?

    A candidate must possess some skills in order to ace a technical interview. These skills include technical knowledge, effective communication, problem-solving capabilities, time management, continuous improvement and learning, and attention to detail. 

  7. How do you clear a technical interview?

    Having technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, and soft skills can help you clear a technical interview. To clear a technical interview, you need to be well-prepared, knowledgeable, and confident. Practice your technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and soft skills, and be ready to demonstrate your expertise to the interviewer.

 

 

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By ● Apr 24, 2023
Effective manager habits
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

Develop These 25 Habits to Become An Effective Manager

How to be an effective manager? 1. Don’t avoid debates. 2. Think big and trust your team to perform big. 3. Don’t hesitate to open up 4. Build connections

How to be a great manager? What successful habits do high-impact managers follow? Delivering high performance, identifying and clearing blockers, streamlining processes, and setting up efficient feedback systems are just a few of a manager’s responsibilities. However, effective management goes beyond these tasks. Like an art form, effective management requires managers to focus on intricate details and optimize them to improve their team’s performance.

If you are a newly appointed manager, a veteran, or planning to accept a managerial role in the future, here is a list of daily habits that can help you become a highly effective manager.

  1. Don’t avoid debates

    Good managers allow their employees to own their decisions and explore ideas, even if they disagree with them initially. Heated debates may challenge existing assumptions but can often lead to better alternative outcomes. In fact, discussions that encourage team members to express their opinions enhance transparency and help them understand their roles better.

    So ask questions that allow employees to brainstorm and tackle problems with an open mindset. All successful managers offer their teammates a safe space to learn, grow, and fail.

    Related Post: 15 Questions Technical Hiring Managers Ask During Interviews

  2. Think big and trust your team to perform big

    Big ideas can transform productivity, performance, and process management in an organization. Great managers are often gifted with the ability to develop big ideas. And so, every manager must focus on the bigger picture, and how a specific change or improvement can affect other areas of the business.

    But that’s not all. The true strength of a manager lies in the way they communicate these ideas to their teams, and delegate tasks to implement them. To become a highly effective manager, you must show confidence in your team. In addition, you must guide them to shape your ideas into visible outcomes.

    Related Post: 6 Tips to Scale a Design Team: A Guide for Product Managers

  3. Be a part of your team

    The waterfall model of hierarchy takes a linear and sequential approach to the development process. This structure is often overrated. Good managers must see themselves as coordinators of talent, priorities, and resources.

    They must move beyond the conventional approach, and consider the team’s strengths when delegating tasks. All effective managers think of their role in the company as enablers of growth and avoid acting from a place of authority. They tap into the broader concept of teamwork, where each member is equally responsible for success. This way, each team member feels equally empowered and valued.

    Related Post: Hiring Managers Must Avoid Making These Mistakes

  4. Prioritize your team over other managers

    On several occasions, managers from other teams will approach you to drive an initiative. Instead of responding immediately, managers should first discuss the initiative with their direct reporters. Even better if you can ask your team for suggestions.

    This practice displays that as a manager, you trust and prioritize the opinions of your team members during discussions. Collaborating with other departments and their managers might be necessary, but doing so should not disturb the harmony of your own team.

    Remember, great managers, allow their team members the freedom to operate as owners and shape their vision accordingly.

    Related Post: Here’s How You Can Judge the Diversity of Your Team

  5. Share an onboarding guide with recruits

    Sharing an onboarding guide is a great way of showing new recruits that you care about their role in the organization as a manager. Ensure that this guide shares the team’s preferred working styles, day-to-day processes, and other vital information. The guide will help team members understand their daily tasks at an early stage and improve productivity.

    If you’re looking to scale your team, you can go a step further and share this onboarding user manual with the top candidates during the interview. Doing so will build psychological safety, trust, and transparency among candidates.

  6. Discuss failures, shortcomings, and declines

    Managers develop a habit of getting the team together to stand on a steady footing, even amidst stumbles. It is okay to show some vulnerability through personal challenges, work struggles, and professional expectations during these meetings. Similarly, it is okay to express burnout, exhaustion, or any other feelings you experience.

    Managers should also share their achievements and wins at these weekly meetings. This practice will build team spirit, encourage team members to talk about their experiences, and reflect upon the areas that need more attention.

    Related Post: What Is Chaos Engineering and What Are Its Benefits?

  7. Don’t hesitate to open up

    Managers should not hesitate to open up about the fun stuff, especially when during periods of stress. Sharing personal updates and anecdotes, big or small, helps team members feel associated with you on a personal level.

    This holds especially true for remote teams. Remote setups can make employees feel isolated and disconnected from each other. So if you’re a remote manager, ensure to open up to your team every once in a while. Build that warmth and rapport by encouraging your team to do the same.

  8. Don’t avoid 1:1 meetings 

    As responsibilities increase, targets shift, and monthly reflections allow managers to track progress, identify shortcomings, and devise strategies to overcome them.

    Set up monthly 1:1 meetings with each team member where the report reflects on three things that were successful last month, and three things that could be done differently next month. These meetings will drastically improve the team’s performance. To keep things light, you can end these conversations on an optimistic note. For example, ask them what they’re looking forward to in the next month.

    Related Post: 4 Qualities of High-Performing Teams You Must Know!

  9. Allocate time for out-of-the-box thinking

    Regular weekly meetings are crammed with basic status updates. This leaves no room for thinking big. So, effective managers must take out some time off their schedules to get creative. They must set up special meetings to promote innovation, evaluate and implement never-tried-before ideas, and improve the overall process.

    In other words, great managers must leverage every opportunity to brainstorm and build with their team. This practice helps bring non-urgent matters to light and start off new projects. Last but not least, this out-of-the-box thinking can improve your problem-solving and decision-making skills.

  10. Focus on building connections between people and teams

    As an organization starts to scale, it gets difficult for managers to keep their teams connected. A high-impact manager spots opportunities to build connections within their teams. When employees follow their leader to think beyond individual growth, they can excel at their tasks.

    Great managers emphasize offering context, and valuable insights through feedback. They brainstorm, collaborate, and conceptualize, to clear the doubts of their employees. Thus, great managers highlight how the individual contribution of their employees moves the needle for the team and the company as a whole.

    Related Post: 6 Strategies for Hiring Gen Z in Software Development

  11. Avoid multitasking

    Contrary to popular belief, multi-tasking kills productivity rather than improving it. Multitasking reduces the quality of work being done and increases the amount of time required to complete it.

    While delegating tasks, ensure that your employees are not juggling multiple things at the same time. For example, in a fast-scaling startup, regular 1:1 meetings may seem like rote rituals. However, the best managers approach such meetings with great care. They put emphasis on the most important task: listening. Most importantly, they ensure that they don’t sidetrack these 1:1 meetings by performing other tasks simultaneously.

    Successful managers stay present and attentive to respond to any doubts or concerns their employees have. Even if a question pops up at an inconvenient time, they take a couple of minutes to address it. These actions go a long way to show the employee that they are important to the team and their issues are a priority to the manager.

    Related Post: 7 Ways Managers Can Boost Remote Workers’ Productivity

  12. Give consistent feedback 

    Following through on deliverables is vital for succeeding in your role. However, as you move towards a managerial role and your schedule is filled with meetings, these good habits may start to slip.

    Following up and following through consistently, is a seemingly small habit that has a huge impact on the team. Managers should ask their employees how a certain task is progressing, and keep in touch to ensure that it’s completed smoothly.

    Feedbacks are critical, irrespective of the role you perform at the organization. And so, good managers offer regular feedback to the employees, on their quality of work, areas of improvement, and more.

  13. Treat your team members humanely

    Managers are tasked with improving and maintaining performance, with targets that must be met. However, through all of this, managers must remember that their employees are human beings, beyond numbers and performance metrics. Effective managers ensure that their team members are not overworked.

    Great managers look at the situations of their team members with compassion. They prioritize employees over deadlines and create an environment of growth and improvement, beyond the workplace pressure. This practice helps employees feel acknowledged as human beings and has a positive impact on their work.

    Related Post: 5 Signs of Toxic Work Culture and How to Deal With Them

  14. Follow an employee-first approach

    Some employees are expressive about their problems, while others tend to be quiet. And so, managers should ask employees if they are struggling on any personal or professional front. As a solution, managers can offer some time off, financial aid, or any other form of help.

    This way managers can encourage employees to take some time off, by actively enquiring about their employee’s well-being. These actions help the employees feel cared for and supported. The employee-first approach of great managers also makes the employee feel valued and secure

    Related Post: Want to Hire the Best Talent? Built the Best Culture First

  15. Soften the hits

    Making mistakes is natural. If your team messes up, this only means that you are being ambitious enough to try new approaches.

    When your employees goof up, explain what went wrong, and work together to devise a plan to keep it from happening again. Ensure you do this as calmly as possible. Even something as small as praising a good quality of an employee before offering criticism can soften the hits. Telling your employees that you trust their decisions, and are willing to help them through potential failures is very impactful.

    Related Post: Top 6 Ways to Boost Your Hiring Process in 2023

  16. Work on monthly performance reviews 

    An effective performance review system can be very impactful when executed correctly. The ideal approach should be to follow up on the annual reviews with monthly touchpoints. After that, each feedback item should be turned into a tactical action-plan element that can be tracked and executed. This practice will help you track the progress of individual employees, and bring out the best in them.

    And so, to be a high-impact manager, you must check on your team from time to time and see how they are progressing. Ensure to share advice and guidance along the way to improve performance and boost the morale of the team.

  17. Reinforce positive habits

    When an employee seeks feedback, try to be transparent and thorough as possible. Listen to their expectations before sharing feedback. Understand what they want from you. This practice will streamline communication and prevent misunderstandings.

    To become a great manager, you must reinforce good habits like the clarity of thought, punctuality, and presence of mind. Observing and appreciating the positive habits of your team member encourages other employees to follow the same.

    Related Post: 3 Things Every Engineering Manager Must Focus On.

  18. Take a moment before giving feedback

    Managers may feel the urge to impart the feedback right away, but there is a risk that the employee may not be in the right mental space to hear it. So, to set the right tone, ask your employees how they prefer to receive feedback before getting started.

    High-impact managers first stop to ask if their teammates are open to hearing feedback and then proceed. Doing so helps employees process the feedback effectively, and be more receptive to it.

    Related Post: 6 Challenges to Remote Hiring and Ways to Overcome Them

  19. Try to praise at the moment

    A leader who recognizes and celebrates smaller milestones on the way to a larger goal helps to maintain their team’s momentum. Sharing milestones, accomplishments, small wins, questions, encouragement, and appreciation of team members have a positive impact on the team’s morale. An employee is motivated to excel at their job when they feel valued, appreciated, and acknowledged.

    For example, sending heartfelt messages of compliments, or using props to get your team fired up works wonders. Great managers who engage in such activities, enable their teams to have fun and take the work seriously, without taking themselves too seriously.

    Related Post: Why Should You Include Games in Candidate Assessment?

  20. Try to celebrate up the chain

    If a team member performs exceptionally well at a job, ensure to compliment them and share this with your senior. You can send them an email giving kudos and cc it to your senior. Small gestures like these go a long way. The moments when a manager goes out of their way to give an employee credit for their achievements are always memorable for them.

    A small email or a mention of the amazing things that the team members have accomplished can significantly boost morale and help the team perform better.

    Related Post: 7 Ways to Build and Scale a Remote Engineering Team

  21. Try to celebrate outside the office

    It’s nice to send thoughtful gifts to your team members out of the blue, be it on holidays or important life events. These could even be unrelated to work. Such gestures are wonderful reminders that you as a manager, care enough to remember the important occasions in your teams’ lives.

    Moreover, these gestures will bring you closer to your employees and build meaningful connections. With that in mind, it is important to ensure that these gestures are professional, and do not violate any social/emotional boundaries.

    Related Post: 11 Ways to Celebrate Pride at Your Workplace

  22. Invest in the careers of your team members

    Great managers delegate new projects to the team members that fit their strengths and are in line with their personal goals.

    This step displays that the managers are attentive to the way their employees are looking to grow and offer opportunities accordingly. The best managers aren’t just cheerleaders, they help their employees shape their careers.

    Related Post: Here’s How Google’s Project Starline Is Connecting People Working Remotely

  23. Reach out to mentors and skip-level reports

    Mentoring your employees to achieve their career goals is a huge task. And so, asking professionals to do that on your behalf helps to share that responsibility. Simply put, high-impact managers connect employees with mentors to enhance their professional lives and work toward their ambitions.

    If you are a top-level manager, you should demonstrate trust in your skip-level reports. A skip-level report is a person who reports to your subordinate or vice versa. A great skip-level manager can depend on their skip-level reports for productive feedback, insights, and grassroots-level information.

    Skip-level reports can display exceptional caliber and capability if given the opportunity. As a skip-level manager, you should be in close contact with your skip-level report.

  24. Nurture a flexible environment for growth

    Great managers care about the well-being of their employees. They go beyond asking, “How are things going?”, and ask deeper, meaningful questions to understand their team’s goals and aspirations. They try to normalize and make space for change so that nobody feels stuck, or boxed in.

    Managers can achieve better growth when the personal and professional goals of their team members are well aligned. This is why managers must reserve time to discuss career opportunities with their team.

    Related Post: 4 Ways to Create the Best Workplace Culture for Women in Tech

  25. Help your team members improve their craft 

    High-impact managers frequently sharpen their arrows. To become one, be sure to regularly check in on the craft skills of your employees that help their profiles stand out from the crowd.

    Letting your subordinates take time to attend a conference, setting up team-wide coaching sessions, or scheduling personal development workshops is a great way to approach this. Great managers always prioritize up-skilling over outsourcing.

    Wish to read more about how you can improve yourself as a manager? Read this article about the micro habits of high-impact managers.

Bottom line

So, how can you be an effective manager? There’s no one-size-fits-all formula that catapults you from being an ordinary manager to an extraordinary one. But making small yet consistent tweaks to your managing style based on the suggestions shared above can help you build a stronger, faster, high-performing team. Remember, a manager is only as good as their team. And so, building a solid team is the first step to becoming a great manager. 

If you’re looking to hire skilled software developers at unbelievable prices, look no further. Turing can help you build your software development team in just 4 days. The best part? You get a 2-week risk-free trial. If you don’t like the developers, you pay nothing. Visit the Hire Developer page for more information

FAQs

What makes a really good manager?

To become a successful manager, you must be a good listener, set clear expectations for your team, and delegate tasks in a way that allows your team to grow. In addition, you must offer constructive criticism where necessary and consistently motivate your team to achieve organizational goals.

What are the 3 skills of a manager?

Technical skills, conceptual/theoretical skills, and interpersonal skills are the three main skills a manager must have. Technical skills improve productivity, theoretical skills improve understanding, and interpersonal skills improve communication.

What are the 5 management roles? 

The five management roles are planning, organizing, leading, controlling, and decision-making.

Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.

Hire Developers

By ● Feb 9, 2023
4 Ways to Ensure the Shift-Left Approach Does Not Cause Developer Burnout
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

What Is the Shift-Left Approach and How You Can Prevent It from Making Your Developers’ Job Harder?

Read this blog to learn about the shift-left approach in software testing and how to ensure it doesn’t drain your developers’ productivity.

The software testing market is estimated to reach $70 billion by 2030. An enormous market such as this is bound to experience continuous evolution, especially with the growing expectations of deploying high-quality software in shorter durations. Automatically, IT companies are looking for alternatives to meet the market’s need to shorten software release cycles. One such alternative is the shift-left approach, which has recently gained massive popularity. While it offers multiple benefits, it also comes with a stark disadvantage: draining developers’ productivity. 

This blog will discuss what this approach means, the shift-left benefits in software testing, and how you can ensure it doesn’t affect your developers. 

What is the shift-left approach in DevOps?

Let’s first review the traditional software development model to understand the shift-left approach. Here’s what it looks like: 

Stage 1: requirement analysis -> Stage 2: feasibility study -> Stage 3: architecture design -> Stage 4: software development -> Stage 5: software testing (QA) -> Stage 6: software/product deployment

As you can see, the testing phase enters the development cycle towards the extreme right, i.e., at the end of the process. The shift-left approach literally pushes the testing to the ‘left,’ which is at the early stage of the development pipeline. 

Shift-left process: by definition

DevOps teams adopt shift-left testing to begin security and testing processes as early in the SDLC (software development lifecycle) as possible – which can be a boon to developers. Theoretically, the shift-left approach saves a developer’s time and effort by decreasing the work they need to do later in the development pipeline. 

You can also apply the shift-left strategy on various SDLC processes, as it simply means pushing a particular process earlier in the development process than when it should’ve traditionally begun. 

For instance, if you shift software security left, you prioritize security when your developers design the code. The usual process here would be to wait till they’ve built the complete application to start addressing security risks. 

Also, read: 10 Popular Software Testing Trends in 2023

Shift-left benefits: theory vs. reality

Theory 

On paper, the shift-left approach is advantageous as it allows development teams to identify problems early on in the SDLC. This feature is helpful as problems are easier to solve when you detect them as quickly as possible. 

For example, if your developer or QA team detects an input validation risk in a new source code, they just update it to fix the issue. Solving such a problem would be more challenging if it remained unidentified until the developers had already built the source code and written the other code based on it. Here, the developers would probably have to make much bigger changes to the code and even recompile it after the changes.

Reality

Yes, shift-left development is helpful as it saves resources and reduces the threat of introducing severe software issues into production environments. Plus, the shift-left approach also helps to increase efficiency in the SDLC, improve product quality as the bugs are detected earlier than usual, and reduce time to market. 

However, there’s a massive potential disadvantage to implementing shift-left testing principles. They often lead to developer and programmer burnout as shifting-left increases a developer’s work and involves them in workflows that typically require other engineers. 

For example, QA (quality assurance) engineers usually work on performance testing during the SDLC. Here, developers provide code to the QA team, and they test it. But if you want to shift left performance testing by testing code as soon as it’s written, you will either need your developers to run the tests or incorporate the QA engineers into the development team so that they can run tests whenever new code is ready. 

Also, read: What Is Software Quality Assurance, and Why Is It Important?

Burnout isn’t the only problem

Apart from developer burnout, another problem with the shift-left approach is that a developer is more likely to face the blame if anything goes wrong. When adopting a shift-left strategy, you’re likely to ask your developer to also act as a QA and security engineer. When that happens, the actual QA and security engineers in your team can blame the developers for security or performance bottlenecks. 

How to ensure the shift-left approach doesn’t hurt your developers?

The above-mentioned problems don’t mean you must discard shift-left testing. Shift-left testing isn’t an inherently bad idea and does offer actual benefits. All you need to do is adopt the approach in such a manner that it doesn’t hamper your developers’ productivity and lets the SDLC run seamlessly. Here’s how you can do so.

  • Clearly defining how the shift-left strategy is implemented

    Organizations that want to shift left must consider the added burden it puts upon their development teams. Hence, they must ensure that shifting left doesn’t make their developers’ jobs harder. This process begins with specifically defining how the company decides to shift processes left.

    More often than not, the shift-left process is vaguely defined, creating scenarios where a developer is burdened with more than they can handle to operate within the shift-left approach. Instead of this, you can make the process open-ended where teams operate according to their assigned roles and responsibilities. For instance, before shifting left the testing or security, you can assign that your developers will perform A, B, and C tasks, while your QA team will work on X, Y, and Z, and they will stick to that.

  • Include developers in testing activities

    It’s a good idea to let your developers test their code before deploying it to the main branch. This way, the merged code is less error-prone and cleaner. Moreover, an individual code unit is easier to test as they are smaller, and hence, more navigable. This practice ensures that the developer doesn’t have to do much when testing such code and has enough on their plate to manage all tasks effectively. 

  • Include your QA testers early on

    The shift-left approach works best when you include your QAs from the very first brainstorming session. This way, they’re aware of the fundamental concepts and your developers’ ideas about building the app or website, allowing them to create better tests for the testing phase.

    Additionally, including QAs early on also gives a developer a clear idea about the potential bugs that can emerge and how to avoid them. This clarity further reduces the burden on developers when you shift left as they have a better understanding of what bugs to tackle and overcome.

  • Implementing a blameless culture

    Lastly, it’s also important to foster a blameless culture within your organization when you adopt the shift-left approach in DevOps. As mentioned earlier, developers can easily face the blame for things going wrong when they assume extra responsibility. With a blameless culture in place, the entire software development team shares collective responsibility for any issue. A culture like this reduces the risk of blaming specific team members, in this case, the developers, allowing them to work with maximum productivity. 

Also, read: 9 Effective Ways to Improve Remote Work Productivity as a Developer

The takeaway: What is the benefit of the shift-left approach?

Ultimately, the shift-left approach should help developers, along with everyone else on the team, save time and energy while creating high-quality software. However, this is only possible when you take the necessary steps to ensure the shift-left strategy doesn’t cause developer burnout.

Having said that, there are two sides to every coin. In this case, while you put effort into shifting left to the right way, your developers must be skilled and mature enough to step up to the task when needed. Shifting left means they will definitely have a few extra tasks on their plate, and the developers must have the right set of technical and soft skills to handle them. 

If you’re looking to hire pre-vetted developers at unbeatable prices, we’ve got you covered.

At Turing, we offer the most high-quality remote developers with the help of our AI-powered Talent Cloud. The Talent Cloud uses over 20,000 ML signals, including job descriptions, past experience, interviews, and vetted skills to source and provide you with deeply vetted developers aligned with your needs. Head over to Turing’s Hire Developers page to know more.

Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.

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By ● Jan 20, 2023
How to write a good job posting.
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

How to Write A Good Job Posting? 15 Tips for Writing One!

How to write a good job posting? 1. Understand the difference between a job posting and a job description 2. Ensure your job posting has a catchy opening 3……

A good hiring strategy is incomplete without a good posting. Your job posting is essentially your first impression and first impressions matter. A well-written job posting can be the deciding factor between attracting average talent and attracting the best talent. But how to write a good job posting? Keep reading to find out. 

How to write a good job posting?

Recruiting is a highly competitive industry. That’s why writing a great job posting is crucial to finding the perfect candidate. Are your job postings causing you to miss out on the best talent? Here are 15 smart ways to write a catchy job posting and attract the best candidates.

Understand the difference between a job posting and a job description.

First things first. Distinguish between a job posting and a job description. A job posting is a public advertisement aiming to sell a job position. And so, it should paint a picture of what it’s like to work for your company. Unlike a job posting, a job description or  JD is a detailed write-up that explains the tasks and duties of a position. A JD also includes requirements for succeeding in a particular position. 

To break it down further, a JD should inform candidates about the daily roles and responsibilities, whereas a job posting should excite them about your company and encourage them to apply for your opening.

For example, “You’ll collaborate with the C-suite executives to build our marketing strategy” would be better suited for a job posting, whereas, “make five sales per week” and “meet with 10 clients per week” are phrases fit for a job description. 

How to write a good job posting. Job posting vs job description

Job posting vs job description

Ensure your job posting has a catchy opening.

If your job posting does not have a great opening, it won’t attract great candidates. LinkedIn states that candidates are looking at twice as many job postings per application than they were two years ago. What’s more, candidates deem the information at the beginning of a job posting more important and pay more attention to it. But that’s not all—they decide in about 14 seconds whether to keep reading the job description. This stands especially true for GenZ. So if you’re looking to hire GenZ in software development, you need to come up with great opening hooks for your job postings. 

In other words, you just have 14 seconds or less to catch the candidate’s attention. So you need to start your job posting with a great hook. Your introduction should be compelling enough to get candidates to continue reading.

Have a look at this example. 

How to write a good job posting. Catchy job opening

Start with a catchy job opening

In 2019, Twitter posted a job with an unusual title. The social media giant was looking for a “Tweeter in Chief.” Once you move past the title, the job is actually quite normal—Twitter wanted to hire someone to run their official Twitter account. But a title like that grabs your attention in a second, which is just what you need. 

Avoid job titles that are too experimental or too vague.

How to write a good job opening? Though it’s important to keep the title interesting, make sure you don’t overdo it. Using titles like “full-stack ninja” and “back-end guru” in your job postings may lengthen your hiring process, causing you to miss out on candidates. These titles may sound fun, but candidates are likely to search for jobs using titles like “full-stack developer” or “senior back-end engineer.” This means that job postings with titles that are too quirky won’t appear on their search engine results page.

In addition, ensure your titles are not too vague. If you want to hire a full-stack developer but write “web developer” in your posting, you may attract the wrong candidates, costing you time and money. Remember, your job title should be clear and to the point without overselling the job opening.  

Make it about the candidate and not the company.

Sure, talking about your company is important, but it’s not the most important thing for candidates. Think about it. Every candidate wants to know what the job has to offer them. So, address your candidates first. Have a conversation with them. Instead of using dry, impersonal statements like, “The ideal candidate will…,” personalize the job posting with words like “you” and “your” to address the candidates directly. 

This will make the job posting more human and encourage potential candidates to envision themselves in the job. Using invitational language like, “Come join a creative team of … dedicated to …” is also helpful.

Remember, the people reading your job posting are just that—people! So write as if you’re speaking to them. Take a look at the example below. After giving a brief introduction, GitLab shares its job responsibilities and requirements as if discussing the opportunity with the ideal candidate. This approach allows job seekers to envision themselves in the role!

How to write a good job posting. Candidate focused

Make it about the candidate

List the required skills and qualifications clearly.

Once a candidate is excited about your job opening, they need to know if they are qualified for it. Start by listing the required skills, also known as must-have skills, below the job description. These are skills, educational achievements, and experience that are critical for the job. Finish the list with your preferred or nice-to-have skills. Now, these are skills that may not be mandatory but are desired in the ideal candidate. Preferred skills might include additional education, specific certification, or familiarity using certain software or tool.

Make sure you clearly mention all the skills required for the job. Use bullet points so candidates can quickly scan and assess their eligibility.

Focus on skills and results instead of degrees and colleges.

The IT hiring trends worldwide are changing. Don’t get stuck in a limited talent pool by focusing on four-year degrees from well-known colleges. Such requirements can act as barriers for otherwise-qualified candidates. For example, a candidate with a growth mindset from a lesser-known college and only three years of experience may be a better bet than someone from an Ivy-league college with a fixed, rigid mindset and five years of experience. 

Degree-based job posting vs Skills-based job posting

Degree-based job posting vs Skills-based job posting

Focus on skill-based hiring. Be picky with your must-haves. Too many non-negotiables can discourage candidates from applying for your job. In addition, define what success looks like one or two years on the job. Mention how the candidate can grow in the role.

Highlight the top benefits that come with the job.

How to write a good job posting? Show them what’s in it for them. Candidates exploring new career opportunities need compelling reasons to choose your job opening over others. To get them excited about your job opening, list down three to four features of the job position that you believe are particularly appealing. Describe the perks, benefits, office comforts, or specialized equipment that candidates will get to use in the job posting. 

Does your company pay 100 percent of the medical benefits? Mention it. Have an amazing office with a perfect view? Mention it. Have flexible working hours? Mention it. 

This part of a job posting is critical because it enables you to provide a quick recap of the key points that would interest a candidate to apply for the open position. Check out the example below!

How to write a good job posting. Job benefits

Highlight the key benefits in your job posting

Sell your company’s culture. 

A few years ago, candidates had to sell themselves to a company by highlighting why they were the best person for the job. But recently, there’s been a massive shift. Now, candidates expect you to sell them on your company. 

If your job posting is too formal, candidates may question your company culture. They may even believe that your posting is a glimpse of their future work experience in your company. A formally written job posting might indicate an unfriendly, toxic work culture where employees are subject to stringent rules. So ensure that you write a catchy job posting that highlights your company culture in the best way possible. Share your company’s mission, vision, and values so that the candidates get an idea of what your company is all about. 

It’s equally important to have a solid online presence. If you make it through the first round of inspection by writing a good job posting, you gear up for the next round—a visit to your website and social media handles.

If your website looks like it was built back in the 1990s or your last tweet was posted in 2014, your potential candidates will move on without applying. This is especially true for remote jobs. For many candidates, these are legit remote job red flags. If you haven’t put in the resources to have a modern website or update your social handles, candidates may assume you won’t invest in their success either.

Use multimedia to make your job post engaging.

Why stick to plain old text when there’s so much more you can do with your job posting? Audio and video files can make your job postings a lot more engaging. A short message from the company CEO addressing the potential candidates can work wonders. If that’s not possible, let candidates see the office space or hear the hiring manager’s voice. Remember, the higher the sensory input, the higher the engagement. 

A video may take more time but it may be worth the effort for high-profile or high-volume positions with huge applicant pools. Talking about the job opening with more than just bullet points brings it to life and helps candidates visualize the job. So the next time you think about, ‘How to write a good job posting?’ don’t forget to include multimedia in your content.

Be transparent about the application and interview process.

It’s always a good idea to outline your application and interview process in the job posting. Be transparent about the number of interviews and assessments you expect the shortlisted candidates to take. Doing so will make the candidates feel more comfortable with the hiring process and help them decide if they want to enter the hiring pipeline. If possible, share what the reporting structure looks like and how the role fits into the organization. 

Hyperlink the job posting to the application on your company website. Be sure to clearly define the application deadline. Include a contact email and/or phone number.

Pro tip: the shorter the interview process, the more applicants you are likely to get. Several interview rounds tend to discourage candidates from applying. Several interview rounds may discourage candidates from applying for your job.

Ensure your job posting is concise and easy to read.

If we had to answer the question ‘How to write a good job posting?’ in just a sentence, we’d say – keep it short and to the point. Writing a great job posting is all about giving enough information to make it attractive but avoiding adding things that are not essential to the job. In addition, it’s about summarizing a list of extremely similar skills to avoid tedious reading.

Research shows that the ideal length of a job posting should be between 300 and 600 words in total or about one single-spaced page. Longer job postings do not mean more candidates. In fact, they tend to attract fewer candidates. Therefore, it’s important to keep your job posting concise yet interesting. This practice is important in any economy, but it’s even more critical in a tight labor market with a tech talent shortage.

Avoid jargon, acronyms, buzzwords, and slang.

It can be tempting to stuff the job posting with jargon if you’re hiring for a job you’re not familiar with. However, job postings full of complex, ambiguous, or informal language are a turn-off for potential candidates. Words like “self-motivated,” and “out-of-the-box thinker,” do nothing to explain the position or what a candidate’s day-to-day responsibilities would look like.

Clichés and slang can also carry unintended connotations. For example, “fast-paced” may indicate “too much work for too few people.” Similarly, phrases like “self-starter,” or “be your own boss,” can make candidates feel like their manager will never have time for them. Similarly, a candidate’s definition of “proactive” can vary from your own. 

What’s more, adding your company’s internal acronyms in the posting can confuse candidates. For example, “M&A” can be “mergers and acquisitions” for you, but it could mean “marketing and advertising” for your potential candidates. 

In addition, keep industry acronyms to a minimum for better readability. And don’t skip the Boolean basics. Abbreviations determine how your posting appears in a candidate’s search results. Abbreviations don’t mean your job posting won’t be searchable. However, too many of them can make it challenging for applicants to find you. 

Avoid using jargon like this in your job posting

Avoid using jargon in your job posting

Check your text for unintentional bias.

Before you decide to google, ‘How to write a good job posting?’ check your past job postings for any and every kind of bias. Most companies unknowingly make their job postings too male-oriented, millennial-skewed, or white-inclined. Your choice of words in the job posting sends signals to candidates, without you realizing it. So screen your job posting content for unconscious bias using online tools. You can use the score to identify and edit the language to ensure your posting is inclusive and unbiased. Remember, the language you use in the posting affects whether women will apply for the job. Similarly, too much feminine language in the job posting can deter men from applying.

For example, a recent LinkedIn report states that when some companies say they’re looking for candidates who are “ready to hit the ground running,” they discover that the phrase is heavily male-oriented, likely discouraging many women from applying. LinkedIn COO Dan Shapero avoids the phrase “hit the ground running” because it prioritizes speed over quality in performance. Your job postings should also avoid words that connote gender bias. Make sure to use terms like “candidate” rather than “he” or “she” and “leader” or “chairperson” rather than “chairman.”

Edit, proofread, and post.

First impressions really do matter. The last thing you want is for your potential candidates to catch a typo in your job posting. Poorly written job postings tend to put off applicants and hamper your company’s reputation. Think about it. Would you apply for a job posting looking for someone “skilled at ruining an office?” How about applying for a “fronttend developer” or “prodct manager” opening?

Neither will your potential candidates. Spelling and grammar mistakes not only discredit your company but also decrease the readability of your job posting. What’s more, these typos search ranking. Ensure to edit your job posting and have another set of eyes review your job posting before submitting it.

Ask for feedback from existing employees.

You cannot get a holistic answer to ‘How to write a good job posting’ without roping in your team. For a better analysis of your job postings, request current employees to review them. The more authentic your job posting, the better chances you have of attracting good talent. And people already working at your company are the best source of truth. They’ll know what stands true in your job posting—and what doesn’t. They can tell you if you need to dial up your tone in the job posting or turn it down a notch. 

Also, read: 5 Major Benefits of Customer Feedback for Software Development

An effective job posting can help your company stand out from the competition. But writing one can take considerable time and effort. Don’t have hours to spend on creating well-written, engaging job descriptions that attract the best tech talent? Try Turing. 

How can Turing write a good job posting for you?

Turing’s AI-powered Talent Cloud helps you source, vet, match, and engage the world’s most deeply vetted software developers remotely. It takes Turing only four days to fill most roles—sometimes it takes less than a day! The best part? With Turing, you don’t have to go through the hassle of creating effective job postings for hiring talent. Turing takes care of that for you. What’s more, Turing also ensures high-quality matches for you through these postings. 

We customize job postings for each role.

Turing prepares customized job descriptions that adhere to the unique needs of each company and job opening. Instead of using a repetitive template, we sift through a vast pool of information to pick out relevant information required for creating engaging and accurate job postings. We highlight the most important aspects of the client’s requirements and present them in an understandable manner. We also customize the job postings based on the client’s preferred locations or time zone overlap requirements.

You just need to share the basic information with us.

You don’t need to worry about writing an elaborate job summary for your posting. All you need to do is share your company website along with the tech stacks and skills required for the job, and we will take care of the rest. We clearly mention the must-haves, nice-to-haves, and other minimum requirements in the job posting. For example, if you want a software developer with at least three years of software development experience, fluency in English communication, and proactiveness, you will get just that. We find developers who share the same interests as the clients and help connect them.

What’s next?

Once we create content for your job posting, we publish it on platforms to ensure maximum, high-quality exposure. 

Where does Turing publish these jobs?

  • Turing.com—All our job postings go up on the Turing Live Jobs dashboard which is accessible to thousands of developers.
  • Third-party platforms including IndeedIndia, Jooble, and IndeedBrazil—Our job descriptions are posted on other third-party platforms to help clients reach out to a broader pool of potential candidates who have been vetted and trained with Turing’s guidance.

What is the frequency of these job postings?

Our job posting frequency depends on the number of job openings companies share with us on a given day. On average, Turing publishes seven to 25 job postings in a day.

How long do these job posts remain active?

These job posts stay active for at least 30 days. 

How does Turing process the job applicants?

Turing filters the best developers for you. You don’t have to sort through hundreds of unqualified job applications for your job opening. Turing’s AI-powered Talent Cloud deeply vets applicants, and our experts only send selected, responsible, high-performing developers your way. Thus, Turing reduces the time and effort that goes into evaluating individual talent.

Summary: how to write a good job posting?

Writing a good job posting may not always guarantee a fast and efficient hiring process. But it’s definitely a big step in that direction. Jobs keep evolving, so how you market them should evolve, too. Ideally, you should evaluate and edit your job marketing strategy every time you publish a new job posting. If that’s not possible, revise it every six months.

If you’re looking to hire remote software developers, try Turing. We can help you hire skilled, pre-vetted developers at unbeatable prices in just four days. Visit the Hire Developers page for more information.

Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.

Hire Developers

By ● Jan 17, 2023
7 Common Product Strategy Mistakes and Ways to Avoid Them
Custom Engineering ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

Common Product Strategy Mistakes and Ways to Avoid Them

Product strategy mistakes: 1. Planning for too long 2. Not keeping up with change 3. Obsessing over details instead of value 4. Not conducting enough tests

Every successful product is a robust, well-planned product strategy driven by an efficient product team. 

In this blog post, we will cover: 

What is product strategy?

A product strategy is a high-level plan explaining what a business wants to accomplish through its product and how it plans on doing so. The strategy also answers questions like who the product will serve, i.e., personas, how the product will benefit those personas, and the company’s overall goals for the product through its life cycle. 

In other words, product strategy answers the eternal question, “How do I get someone to buy what I am selling?”. A great product strategy can help you develop a great product. But what makes a great product strategy? Keep reading to find out. 

Related Post: The Nine Steps of Software Product Development Lifecycle

What are the key components of a product strategy?

Product strategy is a combination of seven key components. They are as follows:

  1. Product vision

    Product vision is the long-term mission of your product. This mission is typically a concise, aspirational statement that shares what the company wants the product to achieve. Therefore, a product vision must remain static. To build and release a great product, you need a strong product vision. A good vision encompasses who your customers are, what they need, and your go-to-market plan. In addition, it highlights the opportunities and threats in your way.

  2. Product goals

    A product vision should ideally lead to strategic product goals with measurable results that you can achieve within specific timeframes. These goals will determine what the team prioritizes on the product roadmap. Your product goals should be trackable, so you know how your team performs against them. You can use the SMART approach when setting goals for your product strategy. This approach helps you set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals.

    Here are a few examples of product goals:

    • Increase free-trial downloads by 50 percent in the next six months
    • Improve average customer rating by one star on major product-review sites
    • Generate $5M in revenue within 12 months
    • Expand business to three new countries within 24 months

  3. Initiatives

    Initiatives are critical, complex objectives you must break down into actionable tasks. Initiatives enable you to identify key tasks you must complete to achieve your product’s goals. Think of initiatives as projects that you should accomplish within a fixed timeframe. In other words, initiatives are strategic themes you derive from your product goals and add to your roadmap. Remember, your product initiatives should always align with your company’s strategy.

    Examples of product initiatives include:

    • Improve customer satisfaction
    • Increase lifetime customer value
    • Enhance UI
    • Reduce churn rate 
    • Sustain product features
    • Prioritize language localization

  4. Customers

    The foundation of every product strategy is customers. Your product is designed to satisfy them. And without customers, your product may be rendered useless.

    So be sure to create different customer profiles for different products while building product strategy. To create a customer profile, you must gather all the data of customers who purchased similar products and the channels they frequently visit.

    Leave out no details when defining your target customers. Dig deep and acquire as many insights as possible. Collecting these insights under a single customer profile enables you to clearly understand who you’re selling to. By creating in-depth customer profiles, you can build products that meet their needs and use marketing channels that increase your chances of sales.

  5. Competitors

    Now that you’ve identified your customers, it’s time to look at the competitors targeting them. You may have direct competitors (for example, Coke and Pepsi) or indirect competitors (for example, Airbnb and Hilton) for your product. You must identify these competitors and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Try to understand their product strategy as best as your can. Examine their product positioning, packaging, market share, etc.

    By conducting a detailed analysis of your competitor’s products, you can create a product strategy that leverages market opportunities your competitor could not capitalize on.

  6. Business goal

    Every business has a fundamental goal: earn profit. Naturally, your company’s shareholders expect you to earn profit and provide a return on investment. The higher, the better. So your product strategy must align with the business goal of shareholders and top management executives. Simply put, your strategy should ensure that the product you’re developing will get them a return on investment.

    You must also think about how the customers will consume the product. Is it only a one-time purchase? Or will consumers want to buy it repeatedly? Or is it something you subscribe to? Basically, your product strategy must explain how you will sell the product and how customers will consume it.

  7. Macro environment

    Macro environment refers to the current state of economics, politics, culture, and technology that affects customers’ buying and selling habits. Therefore, product managers must carefully analyze the macro environment before creating a product strategy.

    By analyzing buying and selling trends, you can take advantage of existing opportunities and extend the product life cycle. Your product strategy should account for the following factors:
    • Emerging markets where your product may have demand
    • Emerging technologies that may impact your customers
    • Economic forces that may impact your customers’ budgets or needs
    • Evolving customer needs and behaviors

Common product strategy mistakes

7 Common Product Strategy Mistakes to Avoid

7 Common Product Strategy Mistakes to Avoid

Now that we’ve covered the crucial components of product strategy, let’s take a look at the most common product strategy mistakes companies. 

  1. Planning for too long and not keeping up with change

    One of the most common yet grave mistakes companies make is planning for too long before implementing a product strategy. Sure, planning is a critical part of product development. Diving into development prematurely, before defining the product, is a serious product strategy pitfall. But if you take too long to get started, your idea may never turn into a product. Furthermore, the market conditions may have already changed till you implement your strategy.

    Similarly, if you view the product strategy as a one-time, static plan instead of a constantly evolving one, you will be left scrambling to keep up with trends. Not keeping the product strategy up-to-date can cost you significantly.

    Related Post: 7 Best Software Development Lifecycle Management Methods

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Waiting for the ‘right time’ may not always be the best idea for your product. The longer you sit with your idea, the more difficult it becomes to define a functional framework and make a compelling business case. Rapid prototyping, releasing a decent minimum viable product, and building and iterating off of your learnings are great ways to ensure your product moves out of the development phase.

    Don’t view your product strategy as a fixed plan that needs one-time execution. You must tweak and adapt the strategy as the product grows and markets evolve. Review it once every three months to ensure the strategy says relevant. You must constantly upgrade your product with the changing market conditions. Adopting a work-as-you-go approach allows you to change your strategy with changing market conditions and create a solid product.

  2. Obsessing over innovation instead of value

    As a product leader or manager, you will want your product to deliver high functionality. But don’t let that hyperfocus on functionality come at a high price. While you’re obsessing over building a seamless product, your user is looking at its benefits. They’re thinking about how the product will help them.

    And so your product must offer a clear value to that market. It must solve a problem. Just because you can include certain features in your product doesn’t mean you should.

    Related Post: 7 Ways Managers Can Boost Remote Workers’ Productivity

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Don’t let your drive for innovation overshadow your value proposition. Observe, analyze, and understand the target market first. What do your customers want? Work toward creating that value at every step of the product development process. Everything you do should enhance the value of the product. If it’s not adding value, don’t do it. When you drive decisions through this value-added framework, your product succeeds, and end users benefit.

    Remember, it’s not about what you want customers to have. It’s about what customers want.

  3. Not prioritizing must-haves and nice-to-haves

    Here’s the thing: you cannot implement every feature on the roadmap in the initial version of your product. To get to the market quickly, you must prioritize your features. The vital features of your product — the ones that you must implement before it goes to market — must be built out first.

    But this is easier said than done. Product teams are often confused over which features are must-haves and which are nice-to-haves.

    Related Post: 25 Habits to Become An Effective Manager

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Build a classification system for prioritizing features. Coordinate with your project team to determine which features are critical to include versus features your product can succeed without.

    As product requirements become clearer, prioritize releasing a minimum viable product (MVP) and building and iterating based on your learnings. A core benefit of developing an MVP is that it enables you to test your business concepts. This ensures your project doesn’t get stuck in development.

    Ensure you release an MVP that has enough value for early users, demonstrates future benefits, and contains a feedback loop for future development. This process lets you understand what users want and improve the next version of your product based on real data.

  4. Creating product requirements in a vacuum

    One of the most common product strategy mistakes is crafting requirements in a vacuum. When building a product strategy, gathering the right input from everyone involved is critical. By not involving necessary people in product development, product managers miss out on new perspectives and opinions vital for creating good products. They also overlook the needs of certain stakeholders.

    Moreover, if the team does not have an expert for each product function, managers are forced to rely on a few individuals to bring expertise in all the areas relevant to product strategy.

    Related Post: 6 Tips to Scale A Design Team: A Guide for Product Managers

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Thankfully, this mistake is easy to fix. Take an integrated approach to product strategy by involving product owners, UI/UX designers, developers, engineers, and architects, in the product strategy.

    By keeping the team diverse, you can get valuable input and cover all bases to help you create a successful product. Embracing an inclusive process at this stage ensures that you consider user experience from all angles before your product launch.

    Related Post: 6 Challenges to Remote Hiring and How to Overcome Them

  5. Ignoring competitive threats

    Some companies want to build a product simply because their competitor has one, whereas some are completely unaware of what the competition is doing. Both approaches can lead to severe consequences. Not monitoring competition and emerging trends can be a grave mistake while building a product strategy.

    Your competitors may launch products that rival your own with features that are a little too similar. Keep a close watch on such developments.

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Have a clear understanding of your product’s positioning and place in your niche. Ensure you know who your key competitors are. With the right competitive research, you can define your product’s unique value proposition and optimize user lifetime value over time. Think of how you can differentiate your product in the market. Just because your competitor does something doesn’t mean you should.

    Ask yourself these questions:
    • What makes your product different?
    • Why do customers want your product?
    • What problems does your product solve?
    • How does your product help you meet your company’s goals?

      Failing to address these questions can make your product redundant or irrelevant. Therefore, conduct a thorough competitor analysis to set your product apart.

  6. Choosing the wrong technology

    If you choose the wrong tech stack for your product, chances are that you will have to build your product again. Choosing the wrong technology for your product can cost you money, time, and resources.

    For example, you create a product for a small user base. However, when the product enters the market, the user base increases. If the tech stack does not support the growing user base, the product is likely to fail.

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Ensure the technology you choose is suitable for your project and your business needs. Consider what you want to achieve and how the technology corresponds to your business objectives.

    Ascertain that the technology you want to use is showing an upward trend because technologies with a downward trend may hamper the development process and the maintenance of your product.

    While building a digital product, you must research different tech stacks suitable and choose the one that meets all your existing and future requirements. Key factors in choosing the right tech stack include product functions, system load requirements, scalability, and security, among others.

  7. Experimenting with the budget excessively

    Going overboard with the budget is a common but often ignored product strategy mistake. Businesses require stability to grow consistently. Therefore, constantly experimenting with the budget may not be a good idea. After working on a strong go-to-market product strategy, product managers must ensure they utilize the budget efficiently.

    Ways to avoid this mistake

    Use your budget for hiring the right resources and decide how many beta versions of the product you can afford to make and release.

    Calculate the cost of incorporating different functions for your product and the current market rate of professionals with different skills. After that, you can decide the upper and lower limit of how much you can spare for different resources without spending more than the allocated budget. 

Summary 

While a solid product strategy does not guarantee market success, it eases the process of getting there. By avoiding common product strategy mistakes, you can create robust products that are ready for the market. 

Are you struggling with product strategy? Try Turing. Turing specializes in delivering end-to-end product development services to aid businesses achieve operational excellence. Visit the page to know more!

FAQs

What are the three types of product strategies?

The three types of product strategies include comparative positioning strategy, differentiation, and segmentation. In the comparative positioning strategy, brands place their products right next to the competitor products to show better pricing. Differentiation strategy highlights the differences in the product when compared to another brand, whereas segmentation diversifies product packaging into different forms like small packets, bottles, and cans. 

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By , ● Jan 2, 2023
Best Alternative to IT Service Firms for Hiring Software Development Teams
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

Finding the Best Alternative to IT Service Firms for Hiring Software Development Teams

Talent Cloud is the best alternative to IT service firms for hiring software development teams because 1. It provides access to global talent 2. It saves time on sourcing and onboarding candidates

Today, every company is a software company, whether they recognize it or not. As a result, the tech hiring market is becoming increasingly competitive. But traditional recruiting partners like IT service providers weren’t built for a software-first world. This challenge has led companies worldwide to seek a cutting-edge alternative to IT service firms.

Tech Hiring: Current Scenario

Finding, hiring, and retaining the right tech talent is tricky. Take a look at these stats: 

  • Software development will be the most important tech job in the future. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently revealed that there will be 1.2 million unfulfilled software engineering positions in the U.S. by 2026.
  • Hiring technical employees takes 50 percent longer than other positions, taking around 66 days to find the right software professional for a job.
  • Yet another report highlighted that software developer openings will grow by 25 percent from 2021 to 2031—much faster than the average for all occupations. 

As a result of this growing demand for tech talent, many organizations struggle to hire developers, leaving critical tech jobs unfilled. 

Three engagement models for hiring software development teams

Today, the market has three main engagement models for hiring software developers. Let’s look at them one by one.

Alternative to IT Service Firms (3)

Three engagement models for hiring software development teams

IT service firms

Located in regions like India, Eastern Europe, China, and South America, these offshore giants employ thousands of developers. Naturally, these providers cater to mostly enterprise-level projects owned by large corporate clients with massive budgets. But if you’re planning to build a team through an IT service provider, there are some clear benefits and limitations you should consider. 

Benefits of IT service firms

  1. Cost-effective for large projects

    IT service firms help large-sized businesses cut down their operational costs, including those associated with buying new hardware, training IT staff, and paying the salaries of in-house IT professionals. 

  2. Data compliance support

    Businesses today must meet strict data privacy regulations to protect their customers (and their privacy) from ever-present cybercrime concerns. Hiring developers from an IT service provider allows companies to transfer this responsibility to industry experts who take care of data compliance for them.  

Limitations of IT service firms

  1. High cost for small to mid-sized projects

    Make no mistake, hiring from a reputed IT service firm is rather expensive. These providers charge upfront fees and a few hundred dollars every month, depending on the size of your business and technical needs. Though they charge reasonable hourly rates for large projects, you might want to consider other options if your company employs less than 1,000 people.

  2. Consistent brain drain

    Remote work is growing. A 2022 study by McKinsey & Company revealed that when people have the option to work flexibly, 87 percent take it.

    Related Post: Reasons Your Software Team Should Switch to Remote Work in 2024

    Given that the most capable people can now choose to work wherever they want, from wherever in the world they choose to live, the traditional IT services industry is struggling to attract top talent and dealing with an unrelenting brain drain.

  3. Shallow vetting and a limited talent pool

    Quite often, when IT services finally find talent, the candidates may not be right for your job. This challenge stems from the inflexibility of the IT services model. These companies find local talent from cities like Bangalore or Shanghai but, unfortunately, cannot leverage the global remote talent pool.

    In other words, the service will often force-fit your needs to their talent. A poor developer is worse than no developer, and you might waste even more time trying to undo their mistakes.

  4. Loss of IP ownership and control

    With IT service firms, you rarely have complete control of your intellectual property. And though most businesses are aware of this, lack of full IP ownership is a significant limitation of IT service companies.

These were some of the most significant limitations of IT service companies. While many businesses still rely on IT services to meet their hiring needs, there’s a trust factor that limits how invested you’re willing to be when facing mismatched talent and concessions on control. And thus, some have turned to alternatives to IT service firms.

Recruitment firms and talent marketplaces 

This segment is arguably the most crowded one in the market today. Today, the tech market is composed of numerous recruitment firms and online talent marketplaces with developers specializing in different technologies. Most of these providers are in the scrappy startup stage. Understandably, only some of these platforms are established market players with excellent quality standards. 

Let’s examine the benefits and limitations of recruitment firms and talent marketplaces.

Benefits of recruitment firms and talent marketplaces

  1. Cost-effective

    Since these firms and marketplaces usually have variable standards for quality, they can help you find developers at a lower price. This alternative to IT service firms can be cost-effective without promising talent quality.

  2. Developers open to short-term commitments

    Most developers on these platforms work on multiple jobs simultaneously and are usually more open to short-term projects. Online talent marketplaces are a good option for you if you’re looking to hire talent for the short term.

Limitations of recruitment firms and talent marketplaces

  1. Low reliability and continuity

    Most of these firms are in the scrappy startup phase, so their internal processes still need refinement. Despite their growing talent pool, these firms may not yet be capable of handling huge workloads. Additionally, gig-oriented marketplaces may not provide companies with the continuity required for building complex products. As a result, reliability is a big issue with these platforms.

  2. Hit-or-miss quality

    In our conversations with developers, we found that highly skilled developers strongly prefer long-term engagements over gig work. Therefore, marketplaces attract more “nights-and-weekends” hobbyist developers. So you either get a skilled developer by chance—or you don’t.

    Related Post: What is Software Quality Assurance and Why Is It Important?

  3. Time-consuming

    Finding the right match through a recruitment firm or online talent marketplace takes a lot of time. One of the key challenges we hear from engineering leaders is that they need to interview up to 30 developers to hire one with many marketplaces. 

All things considered, the limitations of recruitment firms and online talent marketplaces outweigh the benefits. As a result, many companies are considering the third engagement model for hiring software development teams – the Talent Cloud. 

Talent Cloud

A Talent Cloud is a relatively new solution in the industry. Talent Clouds use software to automatically source, vet, and manage talent worldwide, providing many benefits over traditional talent acquisition services or platforms. Due to its range of benefits, the Talent Cloud is quickly becoming the preferred alternative to IT service firms and marketplaces for hiring software development teams.

Benefits of a Talent Cloud

  1. Access to a global pool of talent

    Instead of attaching people in specific locations to specific jobs and force-fitting your organization’s needs to whatever talent is available, the Talent Cloud uses an AI-driven ranking and matching algorithm that connects developers worldwide with the most suitable opportunities for their skill set.

    Related Post: 5 Ways Companies Can Hire the Best International Talent

  2. Rigorously vetted high-quality developers

    Given the volume of available global talent, Talent Cloud’s vetting processes tend to be more rigorous than other service providers. For example, Turing’s Talent Cloud vetting process utilizes over 20,000 Machine Learning (ML) data signals to analyze candidates’ tech and soft skills to find the best organizational fit.

    Related Post: Here’s How Turing Leverages AI for Matching and Evaluating Developers

    These vetting engines can assess developers’ computer science expertise and knowledge of specific technical skills, including machine learning, infrastructure, and cloud computing. Last but not least, they leverage information on soft skills such as communication, language fluency, and collaboration for deeper candidate assessment.

  3. Saves time on sourcing and onboarding candidates

    The demand for engineering talent is at an all-time high. Last year, researchers from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team analyzed the profiles of 400,000 hires across 15 industries on the platform from June 2020 to March 2021. The results revealed that engineering topped the most hard-to-fill tech jobs list with the most extended wait.

    Talent Clouds are a highly preferred alternative to IT service firms because they operate on significantly shorter timelines and can quickly scale from staff augmentation to dedicated development teams. For Turing Teams, it takes an average of two weeks to build and deploy a dedicated team to your organization—including delivery and program management, tech leads, and developers.

    This singular focus eliminates the time usually spent on sourcing, vetting, and onboarding people for your projects, giving you more hours to manage and grow other parts of your organization while your Turing Team operates indistinguishably from the rest of your company.

    Related Post: 10 Tips to Onboard Remote Software Developers

  4. A hands-off solution to complex, hands-on problems

    A critical limitation of IT services companies is their inability to provide customized solutions. In contrast, Talent Clouds offer highly customized solutions.

    For example, Turing Teams works closely with your organization to understand your problems and develop a clear roadmap, execution plan, and development strategy to help you reach your desired outcomes. Once a clear strategy is in place, Turing will specify the necessary products and services, dependencies, integrations, data models, and hosting infrastructure you will need to succeed. Turing will then provide specialized, on-demand engineering teams for your project. In other words, Turing Teams provides 360° support for all your needs.

Limitations of a Talent Cloud

  1. Vetting processes differ, and so does the quality of talent.

    There are currently only a handful of providers in the Talent Cloud space, and each provider approaches its vetting and sourcing process differently. Thus, the quality of their talent pools can vary significantly.

  2. Lack of support for short-term projects

    While it varies from provider to provider, Talent Cloud services work with companies looking for long-term engagements to provide better career opportunities for their developers and better overall client experiences.

Overview: IT Service Firms vs. Recruitment Firms and Talent Marketplaces vs. Talent Cloud

Alternative to IT Service Firms (2)

IT Service Firms vs. Recruitment Firms and Talent Marketplaces vs. Talent Cloud

To sum up

Your preferred model of hiring software developers depends on your timeline, budget, and the quality of developers you are willing to work with. When considering speed, quality of vetting, access to a large pool of global talent, and hands-off solutions, the Talent Cloud is a better alternative to IT service firms, recruitment firms, and talent marketplaces.

Learn more about hiring dedicated software development teams to deliver on complex projects with Turing.

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By ● Dec 20, 2022
Game based candidate assessment
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

Why Should You Include Games in Candidate Assessment?

Reasons to include games in candidate assessment: 1. Quick evaluation of different skills 2. Highlights candidates’ strengths and weaknesses 3. Eliminates bias

How can you use games in candidate assessment? What is a game performance assessment instrument? Why is game-based assessment important? What are the benefits of game-based assessments? How are game-based assessments different from traditional assessments?

This blog post will help you answer all these questions.

What are game-based assessments?

Game-based assessments use a range of interactive tasks and games to assess the abilities and skills of different candidates. By using gaming technology, organizations can learn how suitable candidates are for different job roles.

Importance of games for candidate assessment

Games can measure natural abilities in candidate assessment.

How are game-based assessments different from traditional assessments?

Traditional assessments usually include questions related to candidates’ personalities or prior work experience and behavior. Such assessments are self-reporting and may not reveal a candidate’s natural traits and abilities.

On the other hand, game-based assessments ask zero personal questions and measure how candidates perform different tasks. Game-based candidate assessment tests can help employers learn first-hand the strengths and weaknesses of candidates.

What are the benefits of game-based candidate assessments?

  1. Quick evaluation of different skills

    Game-based assessments help you get a quick evaluation of all the traits and abilities measured during your performance. A game-based candidate assessment can measure a series of skills, including numerical skills, logical and analytical abilities, memory retention, and mental agility.

  2. Assessments can be customized based on the candidate’s skill level

    Intelligent game-based candidate assessment tests adapt to the performance of different candidates. Candidates who perform exceptionally well can complete tests quickly and unlock levels not built for average performers.

    For example, if a candidate is able to complete hard levels quickly, game assessments can introduce even harder levels. At the same time, if a candidate is not able to complete hard assessments, they may get assessments of medium difficulty.

  3. Reduces anxiety in candidates

    Compared to traditional assessments, game-based assessments reduce anxiety as candidates approach them as a game instead of a test. Such candidate assessments need logical thinking and measure your natural response to navigating a problem.

  4. Highlights candidates’ psychological strengths and weaknesses

    Also, instead of giving test scores, game-based candidate assessment tests give insights into the psychological strengths and weaknesses of candidates. These psychological evaluations can help determine the right job role suitable for their traits and qualities.

  5. Eliminates evaluation bias

    Game-based assessments are free of bias with an objective assessment of a candidate’s data. There is no subjective bias that can arise from the interpretation of data provided by candidates. This includes subjective data on cover letters, resumes, and other information received from the candidate.

    Also, games elicit authentic behavior instead of candidates behaving otherwise to please interviewers and managers. By using game-based assessments with artificial intelligence and machine learning, organizations can pair the natural abilities of candidates with predictive modeling to see how they will perform in the job. 

What personality traits do game-based candidate assessment tests measure?

Game-based candidate assessment tests measure the following personality traits:

  1. Self-motivation

    While assessing candidates for a job, it is important to know whether they will do their work thoroughly and meet deadlines. Game-based candidate assessments can measure the discipline and motivation of candidates after considering their game performance.

    Related Post: 11 Ways to Motivate Remote Software Developers in 2022

  2. Openness

    Candidates must be flexible in their approach and open to suggestions to ensure that they can navigate problems as and when they arise. Game-based assessments can drop hints in to see whether candidates act as per the situation or stick to their own way of doing things.

  3. Agreeableness

    Game-based assessments include both interactive and story-based games that can measure characteristics like sympathy, kindness, cooperation, warmth, and consideration. By understanding the characteristics of different individuals, organizations can utilize them to the best of their competencies.

    Related Post: 10 Amazing Virtual Team Building Games for Remote and Hybrid Teams

What are some common examples of game-based candidate assessment? 

Some common examples of game-based assessments include 

  1. Simulated work environments

    While assessing candidates for a job, simulated work environments can help you learn how candidates will behave in different situations at work.

    Some of these tests may include simple choice-based answers, whereas others may require candidates to analyze the situation carefully, think, and then answer.

  2. Strategy games

    In candidate assessment, strategy games help you learn about the problem-solving abilities and creativity quotient of candidates. Different candidates can create different solutions to solve problems and give you insights into how they think and reason.

  3. Bias-based games

    Bias-based games help candidates learn about the different workplace and personality biases that can hinder growth and productivity in an organization.

    By using various scenarios, such games can help candidates learn how to resolve different issues and build a positive and transparent work culture.

    Related Post: How do Gaming Studios Hire Game Development Teams?

Summary 

Games can be a great way to acquire get objective data and insights into the strengths and weaknesses of different candidates. Organizations can leverage game-based candidate assessments to find the right person for the job.

Are you looking for a developer to build interactive games for candidate assessment?

Try Turing.

Turing helps you hire the top 1 percent of developers in 3-5 days. Companies can choose from a pool of 3 million developers to find the best candidate. 

FAQs 

  1. Is it possible to manipulate game-based assessments?

    It is not possible to manipulate game-based assessments as candidates immerse themselves in the game without thinking about direct response and its consequences. Such candidate assessments measure natural traits and skills without making the candidate consciously think about the response. 

  2. What is a game performance assessment instrument?

    The game performance assessment instrument helps you measure a player’s performance based on problem-solving and tactical skills. GPAI adapts to different games and considers things like individual and overall game performance indices, game performance analysis, nonlinearity, observer reliability, and usefulness of action.

 

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By ● Nov 7, 2022
DevSecOps
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tech ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

DevSecOps: What Companies Need to Know

DevSecOps is the integration of additional security into emerging agile IT and DevOps development as flawlessly and transparently as possible.

What is DevSecOps how does it work? How does it differ from DevOps? How can adopting DevSecOps have a significant impact on your firm?

Looking for answers to such questions? Keep Reading. 

What is DevSecOps?

DevSecOps is a seamless and transparent integration of additional security into rapidly evolving DevOps development. In an ideal scenario, this action is accomplished without impairing developers’ agility or speed or causing them to leave their development toolchain environment.

Core functional teams must alter their culture, procedures, and toolkits to implement DevSecOps, which makes security a shared responsibility.

How is DevOps different from DevSecOps?

DevSecOps augments speed with security as rapidly as possible, while DevOps concentrates on the pace of software delivery. 

What are the benefits of DevSecOps?

DevSecOps aims to safely distribute security decisions at speed and scale to people who hold the highest level of context without compromising the necessary safety. It builds on the idea that everyone is accountable for security.

Here are a few more benefits of DevSecOps:

  • Cost-effective software delivery
    Security issues can cause significant time delays when software is built in a non-DevSecOps environment. Therefore, by limiting the need to repeat a procedure to resolve security vulnerabilities, DevSecOps’ quick, secure delivery saves time and lowers costs. 

 

  • Improved security
    Cybersecurity operations are incorporated into the development cycle at the outset, thanks to DevSecOps. The code is reviewed, audited, scanned, and tested for security flaws throughout the development cycle. As soon as developers discover these problems, they resolve them. In addition, they fix security issues prior to adding new dependencies. 

    In addition, by ensuring and streamlining compliance, these procedures spare application development projects from the need for security retrofits.

 

  • Accelerated security vulnerability patching
    The speed with which DevSecOps handles newly discovered security vulnerabilities is a crucial advantage. The capacity to recognize and fix common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVE) decreases as DevSecOps incorporates vulnerability screening and patching into the release cycle. This action reduces the window of opportunity for threat actors to exploit flaws in production systems that are visible to the general public. 

 

  • Automation compatible
    If a company employs a continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline to deploy its product, cybersecurity testing can be incorporated into an automated test suite for operations teams. 

    Security check automation is highly influenced by organizational and project objectives. Automated testing can verify that incorporated software dependencies are at the proper patch levels and that security unit testing was successful. Additionally, it can use static and dynamic analysis to validate and secure code before the final update is promoted to production.

 

  • Adaptive process
    As the market changes and adapts to new requirements, DevSecOps guarantees that security is implemented consistently throughout. The automation, configuration management, orchestration, containers, immutable infrastructure, and even serverless computing environments of a mature DevSecOps implementation are strong.

Related post: You Must Know These 6 DevOps Best Practices in 2022

Which application security tools are used in DevSecOps?

Organizations can integrate many application security testing (AST) solutions into different stages of their CI/CD process to achieve DevSecOps. Typical AST tools include…

  • Static application security testing (SAST)
    SAST tools examine proprietary or customized code for coding mistakes and design defects that could result in vulnerabilities. SAST tools like Coverity® are generally utilized during the SDLC’s code, build, and development phases. 

  • Software composition analysis (SCA)
    To find known vulnerabilities in open-source and third-party components, SCA tools like Black Duck® analyze source code and binaries. To expedite the prioritization and remediation processes, SCA tools also offer insight into the security and license risks. They can also be effortlessly incorporated into a CI/CD process, from build integration to pre-production release, to continuously detect new open-source vulnerabilities.

  • Interactive application security testing (IAST)
    IAST tools investigate the behavior of web applications during runtime in the background of manual or automated functional tests. 

    For instance, the Seeker® IAST tool uses instrumentation to watch application activity, data flow, and request/response exchanges. The tool finds runtime flaws and automatically replays and tests the results, giving developers in-depth explanations right down to the line of code where they are found. This action makes it possible for developers to concentrate their time and energy on serious flaws. 

  • Dynamic application security testing (DAST)
    Using automated opaque box testing (DAST), you can test your web application or API in a way that simulates a hacker’s actions. DAST examines the client-side rendering of the application and evaluates programs over a network connection, much like a pen tester might. 

    DAST tools interact with your website and detect vulnerabilities with a low percentage of false positives; they do not need access to source code or customization. 

Related post: 7 Reasons Kubernetes Is Important for DevOps

How to implement DevSecOps?

Step 1: Planning and development.

Planning is the key to everything. For successful implementation, the plan must be strategic and short. Simple feature-based summaries won’t do. The experts can build threat models, user designs, and acceptance test requirements in the planning phase. 

The next step is development.  Here, the teams should begin by assessing the maturity of their current procedures. It makes sense to compile information from several sources to offer direction. The team should also establish a  code review system should also be established at this point since it promotes uniformity, a unique feature of DevSecOps.

Step 2: Building and testing

The building process follows planning, where automated tools are effective. The source code is combined into machine code in such tools via a build script. Tools for building automation include several potent capabilities. They have numerous available UIs in addition to a huge library of plugins. 

The pipeline is then put through testing, where a solid automated testing framework instills sound testing procedures.

Step 3: Deployment and operation

IaC tools are typically used for deployment since they automate the procedure and quicken the distribution of software. 

Another critical phase is operation, and operations personnel routinely do periodic maintenance. Zero-day vulnerabilities are terrible. Operation teams should therefore monitor them. DevSecOps can use IaC tools to swiftly and effectively safeguard the organization’s infrastructure while preventing human error from slipping in.

Step 4: Monitoring and scaling

Utilizing the latest monitoring technologies is a crucial component of this step. Such technologies guarantee that your security systems are operating according to plan and are up to date. 

Scaling also has a significant impact on cloud infrastructure. With the introduction of virtualization, businesses don’t need to squander money on maintaining massive data centers. Instead, they can simply extend the IT infrastructure to handle any dangers that arise. 

Related post: SRE vs DevOps: What Is the Difference?

What are the DevSecOps challenges?

  • Cultural challenges
    Few people will be happy to modify something they’ve been doing the old-fashioned way. However, most people will not be happy about these modifications.

    DevSecOps brings together developers and security experts, fostering a collaborative atmosphere. However, there has always been some tension between these two squads. Both teams occasionally believe that what the other side does causes problems for their squad. This viewpoint defeats the core tenet of DevSecOps, causing both teams to operate in silos. Thus, this cultural mentality needs to be altered.

    The idea that heightened security slows down progress and acts as a barrier to innovation is another frequent problem. Developers aspire to provide their code quickly to satisfy the needs of companies. Meanwhile, security teams are primarily concerned with ensuring the code is secure. These two teams find collaborating difficult because their goals are so different.

Related post: DevOps Engineer Turnover: How to Prevent It?

  • Other challenges
    There is a shortage of qualified cybersecurity engineers because of increased security breaches and attacks. Low-level and mid-level companies are severely affected by the lack of security personnel because expert cybersecurity specialists are rare to find. 

    If you are also struggling to get top DevOps engineers for your company, try Turing. Turing’s AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud helps businesses source, vet, match, and manage the world’s best software developers remotely.

    Why do businesses prefer Turing?
  • Speed: 3-5 days to fill most roles, sometimes same day.
  • Time Saved: 50+ hours of engineering team time saved per hire on interviewing.
  • Retention: 97% engagement success rate.

Bottom line

Modern software teams must constantly evolve because cyber attacks are evolving faster than ever before. DevSecOps can make the evolution easy because with DevSecOps, teams can produce better, higher-performing, and more secure software faster and with less effort. Also, with DevSecOps team can build real-time security intelligence across pre-production and production environments.

So, hire the best DevOps engineers for your company now with Turing and build a secure infrastructure for generations. 

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By ● Oct 25, 2022
What is Chaos Engineering?
Custom Engineering ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tech ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

What Is Chaos Engineering and What Are Its Benefits?

Chaos Engineering is the process of inducing chaos in software applications and systems to identify flaws and create more resilient and reliable software.

What is Chaos Engineering? Who pioneered Chaos Engineering? What is the role of observability in Chaos Engineering? Why does Netflix use Chaos Engineering? What are the benefits of Chaos Engineering? 

Looking for answers to such questions? Keep reading. 

What is Chaos Engineering?

Chaos Engineering is a method to test the reliability of a software system by injecting chaos into it. This method experiments with the functionality and reliability of a system in the face of any unexpected disturbance or problem. 

Chaos Engineering

Chaos Engineering

By using Chaos Engineering, an organization can create backup software components or functions that keep the software running during unexpected problems. 

Who pioneered Chaos Engineering?

In 2010, Netflix faced database disruption in the relational table model, after which the streaming giant decided to move to the cloud. After migrating to the AWS cloud infrastructure, Netflix engineers realized that no single component could guarantee 100 percent uptime.

Related Post: Azure vs AWS: Which is better?

However, with different processes running, it was difficult to test the resilience of cloud-based large-scale distributed systems. Netflix used Chaos Engineering to test different variables and components without impacting the end user.

Netflix conducted the first Chaos Engineering experiment by terminating production instances and chewing data tables to ensure that the entire system does not collapse when specific services experience failure. 

What is Chaos Monkey?

Inspired by the idea of monkeys entering a farm and randomly destroying the property, Netflix developed Chaos Monkey. 

Chaos Monkey is a first-of-its-kind system software to check the recoverability of its web services infrastructure. 

Chaos Monkey software simulates failures at different stages of development to help organizations and software developers prepare for different unexpected situations.

Chaos Monkey and Chaos Engineering

Chaos Monkey is a popular tool used in Chaos Engineering

What is the Simian Army?

The Simian Army comprises open-source cloud testing tools that allow developers to test the resilience, security, recoverability, and reliability of cloud services. 

After the development of Chaos Monkey, Netflix engineers started developing more autonomous software agents for Chaos Engineering. Thus, they developed the Simian Army.

The Simian Army includes Latency Monkey, Conformity Monkey, Security Monkey, Janitor Monkey, Doctor Monkey, and Chaos Monkey. 

  • Latency Monkey simulates service degradation to see how upstream services react.  
  • Conformity Monkey identifies and shuts down instances that are not coded as per best practices and gives developers the platform to relaunch the instances. 
  • Security Monkey checks the DRM and SSL certificates for expiry. Also, SM ends any instances that do not conform to the security standards. 
  • Janitor Monkey checks all the instances for unused resources and discards them instantly. 
  • Doctor Monkey checks the health of cloud instances and monitors the external health of systems like CPU and memory storage. 
  • Chaos Monkey randomly terminates different instances to see how service shutdown affects the overall system. 

What is the difference between Chaos Engineering and testing?

Most software applications go through traditional testing that uses a set of inputs to see if the predicted outputs come from the application. If the predicted outputs do not come, the software developer works to achieve them.

Unlike traditional testing, Chaos Engineering uses experiments and unusual combinations to test software applications and systems. By doing this, organizations increase the scope of testing and check how the software will perform in the face of an unexpected situation. 

Related Post: Unit Testing vs Integration Testing 

What is the role of observability in Chaos Engineering?

Observability is the process of understanding the internal components of a software system by analyzing the external outputs. Observability dives deeper into the different failure modes of a system and uses key insights from such modes to create new failsafe iterations.

Observability in Chaos Engineering enables faster deployments, helps prioritize business KPIs, and helps develop system auto-healing, among others. In addition, observability considers the correlation between the monitoring, logging, tracing, and data aggregation to troubleshoot problems and find solutions. 

Organizations can use artificial intelligence and machine learning to create observability patterns and antipatterns. Organizations can use regression analysis, time series analysis, and trend analysis to build definitive observability patterns and antipatterns.

How does Chaos Engineering work?
Chaos Engineering consists of four steps.

  1. Hypothesis

    The first step is the hypothesis, wherein engineers think about what can happen to the state of the application upon changing a variable. Hypothesis allows chaos engineers to ask many questions and write down their assumptions. Later, they compare these assumptions with real-life events.

  2. Testing

    In the testing phase, chaos engineers use a simulated environment along with load testing to check the changes in services, infrastructure, network, and devices. If the results differ from the assumptions, then the chaos engineers restructure or rebuild the component.

  3. Blast radius

    The extent of the damage done in the testing phase is known as the blast radius. Chaos engineers set up a blast radius during the testing of specific variables and components.

  4. Insights

    Insights consist of the results of the hypothesis, testing, and blast radius used in Chaos Engineering. By using insights, chaos engineers can restructure and rebuild components that perform better during unexpected situations.
    Chaos Engineering steps

    Four steps of Chaos Engineering

Types of experiments in Chaos Engineering

Here are the types of experiments in Chaos Engineering. 

  1. Dependency testing

    Most times, chaos engineers assume a happy scenario for the software development process after conducting standard tests. However, this step backfires sometimes, especially when there are many dependencies.

    Therefore, Chaos Engineers must conduct thorough tests and check hidden dependencies between microservices, reddis, database, memcached, and downstream services. By doing such tests and checks, they can understand the challenges that may cause failure in the production and post-production stages.

  2. Inject failure

    Inject a failure or something that can cause your software to behave differently is essential for Chaos Engineering. With this experiment, engineers can discover weaknesses or vulnerable components of the software, and build something to keep the software running when a particular component malfunctions.

  3. Automate faults

    After coming across different faults while checking the reliability of the system, engineers use site reliability engineering to try and fix faults automatically. With such automation, they check which automatic solutions work and for which functions they need to build backup components. 

What are the benefits of Chaos Engineering? 

The benefits of Chaos Engineering include:

  1. Promotes innovation

    Chaos Engineering promotes innovation by identifying design and structural flaws in the software system. The intelligence gathered from understanding structural and design flaws helps improve new and existing components.

  2. Greater collaboration

    Chaos Engineering facilitates greater collaboration, as the insights gathered are not limited to chaos engineers but get shared across different departments.

  3. Streamlines incident response

    Incident response is important for applications that need to run all the time. By testing variables and components in advance, Chaos Engineering helps streamline troubleshooting, repairs, and incident response.

  4. Boosts business

    Organizations that use Chaos Engineering can build resilient and reliable systems that increase customer satisfaction. Also, these resilient software applications can boost business demand by producing less failure-prone software.
    Chaos Engineering benefits

    Benefits of Chaos Engineering

How to set up a Chaos Engineering culture and what is a game day?

To set up a Chaos Engineering culture, have a game day. A game day is a dedicated day to run Chaos Engineering experiments on software and computer systems. On a game day, simulate an environment of failure. Then, check how your team and computer system responds to different types of failure. 

How to plan and run a game day?

Here are the steps to plan and run a game day:

  1. Compile a list of all failure scenarios

    List down all the variables and components that can break down or malfunction. Some of the common questions that you can ask are – can your systems support 15x the current load? What will happen if your servers run out of disk space? How will your system respond in case of a DDOS attack?

    Answering all the questions mentioned above can be difficult during a single game day. So, narrow down the questions as per the impact they have on your software, and distribute them on different days.

  2. Create a series of hypothesis

    After you have selected the failure scenarios, it is time to create a series of hypothesis. While creating a series of hypothesis, make sure that you create a step-by-step process for each hypothesis.

    A detailed hypothesis with possible outcomes will help you measure the proposed outcomes against the real outcomes and build your next strategy effectively.

  3. Check how your team reacts

    A game day is not only about testing for failure scenarios but also preventing them. Organizations must see how different teams react while running experiments and fixing problems.

    Teams that do not communicate well and take longer than expected to fix a problem must receive communication and collaboration training. By doing this, you can ensure that they are ready when a failure arises in real time.

  4. Address discovered gaps

    The final step of the game day does not have to happen on the game day itself but must happen soon. Chaos engineers must address the errors and gaps the right way with a short-term solution to ensure that the applications keep working as expected.

    Also, chaos engineers must prepare detailed plans to rebuild or replace components and variables that trigger failure. 

What are some of the common failure scenarios in Chaos Engineering?

Some common failure scenarios in Chaos Engineering include: 

  1. Disk space overuse

    The goal of overusing disk space is to see whether your software sends an alert upon meeting a certain threshold. If you don’t see an alert, you must fix the issue right away.

  2. EC2 shutdown

    EC2 helps you develop and deploy applications faster by storing data in RAM. By forcing an EC2 shutdown, you can check whether the software application is working, or has lost data.

  3. Load balancer adjusting

    Load balancers play a crucial role in distributing incoming traffic from users to back-end servers. By shutting one request from one user at a time, you can check whether your load balancer still works or not.

  4. Swap security groups

    Security groups configure network security to specify protocols, ports, and IP addresses over which you can send traffic. Security groups consist of various virtual machines and resource tags that you can replace or stop to check for changes in application behavior.

  5. Force CPU spikes

    To check how much volume a software application can handle without breaking down, force CPU spikes by manipulating commands. With this action, you will know how much volume your system can effectively handle. 

What tools can I use for Chaos Engineering?

There are a wide variety of tools available to successfully implement Chaos Engineering. They include:  

  1. Chaos Mesh

    Chaos Mesh offers a dedicated dashboard with several in-built experiments and timeframes to inject chaos into your software systems. Also, you can design custom experiments and conduct status checks of different components and development stages.

  2. Chaos Monkey

    Chaos monkey can help you detect different system bottlenecks and offer solutions to resolve the same. Additionally, the open-source tool helps terminate instances and gives a detailed account of failures.

  3. Litmus

    Litmus helps you carry out controlled chaos tests in the production stage. Also, it allows you to implement log capturing, generate reports, detect bugs, and run test suites.

  4. Gremlin

    Gremlin offers three attack modes and various failure scenarios to help build software resiliency and reliability. Also, it offers unique features like latency injections, CLI support, memory leak testing, and disk fill-ups. 

Summary 

Organizations must effectively utilize Chaos Engineering to understand the types of failures that can occur during the use of software applications. By running chaos experiments and test failure scenarios, organizations can better prepare for negative outcomes and build reliable software applications. 

Are you looking for developers who can help conduct Chaos Engineering experiments?

Try Turing. 

Turing helps companies hire pre-vetted developers within 3-5 days. Visit Turing’s Hire Page today. 

FAQ’s 

  1. How do you control the blast radius in Chaos Engineering?

    To keep control of the blast radius, introduce one chaos at a time. Also, have a rollback plan in place in case the outcome is not as expected.

  2. What is Chaos Gorilla?

    Chaos Gorilla drops an entire AWS environment in a simulated environment to check the impact on users. By disabling computers in the network, Chaos Gorilla checks how the remaining systems respond. 

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By ● Oct 20, 2022
DevOps engineers turnover prevention
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

DevOps Engineer Turnover: How to Prevent It?

How to prevent DevOps engineering team turnover 1. Avoid context switching 2. Allow flexibility 3. Ensure that product and engineering teams work in tandem

Turnover in software engineering is common. Software developers will shift to another job that offers better income, better work-life balance, or better growth opportunities. According to a survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2021, the average software engineer turnover is a staggering 57.3 percent! 

DevOps is responsible for cross-team collaborations within the organization. A turnover in the DevOps team can affect the whole organization. So, how can you prevent DevOps turnover? Let’s take a look at how you can prevent turnover in your DevOps teams to ensure a smooth process and collaboration among teams. 

Avoid context switching. Ensure steady ownership.

DevOps engineers, just like every software engineer, like to have a sense of ownership over what they are creating. If you keep on switching the context of the project, engineers may face burnout, leading to their exit from the company. 

The major reasons behind context switching can be:

  • Poor planning and communication: If you haven’t planned an outline of your project, you are more likely to switch context while the process is ongoing. This can make engineers frustrated and also delay the overall project. Always ensure that you plan a proper layout before getting into the project itself.

    “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln.

    Ensure you have a structured approach as well while planning a project. Proper planning and communication can go a long way and benefit your project’s success.

  • Emergencies such as necessary bug fixes or incident response: Such cases can lead to context switching, especially when the developers are not properly working on maintaining the applications due to being stuck with many applications to oversee. 

The best way to reduce or eliminate context switching is to give full authority to the developers. The DevOps developers should have full ownership of the processes, such as scaffolding, Docker containerization, Terraform configurations, monitoring, alerts, and on-call assistance for the application. 

DevOps software development cycles can be challenging and exhausting. Thus, you need to eliminate context switching so that the developers do not suffer burnout.

Ensure your engineering and product teams work in tandem.

Let’s start with an example. Let’s say that the product team takes weeks to design a layout for an application without consulting the engineering team. When the payout is presented to the engineering team, multiple feedback points from the engineering team’s perspective render the layout useless. The whole effort of the product team goes in vain. 

Want to prevent this from happening? Avoid separating the product and the engineering team. Both teams should proactively collaborate, especially in the application design phase. The product team can analyze the market trends and design the product accordingly, while the engineering team can work on ways to incorporate those designs using the technology. This practice can help create a balance between the teams, enabling DevOps engineers to have control over the whole process.                                                                                                               

Related Post: You Must Know These 6 DevOps Best Practices in 2022

Every DevOps team needs flexibility.

Flexibility to try and implement new things in a project can enhance the developer’s understanding of ownership. If a developer is expected to work on the same thing for a long time, they will likely get bored with the task. Thus, allowing a flexible approach toward the process can increase the developer’s satisfaction, thus increasing the output. 

A flexible work culture that nurtures creativity can also help attract the best tech talent. And especially in this era of tech talent shortage, you don’t want to miss a chance to attract the best! Another example of adopting flexibility is allowing work from home or remote work. After all, research states that remote workers are happier and less likely to leave your company. 

Can DevOps turnover be really prevented?

Yes, it can! Developers change their jobs due to non-satisfaction or no growth opportunities in their current role. Also, with the number of DevOps job openings in 2022 around the globe, developers have more options allowing them to choose jobs that offer work-life balance, better salary, and growth opportunities. If you can create a work environment where the developers feel heard and have a sense of ownership, they are more likely to stay with your organization.

Do you want to hire pre-vetted DevOps teams that can take up the crucial role of collaborating with different teams and ensuring the success of your project? Try Turing Teams. Turing helps companies quickly build quality software development teams dedicated to working on their complex projects, products, and solution needs.

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By ● Oct 14, 2022
Hiring Gen Z in IT
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

6 Strategies for Hiring Gen Z in Software Development

Steps for Hiring Gen Z in Software Development: 1. Focus on on-campus recruitments 2. Personalize your communication 3. Improve job descriptions

How do you attract Gen Z applicants? How do you recruit Gen Z workers?  How can I start hiring Gen Z in the IT industry? What jobs are Gen Z most interested in? What does Gen Z want out of a job?

Looking for answers to such questions? Let’s dive in.

Who are Gen Z job seekers? 

Gen Z, also known as Zoomers, is the most recent generation to enter the workforce. This generation, born between 1997 and 2012, is very young but already changing the way hiring managers hire and manage the workforce. Generation Z is highly tech-savvy and barely relates to a time before the internet, smartphones, and video games. 

Driven by their limitless potential. Gen Z is determined to leave its mark on the world. However, only four in 10 people think their education has adequately prepared them for the job market.

Only companies aware of such insights can entice and keep Gen Z. So, here is how you can attract and hire Gen Z.

How do you attract Gen Z applicants? 

  • Enhance job postings for Google.

    Optimize your career pages for Google and get rid of third-party sites. This way, your available positions will pop up on Google’s search results pages when a user types in a keyword like “software developer in New York.”

    These job listings may include details relevant to Gen Z, such as remote work, insurance, etc. Giving as much information as possible will help candidates find your open positions faster on Google, simplifying the application process and improving the candidate experience.

  • Use texts for low-pressure interactions.

    No other generation has experienced technology integration as much as Gen Z. 

    According to recent research, 95 percent of 13 to 17-year-old children have access to a smartphone in the USA. However, Gen Z is not too interested in making phone calls. According to another research, 73.4 percent of Gen Z and millennial smartphone users in the US prefer to use the messaging app over the phone app if they could only keep one. 

    Although it is less formal than a phone call or email, text messaging is the preferred mode of communication these days. 

    To use text messaging in the recruitment process, automate messages using recruitment software. Via the same software, regularly update the candidates about the interview schedule, assessment methods, hiring managers, employee value proposition, and more.

  • Showcase diversity in your employer branding.

    According to the iCIMS research for the class of 2021, 58 percent of college seniors looking for diversity in the company during the recruiting process. 

    Gen Z is the most diverse generation as compared to the previous generations. And so, it stands to reason that they appreciate diversity at work so highly.

    Gen Z folks are more likely to search your employer branding, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies when applying for jobs. Also, stock photos and meaningless mission statements that promise diversity will not impress Gen Z. 

    Therefore, strive for unified branding across all channels because Generation Z may doubt your beliefs and become completely disinterested in your brand if your employer branding varies from one platform to another.

  • Use social media for inviting job applications.

    According to recent research, users between the ages of 18 and 24 are highly likely to use TikTok (55 percent), Snapchat (75 percent), and Instagram (76 percent). 

    TikTok introduced a prototype resume program in July 2021 that allowed applicants to send applications for jobs straight through the app. Additionally, Snapchat has developed unique features that let major companies use the app to draw in and engage job candidates.

    Develop interactive career pages. Or use popular social media apps to provide a more seamless application process to Gen Z applicants.

How do you recruit Gen Z workers?

  1. Focus more on on-campus recruitments: Connecting with Gen Z talent requires maintaining close ties with colleges and universities. Digitalise your recruitment process to reach out to more universities and colleges in less time. Also, use recruitment software for filtering, organizing, and processing eligible applications. 

  2. Improve your career site: For Gen Zs who grew up with the internet, your career page serves as the cornerstone of your recruiting campaign. So, use these best practices to revamp your career page. 
    1. Mention perks and bonuses
    2. Include visual and video components
    3. Keep your message and brand constant
    4. Ensure a beautiful, attention-grabbing design
    5. Add employee testimonials
    6. Place your ‘About Us’ section at the top
    7. Include the mission, vision, and values

  3. Personalize your communication: Form a talent group on Slack, Whatsapp, Telegram, etc. Send candidates frequent information regarding their employment status throughout the interview process. Also, send a care package that speaks to your new hire when it’s time to make an offer. 

  4. Improve job descriptions: Make your open positions more appealing by using direct communication in job descriptions. Mention the core responsibilities of a job and learning outcomes in specific bullet points. Also, add an example of how the day-to-day work life would be with that job.

  5. Start an employee influencer network: To find new employees, Gen Z relies on recommendations. Therefore use your present staff to draw in young talent. When you have new available positions, invite team members to share the position on their social media channels. Candidates will get a more accurate sense of your company culture if you share content created by your staff. 

  6. Create an enjoyable candidate experience: Candidates from Generation Z are picky. So, to recruit top Gen Z developers, create a short and effective recruitment process. 

Here are the six steps of a short and effective recruitment process: 

  • Prepare the job description
  • Start searching
  • Conduct a phone screening
  • Circulate remote coding challenges 
  • Interview via video calls
  • Propose offer and onboard

How do you retain the Gen Z workforce?

Here are a few action items to retain the Gen Z workforce:

  • Insist on job security 

    The Great Recession of 2008, which immobilized the economy, cost thousands of Americans their jobs. Gen Zers were still quite young when this occurred. They might have witnessed the severe financial setbacks, job losses, and financial hardships experienced by their parents. This generation’s need for and demand for greater work stability is therefore not surprising.

    To facilitate the same, this generation is also more likely to have a side job to diversify their income. This means that, as an employer, you need to:
  • Allow applicants to complete coding challenges from any location. 
  • Encourage them to have additional income streams besides their jobs. Admit and accept moonlighting. 
  • Avoid micromanaging their work.
  • Consider chances for growth and learning. According to studies, 40 percent of Gen Z professionals are continuing in their current positions if they offer opportunities to learn and advance in their careers. 
  • Build an environment that challenges them and offers a variety of opportunities for self-improvement. 

In addition, provide benefits like the following: 

  • Healthcare insurance
  • Disability insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Retirement plans 
  • Bonuses and incentives 
  • Paid time off
  • Holiday entitlement
  • Flexible work

Where to look for Gen Z candidates?

The following are a few resources that you can tap into to hire talented Gen Z candidates:

  • LinkedIn: You can use the power of data-driven recruiting with LinkedIn Talent Solutions.
  • Online forums: Quora, Reddit, and other platforms can help you target specific communities. These platforms can also help you build relationships with Gen Z job-seekers and increase brand awareness.
  • Social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram can be used to locate niche networks, cut through the clutter, and promote your business and culture through current employees. 
  • Online coding challenges: Hackathons like MHacks, HackMIT, Junction (hackathon), and HackTX are great for networking with excellent young developers.
  • Turing: If you’re looking to hire pre-vetted Gen Z developers, try Turing. Turing’s AI-backed Intelligent Talent Cloud helps companies source, vet, match, and manage the world’s best software developers remotely.

Conclusion

Recruiting Gen Z may seem like threading a needle with one eye closed. However, you need to remember that they are new-age workers with clear professional objectives who are looking for a mentor to help them succeed in the corporate world. Understanding their values and giving them a workplace that supports them is crucial to hiring and keeping people from this demographic. 

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By ● Sep 28, 2022
7 ways to scale a remote engineering team
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

7 Ways to Build and Scale a Remote Engineering Team

Steps to build and scale your remote engineering team 1. Prepare a structured plan 2. Reassess your engineering team structure 3. Establish communication ……

What is a remote engineering team? How do you scale an engineering team? How do you build a successful remote engineering team? What is important for remote engineering teams so that they work well?

This blog post will help you get answers to all these questions.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations learned that distributed teams are as successful as office-based teams. In fact, some studies point out that remote workers are more productive than their in-office counterparts. In addition, remote teams are happier and cost less. However, they also face certain challenges.

One such common challenge is: How do you build and scale a remote engineering team?

The strategy of scaling a remote team doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. Some organizations need to make that extra hiring, whereas others must integrate new collaboration tools to facilitate smooth teamwork. Thus, it is important to use the right approach to effectively build and scale remote engineering teams.

Let’s take a look at some steps to build and scale your remote engineering team.

  1. Prepare a structured plan

    A structured plan is important to ensure a clear scaling strategy from start to finish. Your plan for scaling your remote team should contain the goal you want to achieve, how you plan to achieve that goal and the resources you will require to reach that goal.

    For example, if you want to increase the software application production per month, you may need to restructure your existing project pipeline to deliver applications faster. You may also need to provide your remote team with new resources to produce more applications.

  2. Reassess your remote engineering team structure

    Before hiring new talent, it is important to assess the current structure of your engineering team. Organizations and hiring managers must understand the key responsibilities of each job role and the available bandwidth a team has for new tasks.

    By assessing the team structure, you can split your team into smaller groups focused on specific product aspects to scale effectively. You can also identify leaders within the group and ask them to report to the head of product, thus building a clear hierarchical reporting framework.

    Check out this blog to know the three best practices for managing a remote team. 

  3. Establish clear communication methods

    Transparent communication is important for building a remote engineering team. Organizations must set clear ground rules regarding communication, and ensure that all team members know these rules.

    Everyone must know the tools available for communication and how to use these tools. In addition, employees should also be aware of the work hours of different team members. By developing an effective communication strategy, remote team members can share product-related issues with each other and offer immediate solutions.

    Communication strategy of remote engineering team

    Communication plays a vital role in the success of remote engineering teams.

  4. Create a strong team culture

    To scale well, organizations require a strong team culture that allows team members to work freely. A strong team culture defines the values, behaviors, purpose, and work ethics members must embrace.

    In a strong team culture, each member recognizes their responsibility and expectations. Moreover, a strong culture ensures that each member aligns with the company’s vision and has no hesitation in communicating ideas, suggestions, and solutions that might benefit the organization.

    Check out this blog post to know seven ways in which managers can boost remote workers’ productivity.

  5. Set up a good onboarding process

    A good onboarding process is necessary to welcome and attract top engineering talent. Therefore, companies must arrange training sessions, introductory team meetings, and other work-related documents for new employees to ensure smooth onboarding. 

    The onboarding process must include the company culture’s do’s and don’ts to ensure employee compliance. Also, during the onboarding process organization must inform employees about the work timings and leave policy. 

  6. Employ a transparent feedback mechanism

    A transparent and effective feedback mechanism allows engineering team members to voice their concerns and raise issues with the management. Organizations must listen to what employees want and offer the right solutions.

    Conducting one-on-one meetings with remote team members and company-wide surveys can effectively capture employee views and sentiments about the work culture.

    Remote engineering teams require a good feedback mechanism.

    Feedback plays a key role in the success of remote engineering teams.

  7. Use project management tools

    For large remote teams, project management tools help track different tasks and ongoing activities. With the right project management tools, organizations can facilitate collaboration between different teams and scale effectively.

    Managers can easily assign deadlines for various projects and track progress. Moreover, they can also switch members between different remote teams when necessary. 

    Related Post: The Six Best Project Management Tools for 2022

Summary 

Scaling remote engineering teams can make or break the company. And so, ensure your scaling strategy considers the increase in workload and makes your team work smarter, not harder. 

Are you looking for software engineers to build and scale your remote team?

Turing can help you get talented software engineers. 

Turing gives companies access to over 3M+ pre-vetted Silicon Valley caliber developers from around the world. Choose from over 100+ skills and get software engineers within 3-5 days. Visit Turing’s hire developers page for more information. 

FAQs 

  1. How do you scale a technical team?

    To scale a technical team, prepare a structured plan, reassess the engineering team structure, form clear communication methods, create a strong team culture, set up a good onboarding process, put in place a smooth feedback mechanism, and use the right project management tools.

  2. How do you split an engineering team during scaling?

    To split an engineering team during scaling, identify and separate different stages of the software development process. You can then assign members that have different skills to various teams.

  3. What is team scalability?

    Team scalability is the process of getting an increase in revenue without increasing expenses. For example, if you have a 30% increase in revenue but have to hire three new employees, your team is not being scaled. If you find a way to manage that 30% increase with your current team, you have scaled your business.

 

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By ● Sep 13, 2022
US companies to outsource remote roles amidst tech talent shortage
For Developers ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

US Companies to Outsource Remote Roles Amidst Tech Talent Shortage

Top US tech companies are outsourcing tech jobs to India, Pakistan, and Brazil! More companies are to join this trend amidst the tech talent shortage in the US.

Amidst the tech talent shortage, possible recession, and economic crunch, US companies are beginning to look for remote workers, not only locally but globally. 

India, Pakistan, Brazil, and other LATAM countries to see a surge in offshore opportunities

Several countries like India, Pakistan, Brazil, and other LATAM countries can expect an exploded growth in remote offshore opportunities. As per reports, we can expect the global IT outsourcing market to be worth $397.6 billion by 2025. Many small and large US companies are already sourcing major tech-related tasks, and more are expected to join the wave. Moreover, experts also believe that outsourcing can help tackle inflation in the US, which is currently a major concern.

Let’s look at what this means for companies and remote software engineers.

What factors have led to the tech talent shortage in the US?

US companies have been relying on immigrant tech talent for a long time. However, the pandemic and government policies have made it difficult for immigrants to move to the US. This constraint has created a great tech talent shortage and hard-to-fill tech jobs in the country. Moreover, it has also inflated the wage demands of local tech talent, thus forcing companies to spend more to retain or hire talent.

Outsourcing jobs to tech talent globally: What does it mean for the companies?

Outsourcing tech jobs to countries with tech talent is nothing new. But the pandemic has pushed more and more companies to go remote and hire global talent. 

But how is hiring international talent helping companies? Let’s take a look:

  • As companies cannot bring the right talent to the job, the job can be taken to the right talent. The freedom to outsource enables companies to hire talented individuals without the constraint of geographical location. In other words, companies can hire the best talent globally.
  • Due to the talent shortage in the US, companies have been struggling to hire and retain talent. Most importantly, the talent crunch has forced companies to increase employee wages and compensation. If companies are able to hire tech talent from across the globe, they will be able to save on such expenses.
  • Companies can also save a lot of money on infrastructure and office setup as there is no need for a physical location to outsource jobs to offshore tech talent. 

If a US company has an option to hire a software engineer in the US at $3,00,000 and a tech talent with similar experience and skill set at half the cost offshore, why wouldn’t the company go for the latter?

US companies have been actively hiring in countries in Latin America. There are many benefits of hiring from the LATAM region, such as an overlapping time zone, great tech talent, and lower talent acquisition costs. 

What does outsourcing tech talent by US companies mean for software engineers in India, Pakistan, Brazil, and the rest of LATAM?

Outsourcing to countries like India, Pakistan, and the Latam region will create more remote tech job opportunities. If you’re a software engineer looking for high-paying remote engineering US jobs, this might be the right time for you to apply! 

Did you know? We can expect over 3 million jobs to move offshore from the US by 2025! In other words, outsourcing jobs are about to explode!

Try Turing. With Turing, you can apply to top US companies and get hired in no time. 

Summary

US companies will have to outsource tech talent jobs to the globe if they want to counter the talent shortage in the US. Global outsourcing will allow companies to cut down on several costs and also tap into a larger talent pool. Companies that switch to remote and embrace outsourcing will surely have the upper hand in the coming years. 

Are you struggling to find the right talent for your tech team? Try Turing. 

Turing allows you to hire from a global tech talent pool of over 2M+ experienced professionals, rigorously vetted by AI in just 3-5 days. What’s more? You get a 2-week risk-free trial period once you make a hire. Visit Turing’s Hire Developers page for more information.

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By ● Sep 3, 2022
6 Best DevOps Practices to Know
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

You Must Know These 6 DevOps Best Practices in 2024

DevOps best practices in 2024: 1. Agile Project Management 2. Best security practices 3. Right tools to build the software 4. (CI/CD) 5. Observability 5. Feature flags and canary releases

What do you mean by DevOps? What are some of the DevOps best practices? What are the five levels of DevOps practices?

Read more to find answers to these questions.

DevOps is a set of practices, tools, and philosophies that automates and integrates the processes between the development and operations teams to help organizations deliver value to the customers. 

The DevOps approach provides an efficient, effective, and reliable software deployment process. Implementing the DevOps best practices helps a business accelerate and automate the SDLC.  These practices also help development teams to create seamless processes that boost their productivity.

DevOps practices are widely used across various industries like retail, healthcare, finance, education, and technology. Here are a few more DevOps benefits: 

  • Delivering high-quality and reliable software efficiently.
  • Better collaboration among the development, operations, and quality assessment teams.
  • Better prioritization and management of work by teams.

DevOps plays a major role in the success of the development of applications, hence it becomes imperative for developers to learn DevOps. By adopting DevOps practices and tools, teams can enhance their confidence in building applications.

Six DevOps best practices

  1. Embracing Agile Project Management

    Why do top MNCs like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook update or release products in a few weeks while other companies take years to do the same?

    The reason is agile project management. Agile project management is an iterative approach that helps software teams to enhance their development speed, increase collaboration, and to respond well to current market trends.

    Agile is different from the traditional Waterfall method, where Waterfall method has long release cycles defined by sequential phases. The agile methodology uses Kanban and Scrum frameworks. According to a report, agile projects are nearly 1.5 times more successful than Waterfall projects.

    Related post:     Agile Software Development Lifecycle Phases Explained

    Few ways to implement Agile project management 
    • Outline the vision and scope of your project. This process should include your target customers, product details and benefits, the end goal of the project, and how you want to achieve it.
    • Create a workflow that helps your team to develop an application. Divide the workflow into four stages: to do, in progress, under review, and complete. 
    • Have daily stand-ups with teams to discuss the progress of the work and any difficulties in executing the work.   
    • Break down large tasks into smaller tasks for your teams to work more efficiently and achieve your goals faster. To do the same, use tools like stories, epics, and initiatives.

  2. Implement security practices into the app

    DevOps best practices

    DevOps best practices: DevSecOps

    Security of data should be the top priority while developing an application. As per a survey, 44 percent of organizations have experienced data breaches in their life span.

    Before the advent of DevOps, security was only implemented in the final stages of application development. However, in a collaborative DevOps environment, organizations realized the need for integrating security with DevOps from day one of application development.

    DevSecOps was created to combat security vulnerabilities.

    Few ways to implement the DevSecOps 
    • Share feedback related to security issues.   
    • Automate your security processes to minimize human errors, downtime, and vulnerabilities.     
    • Scan for any vulnerabilities across the development, integration, and production environments.       
    • Train your in-house DevOps team on implementing security practices.

  3. By using the right tools to build the software

    Organizations must implement the right set of DevOps tools in each stage of the DevOps lifecycle to quickly build high-quality software. A DevOps lifecycle includes planning, building, continuous integration, deployment,  monitoring,  operating, and continuous feedback.

    The DevOps toolchain enables the development and operation teams to collaborate effectively throughout the application lifecycle. You can choose to customize the toolchain as per your team’s requirements.

    Related post: The Nine Steps of Software Product Development Life Cycle

    Few examples of toolchains     
    • Jira Software can help your teams segregate the work into smaller, more manageable tasks for faster deployment. By leveraging Slack, your teams can improve cross-functional collaboration, enhance productivity, streamline release cycles and solve incidents faster.   
    • Tools like Puppet and Chef for your operations team and Kubernetes and Docker for the developers’ team can help you set up individual development environments. You can check out this post to learn more about the importance of Kubernetes for DevOps.       
    • Tools like Jenkins, Bitbucket, and more can automate your code right from testing to production stages.         
    • You can use Bitbucket and AWS CodePipeline to provide a single dashboard integrated with your code repository and deployment tools. These tools give complete visibility of all the changes, pull requests, and deployment warnings.       
    • Tools like GetFeedback, Slack, or Pendo can help integrate your chat tool with the survey platforms to collect and review feedback. You can also integrate your chat tool with Facebook and Twitter to collect real-time feedback.

  4. By implementing Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

    DevOps best practices

    DevOps best practices: CI/CD

    With Continuous Integration or CI, developers integrate new codes into a shared repository several times. Whereas, Continuous Delivery or CD automates the software delivery process. CD is responsible for checking the code and ensuring the delivery of the integrated code into the production stage without any bugs or delays.

    Setting up a CI/CD pipeline enables a  business to quickly deliver the end product to customers. CI/CD tools offer certain benefits, such as helping in achieving faster feedback to check the impact and quality of the code, providing transparency to developers to analyze the problems, and helping in the early detection of bugs through automated testing. Commit, build, test, and production deployment are the four stages of CI/CD implementation.

    Some of the tools for CI/CD implementation are as follows:
    • Jenkins offers features and interfaces that help to automate the entire software lifecycle.   
    • Docker creates servers and deploys the artifacts into the registry for testing. Check out this post to understand how you can use Docker to test and deploy web applications.     
    • Jenkins or Cruise Control to self-host your CI/CD application.

  5. By establishing observability

    Handling the complexities of cloud and microservice architecture is difficult. Therefore, implementing observability as DevOps best practice will help your DevOps teams to better understand the complex system of the cloud and microservices architecture.

    Some ways to implement observability are as follows: 
    • Choose a cost-effective observability platform that addresses your environment’s future needs.   
    • The platform you choose must be able to analyze data across multiple dimensions and provide actionable insights. The platform must enable you to develop custom metric aggregations to research and resolve performance issues faster.   
    • Your observability platform must be able to capture data from all the systems and components and store them in a centralized resource.   
    • Kubernetes observability, Splunk, Dynatrace, Honeycomb, and New Relic are some of the best observability platforms.

  6. By managing code releases and deployments with feature flags and canary releases

    Deployment is the process of executing the code in its final destination. The final destination can be a server, a customer, or any other platform where the code has to run. The release is a process where the end users get access to the code and features. Feature flags and canary releases are some of the DevOps best practices that help successfully deploy and release codes.

Implementing feature flags and canary releases

Implementing feature flags in codes will help developers test the feature updates before the launch and fix the issues before the release. Feature flags improve the reliability and performance of the code and provide necessary controls to update applications without disruptions to dev teams. 

With feature flags, deploy the same code versions in different environments. You can implement feature flags as conditional statements within the source code. You can also set up your own conditional statements and control files to track feature flags.

Canary release is a DevOps practice that tests the impact of a new feature release without affecting your entire user base. You can release the feature to a limited number of users to check the changes made to the codes or features.

If you feel there are issues with the new feature, you can turn it off without affecting the user experience. Canary deployments can be done with the help of load balancers, AWS, Kubernetes, and more. To implement Canary deployment, you need to create two clones of the production environment and divide your user base accordingly in each of the load balancers.

Conclusion

DevOps is a continuously evolving process. DevOps is key in driving significant IT transformations that directly boost business goals and objectives.

By implementing the DevOps best practices mentioned in this post, the dev and ops team can collaborate better to accelerate the development process and improve the performance and reliability of the software.

Do you want to hire cost-effective DevOps engineers quickly without compromising on quality? Try Turing. At Turing, you can hire experienced, pre-vetted remote DevOps engineers. Also, you can now build a team of the best remote DevOps engineers in just a few days.

FAQs

  1. What are some of the best DevOps practices?
    Top 6 DevOps best practices to improve the application performance:
    1. Embrace Agile Project Management
    2. Implement security practices into the app
    3. Use the right tools to build the software
    4. Implement Continuous Integration/ Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
    5. Establish observability
    6. Implement feature flags and canary releases
  1. What is the next big thing in DevOps?
    DevOps is an important software development methodology. DevOps is continuously evolving to meet the changing needs of organizations. So, businesses need to watch out for the emerging trends in DevOps.

    Here are some of the latest DevOps trends:
    • Serverless Computer
    • Microservices Architecture
    • Low code/Noc code applications and platforms
    • DevSecOps
    • Kubernetes and GitOps
    • AI and ML

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By ● Aug 23, 2022
Software Development Life Cycle Strategies
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tech ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

7 Best Software Development Life Cycle Management Methods

7 Leaders share their software development management strategies: 1. Agility 2. Flexible approach 3. DevOps 4. An adaptive approach based on challenges and goals 5. Security

Global tech leaders have many software development life cycle methods to choose from for their software development processes. Each process comes with its advantages and disadvantages. Tech leaders decide the best process according to various factors and try to maximize the team’s output.

Seven tech leaders, who are also members of Forbes Technology Council, shared the effective life cycle methodologies they use in the software development process. 

Let’s take a look.

  1. Let the team decide their Software Development Life Cycle (SLDC)

    Gavin Hupp of SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment states that he has always empowered his team with Agile principles. However, when it comes to choosing the SLDC, it’s the team that decides. He further adds that as far as the process caters to three basic parameters: stay true to the vision, measure factors such as feedback from customers, and offer scope for constant improvement, any SLDC that the team chooses should be perfectly fine.

  2. The agile method helps build high ROI

    According to Abhinand Chincholi of OneOrigin Inc., the agile approach to a software development cycle is the only sustainable approach. SLDCs that depend only on the feedback from early adopters usually are less effective. Organizations should rely on SLDCs which have active feedback from the customers from time to time. An agile/super agile SLDC with two-to-three weeks sprint) provides customer-centric products thus enabling better ROI. Organizations can enhance by taking feedback at regular intervals rather than taking the feedback once.

  3. Improving cycles with DevOps

    Jason Jantz of ReadyMode says that he is always keen to implement DevOps to improve the software development cycles. He further adds that DevOps can improve teamwork, especially cross-functionally, which helps in process improvement while implementing different perspectives of various members of the teams.

  4. Custom method: Don’t stick to just one SDLC method

    Various factors such as the complexity of the project, timelines, deadlines, size of the team involved, and others affect the choice of SLDC. So, sticking to one method for SLDC can yield poor results, according to Dmitry Baraishuk of Belitsoft. 

    He says that a team leader should blend in different methodologies to maximize the potential of the software development process. As far as you meet the final goals of client satisfaction and a healthy work environment, any method, no matter if it’s a conventional one or a blend of various methods, works.

  5. Adapt to the challenges and goals

    Steven Gustafson from Noonum says that a technical leader should use common sense. He argues that great software was written even when there were no specific methodologies in place.

    The methods of software development life cycle can provide a base and templates for your SLDC. But, it’s up to you and your team to choose the path according to your goals and the challenges being faced. Your team should be responsible to identify what works for the development and improve or remove what’s not working.

  6. Security should be an integral part of the SLDC

    Mohamed Sadiq Ali of AccurKardia emphasizes the need of integrating security into SLDCs. He says that DevOps has established its value, and it’s high time that organizations start realizing the value of security integration in their software development life cycles.

    An organization should embed cyber security right from the beginning rather than strengthening the security protocols in the later stages of software development. He also adds that cyber threats are a concern that is not just restricted to nation states but are now every organization’s concern.

  7. Be flexible, don’t attract conflict, and focus on results

    Just like Dmitry, Erin Levine from Berbix believes that organizations should not stick to a particular method just because it worked for the organizations before. Every organization and tech leader should be open to new ideas and strategies.

    He also states that having a non-flexible attitude will only attract conflict between team members and affect the quality of results. 

Source

Summary

While there are tried and tested methods of how to properly strategize a software development life cycle, these seven leaders show that knowing your team, goals, and other factors such as timeline, requirements, etc., can make a lot of difference.

In addition, if you want a successful and effective SLDC, you should be flexible, open to suggestions from your team, adopt agile methodologies, have a feedback loop from customers, emphasize security, and be flexible while choosing the methods while focusing on the goals.

Are you a tech leader looking to build your dream software development team? Try Turing. With Turing, you can hire the top 1% from a global talent pool of over 3 million software developers who have been rigorously vetted through AI. Head over to the Hire Developers page for more information.

FAQs

  1. What are the 7 phases of SDLC?

    The 7 phases of the Software Development Life Cycle are Planning, Requirements, Design, Build, Document, Test, Deploy, and Maintain. Depending on the various factors such as team size, the requirement of the software, speed required, etc. a team leader can choose an SDLC of their choice to maximize the results and efficiency.

  2. What are software development strategies?

    Software development strategies can be defined as the process of creating software effectively while ensuring the goals that are to be achieved. It should include exact instructions for the team to streamline the process and maximize the efficiency of the team.

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By ● Aug 20, 2022
Recruitment ROI and how to calculate it
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

What is Recruitment ROI and How to Calculate It?

KPIs to measure recruitment ROI: First-year attrition, Offer acceptance rate, Application completion rate, Quality of Hire, Time to Hire, Cost per Hire, Candidate experience 

What is ROI in recruitment? How is ROI calculated in recruiting? How is the recruitment success rate calculated? How do you measure your recruitment performance? Which are the KPIs to measure recruitment ROI? 

Looking for answers to these questions? Dive in. 

What is ROI in recruitment?

In recruitment, Return On Investment (ROI) is a performance indicator that assesses an employee’s efficiency and profitability. Recruitment ROI measures the value of an employee to the company against the money spent by the employer for hiring and retaining that employee. 

How do you calculate ROI for recruitment? 

The employee lifetime value is divided by the cost of hiring and retaining that employee to determine recruitment ROI. A percentage or a ratio is used to express the result. 

Which metrics should you consider to measure recruitment ROI?

  1. Calculate the first-year attrition rate 

    All new hires need some time to settle in and deliver their best work. However, they come under first-year attrition if they leave within a year. 

    You will never be able to recoup your investment in your applicants if they leave before completing a year with you. The costs of acquiring new employees will pile up and impact your company’s bottom line.

    When candidates are met with unrealistic expectations that don’t necessarily align with the job requirements, they’ll likely quit the position within a year. Also, when you hire an unsuitable candidate for the job, performance will suffer, and you may have to let the employee go. 

    So, communicate what is expected of the candidate for the position and ensure they have enough resources to maximize their performance.

  2. Assess the offer acceptance rate

    The percentage of candidates who accept the job offer from your organization is the Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR). 

    On the contrary, after going through all interview rounds, tests, and interactions, if the candidate doesn’t join the organization, the hiring resources go to waste. The OAR decreases, and the company’s operational costs increase. 

    Low OAR is a bad sign for any company and is directly linked to recruiters’ competency. OAR reflects the recruiter’s ability to ascertain the candidate’s goals, needs, and significant concerns before making an offer. 

  3. Analyze the Application Completion Rate (ACR)

    According to a recent survey, about 60 percent of people abandon their applications in the middle because they are too long, tedious, or confusing. 

    Therefore, the number of people who complete your job application form is another important key performance indicator to keep track of. This KPI calculates how many candidates start an application for an open role at a company, fill it and submit it for consideration.

    Tracking ACR helps the hiring managers optimize their recruitment processes, used in conjunction with career page and job board analytics.

    Related post: 8 Ways Hiring Managers Can Include Automation in Their Hiring Process

  4. Determine the quality of hire

    This KPI is critical for determining whether a newly hired applicant is a good or bad fit for the company. 

    Determine how much value the new person brings to the organization and what impact they have on the company’s long-term goals. As performance and culture fit cannot be reduced to scores or statistics, this metric is subjective and differs for companies and employees. 

    Quality of Hire (in percentage) = (Indicator in percentage + Indicator in percentage) / Number of Indicators

  5. Calculate the Time To Hire (TTH)

    The time between when a candidate first enters the pipeline and when they accept a job offer is referred to as the time to hire. This is an important KPI because hiring processes require significant time and money. 

    Assume the day you opened a specific role is day one when calculating the time to hire. After that, deduct the number of days it takes a candidate to enter the pipeline from the number of days it takes them to accept an offer.

    For example, an applicant applied for an available position five days after it was advertised. Then, 20 days after the job was advertised, they accepted an offer. Your time to hire is 20-5=15 days.

    Time to hire = The day candidate accepted the offer – The day candidate entered the pipeline.

  6. Estimate the Cost Per Hire (CPH)

    The average money spent to fill a vacant position in a company is the cost per hire. 

    This metric helps track finances since it helps you plan your recruiting budget and allows you to compare spending over time. Your cost per hire also displays how much money you save by using recruitment software instead of search firms or external recruiters. 

    The American National Standards Institute and the Society of Human Resource Management developed a standard formula for estimating the cost per hire. The formula states – Add up the costs of both internal and external recruiting efforts and divide by the total number of hires.

    CPH = (Total internal + total external recruiting costs) / total number of hires in a specific time frame

An example to clarify how to calculate the recruitment ROI:

  • Assume that XYZ Company will hire 100 individuals over the next 12 months, with an average salary of $100,000. A total of $10 million in further compensation is offered. 
  • This would result in a total variable profit contribution of $24 million (100 individuals at $240,000 apiece). 
  • If the 100 individuals hired were 20 percent more productive, total profit would increase by $4.8 million annually. This increase would amount to around $20 million in additional variable profit over four years.
  • The cost of hiring 100 top-third employees is estimated to be around $3 million. This figure includes a four-year pay raise of $2 million, the expense of four additional recruiters in the first year, four additional LinkedIn Recruiter licenses for a year, and the cost of training recruiters and hiring managers to adopt performance-based hiring. 
  • The return on investment (ROI) for earning $20 million in profit over four years with a $3 million investment is over 600 percent, with a payback of three months. 

Related post: 6 Mistakes Hiring Managers Should Avoid Making

Bottom line

Math is fun, but it’s not for everyone. If you aren’t interested in maths and calculating recruitment ROI manually, you can use modern recruitment software, such as Arya by LeoForce, SelectHub, Workable, Trakstar Hire, Bamboo HR, iCIMS, JobVite, JobAdder, and BullHorn. 

If you wish to hire the world’s best developers remotely, try Turing.com. Turing makes remote recruiting simple and beneficial for businesses. Turing allows companies to employ pre-vetted, Silicon Valley-caliber remote software talent in 3-5 days across 100+ programming languages.

FAQs

  1. How is the recruitment success rate calculated?
    To calculate the success ratio, divide the number of hires who perform well by the total number of hired candidates. A high success ratio means that most of the hired candidates perform well. However, a low ratio means that recruiters must fine-tune their selection process.

  2. How do you measure your recruitment performance?
    Here are some of the most important KPIs to measure recruitment performance:
  • First-year attrition
  • Offer acceptance rate
  • Application completion rate
  • Quality of hire
  • Time to hire
  • Cost per hire
  • Candidate experience

Traditional recruiting wasn’t built for a software-first world

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By ● Jul 15, 2022
Major benefits of customer feedback for software development
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends

5 Major Benefits of Customer Feedback for Software Development

5 benefits of customer feedback: 1. Helps identify customer preferences 2. Enhances team efficiency 3. Increases software quality 4. Lowers developmental costs.

What is customer feedback? Why is user feedback vital for software development? What is user feedback used for? 

Keep reading the post to know more!

What is feedback?

Feedback is information or criticism that helps in improving someone’s or something’s current and future actions. Similarly, customer feedback is the reaction given by consumers based on their interaction with the product or services of a company.

Though most applications go through a rigorous development cycle, their success heavily depends on customers’ satisfaction and feedback. Based on customer feedback, developers can optimize the user interface. Customer feedback adds great value while developing a mobile application, web application, or any other software.

A customer-centric approach by an organization is the best way to collect user feedback and integrate it into the development process. In a customer-centric approach, business focuses on providing a positive customer experience, improved customer loyalty, and increased business growth.

Involving users in the software development process helps developers analyze the issues better. Developers find it challenging to identify every minute problem faced by the users. Customer feedback can give developers a solid understanding of the problems and definite solutions.

Related post: The Nine Steps of Software Product Development Life Cycle

Here are the important data points that every customer feedback for software development should include:

  • Operating system
  • Specifications
  • Features
  • Loading time
  • User experience 
  • New ideas

5 reasons why customer feedback is important

Customer feedback helps in understanding how customers perceive your brand. Organizations can make better decisions and improve the user experience with the feedback given by customers, employees, suppliers, stakeholders, and vendors. Effective customer feedback is important to do the following:

  • Identify customers’ preferences

    While launching a new product or software, customer feedback is vital to understanding the pain points, requirements, and choices of the users. With the help of customer feedback tools, it’s easier to gather, segregate and evaluate the data. Some of the tools like Survey Monkey, Typeform, Survey Sparrow, User Report, and Customer Sure are available to gather online customers’ feedback.

    This process of identifying the customer requirements and providing solutions accordingly will make the customers feel valued and involved in the product-building process. 

  • Enhance the team efficiency

    Customer feedback is based on the users’ experience with the software. The user feedback provides valuable information that helps the team complete their task efficiently and deliver it on time.

  • Increase the software quality

    Several people test the application when the development team releases the beta version of the software. Users might face issues related to the features, loading time, operating system, etc., and provide comprehensive feedback based on the issues to the development team. Upon receiving the feedback, developers easily make the changes and improve the quality of the software.

    Related post: What is Software Quality Assurance, and Why Is It Important?

  • Lower the developmental costs

    Early customer feedback allows developers to avoid major app changes and flaws. This way they can save time and eventually developmental costs. This step helps in fixing the bugs before the release of the software. Hence customer feedback saves time and developmental costs for the company.

  • Augment the marketing strategy

    Customer feedback provides vital information about user requirements and expectations. This information helps the marketing team to frame a better launch and positioning strategy. 

How to ask for customer feedback?

Benefits of customer feedback

How to ask for customer feedback?

The best ways to develop user-friendly software and derive reliable customer feedback are as follows:

  • Using the uninstall feedback surveys

    These surveys come into action when users uninstall the application. This type of feedback survey includes open-ended and multiple-choice questions. This survey enables users to share their reasons for uninstallation.

  • Utilizing bug reports

    A bug report is a common way to gather users’ feedback. If the software corrupts unexpectedly, the users can send their log files to the support team. and the software development team can resolve the bugs.

  • Reviewing instant online feedback

    Adding dialogue boxes on the website help in getting instant customer feedback. They will allow the users to have a quick conversation on the issues.

  • Circulating responsive emails

    The users can send videos, images, and log files via emails that help the development team understand the problems better. 

  • Leveraging social media channels

    Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn are great ways to collect customer feedback. Many customers share their experiences and provide reviews through social media. Hence, you can leverage social media platforms for customer feedback by creating polls, votes, and surveys.

Continuous collaboration between the developers, users, and the business is crucial for a successful software development process. Getting real-time feedback from users positively impacts software development. According to Forbes, businesses focusing on improving customer experience will have an 80 percent increase in their revenue. And thus, maximizing customer feedback helps in positioning the customer expectations with the software feature in every stage of software development.

Experienced software developers can leverage customer feedback to build the best apps and websites. 

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FAQs

What is user feedback used for?

User feedback helps companies understand what users feel while using a new product or software. User feedback gives actionable insights to developers and enables them to 

  • Identify customer preferences
  • Enhance team efficiency 
  • Increase the software quality
  • Lower developmental costs
  • Augment the marketing strategy

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By ● Jul 5, 2022
Tips to become a great Technical Hiring Manager
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

5 Tips to Become a Great Technical Hiring Manager and Hire Top Talent

Hire the best talent as a technical hiring manager with these tips 1. Identify requirements 2. Leverage social media 3. Ask the right interview questions.

How do I become a good hiring manager? What skills do hiring managers need? 

It’s not easy to be a technical hiring manager, especially when you have a difficult position to fill within a given deadline. Without a good strategy, the hiring process can be time-consuming and costly. However, hiring managers can avoid this slipup by setting clear objectives for the hiring process. 

Who is a technical hiring manager?

A technical hiring manager is responsible for making all the hiring-related decisions, such as creating a job description for the role, shortlisting candidates, conducting hiring interviews, screening the candidates, and making the best hire for a given position. Unlike an HR manager, a technical hiring manager is technically well-versed with the responsibilities of the role they are hiring for.

Here are five easy pointers to help technical hiring managers hire the best talent.

Technical hiring manager hiring interview tips

Tips to become a great hiring manager

  1. Pen down your requirements. Be sure of who and what are you looking for.

    If you don’t want to waste your time in the lengthy recruiting process, ensure that you know what you are looking for. Make a comprehensive job description for the role you’re hiring for. List all the requirements, prerequisites, perks, and benefits associated with the position in this description.

    Creating a comprehensive job description will help you build a seamless process for vetting and hiring a suitable candidate. This step can help a candidate decide whether the role suits them or not. Most importantly, having a clear JD will ensure that you and the candidates know everything about the job role.

  2. Leverage social media to attract the best talent

    Social media can do so much more than just marketing. You can leverage social media to attract top talent. Post on your social media channels like Linkedin and Instagram about the vacant position, showcase your company’s work culture, and reach out to potential candidates. Remember, highlighting your company’s work culture can help candidates prioritize you over the rest.

    You will find out that hiring through social media is way more effective than the conventional method of reaching out to candidates via calls and emails and scheduling a hiring interview. People are more likely to be active on their social handles than the conventional hiring platforms. And so, the next time you see a candidate who can be your potential employee, don’t hesitate to reach out to them via social media.     

  3. A good technical hiring manager asks the rights questions in a hiring interview

    Flying past the technical hiring interviews won’t ensure that you land the right candidate. You will have to ask the candidate the right questions to analyze their soft skills. These questions will also help you understand whether the candidate is a cultural and behavioral fit for your team.
    A candidate who is technically sound but lacks social and soft skills will most likely end up being the wrong hire. And if they’re not a good fit, you’ll have to go through the whole hiring process again. So, as a hiring manager, ensure that you ask questions that gauge the candidate on several aspects.

  4. Be a good and efficient decision-maker

    They say haste makes waste. But when it comes to hiring, waiting too long can make you lose out on a potential candidate. The job market has several great job opportunities for candidates. This availability means other hiring managers are trying to rope in top talent for their companies at the same time as you. And so, your hiring process and interview rounds should be quick and seamless so that the right candidate does not slip out of your hands.

  5. A good hiring manager should build a diverse and inclusive team.

    Diverse and inclusive work culture is the key to hiring the best candidates. A good hiring manager will never restrict their hiring based on gender, race, or location of the candidate. Instead, they will hire the right candidate based on their skills and experience.

    Having a diverse and inclusive culture will ensure that your team feels safe and accepted in the workplace. Ensure that there is no office politics and racial or gender bias in your team. Refrain from hiring candidates who may not be able to adopt an inclusive work culture. 

So, what makes a good hiring manager?

These five tips can help you to become a great hiring manager:

  1. Know what exactly are you looking for
  2. Leverage social media to attract the top talent
  3. Ask the right questions to your potential candidates in a hiring interview
  4. Be quick in your decisions
  5. Ensure that you have a diverse and inclusive team

Your decisions as a hiring manager may not always be the best ones. But a good hiring manager will learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating them in the subsequent hiring rounds. Remember, a good hiring manager is not the one who hires the best candidates every time, but someone who ensures that they build a dream team for the organization while learning from bad experiences. 

Are you a hiring manager looking to hire the best software developers at affordable prices? Try Turing! 

Turing can help you spin up your engineering team in just 3-5 days. Visit the Hire Developers page for more information!

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By ● May 5, 2022
OCEAN Personality Test
For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

How Can Hiring Managers Use the OCEAN Personality Test in Recruitment?

The Big Five or OCEAN personality test helps hiring managers assess candidates on 5 personality dimensions: 1. Openness 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extroversion.

What is the OCEAN personality test? What are the five main personality traits associated with OCEAN? How can the OCEAN model help in hiring decisions? How are personality tests used in the job hiring process? And how can you use personality tests to hire?

Looking for answers to these questions? Keep reading! 

Introduction

During the first few months of employment, hiring managers discover a lot of new traits about their employees. These details include whether they favor solo or group work, how they solve problems, how they handle workplace disputes, and more. 

Imagine gaining these crucial insights about your new hires before their first day on the job or even before you read their résumé. Enter, the OCEAN personality test. 

The OCEAN personality test assists hiring managers with interview questions during pre-employment personality evaluations. 

The OCEAN theory of personality traits measures the personality of every person on one of five scales – Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. These traits are commonly abbreviated as OCEAN and are consistent throughout an employee’s career.

What is the OCEAN personality test?

OCEAN personality test

What is the OCEAN personality test?

The Big Five or OCEAN personality tests assess a candidate’s performance on five key dimensions of their personality. They are as follows: 

OCEAN personality test trait 1: Openness

Openness demonstrates a candidate’s willingness to try new things. In other words, it assesses how much a person has a natural inclination toward new and adventurous activities. 

A person with a high openness score tends to be more creative and is willing to examine abstract topics. On the other hand, someone with a low openness score may be more pragmatic and focused on one activity.

OCEAN personality test trait 2: Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness assesses an individual’s ability to be organized, disciplined, and dependable. 

Those with high conscientiousness scores can organize their priorities readily and are more inclined to stick to a schedule throughout the day. A low conscientiousness score implies a high level of openness and risk-taking.

OCEAN personality test trait 3: Extroversion

Extroverts reflect the best energy when around other people. 

People who score high on extrovert scores are lively, exuberant, chatty, and impulsive. Also, they are more emotionally expressive. Most extroverts excel as team players, benefiting from the exchange of ideas and energy provided by group work. 

On the other hand, introverts thrive in low-key environments and tend to be quieter, calmer, and more meticulous in their job and personal lives. They are also reclusive, private, and thoughtful by nature. Introverts like to work alone and carefully consider an idea before sharing it with others. 

OCEAN personality test trait 4: Agreeableness

Agreeableness is an essential indicator of how easily a person can get along with others. Those who score high in this area are more likely to exhibit pro-social traits like compassion, kindness, and affection, but they may also be naive and submissive. 

Conversely, people who score lower in this personality trait are more competitive and argumentative, and hostile to others.

OCEAN personality test trait 5: Neuroticism

A high score on the neuroticism section of the test could indicate a person’s propensity for emotional vulnerability. 

On the other hand, an individual with a low score is better suited to cope with tension and stress. These people require calmer situations with predictable levels of stress. 

Unique personality patterns drive individual actions. Knowing these actions and the mental patterns that underpin them can give you a unique perspective on the workplace dynamics.

Related post: The Top Eight Automation Testing Trends to Lookout for in 2022

How does the OCEAN test work?

The working of OCEAN test

How does the OCEAN personality test work?

Test takers select from a list of words or sentences that affirm or deny one of the five characteristics. For each OCEAN trait, the test taker scores between one and five on a five-point Likert scale. 

On the five-point Likert scale, one stands for highly inaccurate, whereas five stands for highly accurate.

Here are a few sample questions from OCEAN personality tests:

  • I have a kind word for everyone. 
  • I am always prepared. 
  • I feel comfortable around people. 
  • I often feel blue. 
  • I believe in the importance of art. 

These OCEAN personality tests may not consistently deliver the level of predictive accuracy that many hiring managers are looking for. However, psychologists widely accept the OCEAN theory as reliable and definite.

How are personality tests used in the job hiring process?

According to recent research, employees placed in positions that do not match their personality are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs. And using the OCEAN personality tests can provide insight into vital information about candidates, such as their personality, values, and work preferences. 

Here are the two steps to implement OCEAN personality tests in the job hiring process:

Step 1: Pre-circulate the OCEAN questionnaire

Businesses are realizing that talent alone isn’t enough to make an employee a good fit for a company. 

When using data that can be compared and considered, employers are more likely to make decisions that will benefit both individual and group achievement in terms of the office team and the employees themselves.

Mail the OCEAN personality test questionnaire to candidates via mail. Many websites also provide free OCEAN personality tests and analyses. Once through with the tests, ask the candidates to share their test reports online. 

Build interview questions based on OCEAN personality test reports. For example, if a candidate scores low on openness, ask how they will engage with cross-functional teams.

Step 2: Nurture the talent 

After the actual hiring process, the first few weeks are crucial for the new employees and the employers.

Use the OCEAN personality test report to recognize employee strengths and shortcomings, areas to celebrate, and regions that could use improvement. 

For example, hiring managers can consider assigning creative and cross-functional assignments to nurture their inherent talent if an employee has a high openness score. Similarly, if they have a low openness score, hiring managers can initially assign low interaction jobs and gradually scale to jobs involving more interaction and cross-functional dependency. 

How can OCEAN personality tests help in the work environment?

OCEAN personality tests help in the work environment

How can OCEAN personality tests help in the work environment?

OCEAN personality tests have many advantages. These tests can assist hiring managers in understanding their employees better. They can map out an employee’s job potential before their first day. Later, they can utilize the information to understand employees’ strengths and weaknesses better.

In addition, hiring managers can devise strategies to get the most output out of each employee by assigning roles and responsibilities they are best suited for. Last but not least, these tests can help managers bring in diversity in hiring. 

So, how can you use personality tests to hire?

OCEAN is one of the most popular and extensively used personality test models globally.

Employers can better comprehend the specific dynamics of their workplace by developing stable and compassionate workplace culture and gaining a thorough awareness of employees’ social and emotional habits. 

Career experts and psychologists often use this information in a personality career exam for applicant assessment and recruiting. 

If you’re looking for talented professionals to work on your next project, Turing.com is an excellent place to start. Turing allows you to hire senior, pre-vetted remote developers with strong technical and communication skills at incomparable costs, all of whom are available to work in your timezone.

FAQs

  1. What is the OCEAN personality test? What is the Big 5 personality test?
    The ocean personality test is based on the five-factor model that measures five pre-dominant personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

  2. What is a conscientiousness personality trait?
    Conscientiousness defines a person’s tendency to think, feel, and respond in certain ways under certain circumstances.

  3. What are the 5 main personality traits associated with OCEAN?
    The five main personality traits associated with OCEAN are as follows:
    1. Openness 
    2. Conscientiousness 
    3. Extraversion 
    4. Agreeableness
    5. Neuroticism

Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.

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By ● May 3, 2022
Best Ways to Create the Best Workplace Culture for Women in Tech
Culture and Productivity ● For Employers ● Leadership and Management ● Tech ● Tips, Tools, and Trends ● Vetted Talent ● Vetting and Hiring

4 Ways to Create the Best Workplace Culture for Women in Tech

Women hold only 25% of IT jobs in the USA and less than 1/5th of C-suite executives. Here are the 4 ways to create the best workplace culture for women in tech.

What does it mean to be a woman in tech? What is the best part of being a woman in the tech industry? What is the ideal workplace culture for women in tech? And how do you create the best workplace culture for women in tech?

Looking for answers to these questions? Keep reading! This post highlights how you can build the best workplace culture for women in tech. The post also shares four ways companies can foster a culture of inclusion where women can thrive. Let’s dive in. 

Introduction

Despite the efforts to encourage women to pursue technology-related jobs, the figures remain alarming. While the total number of women in tech has climbed from 1.6 million to 3.7 million over the last three decades, the percentage of women in tech roles has decreased. Surprisingly, women made up a higher percentage of the IT workforce in 1984 (35 percent) than today (32 percent). 

In addition, women in tech hold only 25 percent of IT jobs in the United States, and they are 45 percent more likely to leave their jobs than men. Moreover, women make up less than one-fifth of CIOs and CTOs in the Fortune 1000.

A diverse workforce better serves customers, creates a positive brand image, and provides unique insights, knowledge and experiences. Over the last two decades, several studies have shown a positive correlation between higher female representation in the workplace and various business performance indicators, including better financial performance, higher return in sales, better stock growth, and more.

As a result, several businesses are focusing on diversity and female inclusion strategies. However, the world needs a cultural shift to change the game for women in tech. 

Four ways companies can foster a culture of inclusion: 

  1. Recruit more women in tech

    Hire more women in tech

    Recruit More Women In Tech


    Ensure that your hiring process is not discriminatory toward women and that your job postings are gender-neutral.

    By conducting blind assessments, recruiters can eliminate unconscious bias and the belief that women in tech are incapable of performing a particular job. Companies can also run tests that don’t require the candidates to reveal their gender. This way, you can judge the applicants solely on their performance.

    Once recruiters finish the resume screening, decide on the interview panel members. Ensure the interview panel has diverse individuals. While inviting the candidate back for a second interview, make sure she has the opportunity to talk with a senior female manager.

    This step will show her that your company supports career advancement.  Most importantly, this initiative will give her insight into what it’s like to work for the organization as a woman. 

  2. Remove bias from decision-making

    Management should not determine whether or not employees are interested in certain positions. Please don’t assume that a particular employee is not available or interested in new challenges because they have to care for a family.

    Allow all employees to choose their battles. Offer them career opportunities if they have the necessary talent and mindset to grow. Don’t let your subconscious bias decide for your employees.

    Related post: The Key to This Twitter Manager’s Interviewing Approach? Clearly Defined Rubrics!

  3. Allow women to be their authentic selves

    Men drive several traditional leadership paradigms in the workplace. Expecting women to lead the same way as men can undermine and even diminish their contributions. So, it’s crucial to allow the women in tech to be their authentic selves.

    Ensure that your company encourages women to take the lead and be open to alternative ideas and techniques in the workplace.

  4. Focus on output, not attendance

    Concentrate on output, not attendance

    Focus on output, not attendance


    Building a successful career while raising a family is challenging, especially when most supervisors are more concerned with office hours than an employee’s output.

    We now live in a world where flexibility is essential.  We have the tools and technologies to perform various tasks from virtually anywhere.

    By establishing flexible work schedules that prioritize results over attendance, women in tech can participate equally and contribute at work and get the most out of their abilities. 

    Related post: Amazon’s Success Formula for Building an Invention Machine

How are big techs helping women in tech? 

In the twenty-first century, a gender-diverse workplace is necessary for a company’s growth. And thus, Airbus, Microsoft, and Accenture are attempting to understand cultural norms and create a favorable workplace for women. 

Here’s how:

  • Microsoft’s DigiGirlz program allows middle and high school girls to meet Microsoft professionals and gain insight into the field of technology. 
  • Under the ‘High-tech Women Rise’ program, Accenture aims to help women develop a long-term career in technology. The program offers many benefits, such as maternity leaves, period leaves, sabbatical leaves, etc., to help women return to work. 
  • Airbus launched the ‘Fly Again’ program to provide career opportunities for women who wished to return to work after taking a break. Candidates who participated in this program received free upskill training, coaching, and guidance to catch up with the industry.

So, how can your company hire more women in tech?

The advantages of having a diverse leadership team are huge. However, tech firms have yet to make the most of women’s potential. 

Everybody from top management to new joiners must pitch in to build great workplaces for women. Remember, commitment from all company members will help women in tech reach their full potential, resulting in a win-win situation for both organizations and employees.

If you wish to build great software with a diverse talent pool, visit Turing.com. The Palo Alto-based company helps businesses source, vet, match and manage the best software developers and engineers remotely. This process allows businesses to save valuable time and resources, and spin up their dream engineering team in just a few days. 

Tell us the skills you need and we'll find the best developer for you in days, not weeks.

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By ● Apr 25, 2022