Recruiting react developers in stockholm

1. Hooking React developers
My perspective on hiring JavaScript engineers in
Stockholm's talent pool and how you can interview more
efficiently

2. Who and what?

3. Oliver @ Worldfavor
● Former developer
○ Approx 10 years experience in software development
■ FPGA, embedded c++, Javascript, C#, Databases etc..
○ Only really worked in small but skilled teams
○ However this was in a variety of company sizes
○ Sustainability software, enable companies to see details of the supply chain

4. Engineering Management
● Tasked with growing the team by CEO
○ Grow by 2 people by end of year
○ Most experienced engineer in the team, have worked in some other teams
● Main objective was to hire a senior react front end dev
○ Take ownership of the front end architecture
○ Help in further recruitment phases
○ The center point to build a team around
○ Guide us with our frontend challenges
● Idea for this presentation
○ Want to share with you my findings from the “management” dark side
○ Hopefully this presentation will help you understand javascript recruitment better
○ How to perform well and find a relevant role for you

5. Candidate commonalities

6. Commonalities
● Lots of commonalities some
○ Positive &
○ Negative
● We can touch on them quickly
○ So you can think how your team is doing internally
○ Maybe there are areas you can improve & some is being done well

7. Avoid the negative commonalities
● Candidates often stated a dislike for
○ Treated like a coding monkey/drone - task assignments
○ Lack of morale in the team they were in
○ Not feeling like their work was meaningful to themselves, the world or others
○ Lack of strategy, direction or processes or even all three
○ Everyone leaving the company at the same time
○ Lack of test coverage or time allocated for this
■ This was very common actually,
■ It would probably link to lack of pride in developers work

8. Foster the positive commonalities
● Candidates typically stated a desire for
○ Transparency, meaning an open and honest working environment
■ Feeling valued, having input and collective ownership of solutions
○ To be consulted in the design or architecture of new features
○ To have a team which was getting close to being a second family
○ To make a more meaningful impact with their work
■ This one might be specifically pitched to us based on the company values etc
○ Basically no one even talked about salary, it was mostly a secondary concern
○ Somewhere valuing unit test coverage and proper process management

9. Standing out

10. How do you stand out?
● Candidates would answer very very, VERY similar for many questions
○ Sometimes it would be almost predictable what candidates would answer
○ This isn't necessarily harming the candidate in the process but it isn't helping you either
○ My advice here is to not be afraid to let your personality shine through
■ Don't try to answer with what you think the interviewer wants to hear,
■ Give something honest and real.
● Be yourself it will help you find somewhere suitable (most important)
● Questions with common answers
○ What do you value in a teams culture?
■ Openness, honesty, good team mates, ability to share opinion and discussion etc..
○ What do you know about Worldfavor?
■ Pretty much the same, read the website etc..

11. Screening for a match
● Screen the recruiter on the role and know what you are looking for and what you don’t want
○ I met MANY nice, qualified and fantastic people
■ Like some i really liked as people and would like to know further
○ But often they didn't have an clear goal that aligned with what we needed or wanted
■ You should really think what you want to find, why you want to find it and the reasons the hiring
team should chose you. Close these gaps and you will save a lot of time
● Realise the company interviewing needs a certain skill-set like right now
○ This is why I say you should screen really hard on the recruiter or via email before attending an interview
○ Make sure what you will interview for is actually what you really want
■ This means % of tasking, role responsibility, daily tasks, state of companies automation, be picky
on this stuff, ask alot of questions early on to save yourself time, if your not sure its a match keep
looking, be picky!!

12. Technical matchmaking
● Think about the technical challenges the company has, find them out and come with some ideas
or solutions
○ Only one candidate asked about the package JSON in our coding test and package selection choices
● Dont fabricate if you have’nt used reselect or flow or storybook or w/e
○ Most of the candidates we saw said the same things on our stack
○ Most hadn't heard of the same of the things
○ The best response I saw when the person hadn't heard of something
■ Was to get out a notebook and make a personal note on her knowledge gaps
■ This was noteworthy behaviour and stood out as admirable, it helped the candidate a lot
■ Learn what storybook is, its crazy how many react candidates had never heard of it,
● If you are using something better please tell me :)

13. Further tips
● If the company is stalling or delaying, its a major indicator of disinterest
● Its like pursuing a lover
○ if you are into them your chasing them down, If your less interested your slower to respond
● As soon as we saw the candidates we liked, we were after them hard
○ This means following up with them & checking in
○ Accomodating to their schedules as best we could
○ Getting back to them with further process steps quickly, wanting them back quickly etc..
○ Offering contracts and proposals as fast as possible without seeming overly eager
○ We were heavily loaded internally yet priority was easily given to acquire the candidates we wanted most

14. Further tips
● You can use this to your advantage
○ If the company is slowish, you should be offering your abilities elsewhere, no qualms about it
● Have a salary range available for the role
○ The common advice is not to give up salary ranges too early
○ This makes it hard for the hiring team to accurately compare you against others
○ It wastes your time if your disconnected from the budget they have for the role
○ You should just state a range which you would accept based on the role
■ Do your research here, and ask your peers
○ Its annoying if you give a good interview and we have to waste more time later on this
■ its better you know the min + max, and say something in the middle or higher end
■ Some candidates would not give this information up and it didn't help them because its annoying
as you can’t gauge the value vs cost

15. The numbers

16. Some basic Numbers
● Candidates formally processed
○ 30 Candidates
○ Probably around 20 more who didn't go past a phone screen or fell out before a phone call
● Candidate acquisition sources
○ Internal recruiter - outbound
○ Online free job sites, facebook jobs etc..
○ Company career page
● Candidates actually interviewed
○ 23 Candidates
● Candidates interviewed more than once
○ 8 Candidates

17. Some basic Numbers
● Candidates offered
○ 3 Candidates offered, 2 Hires - 1 senior, 1 junior
● Salary expectation of all candidates
○ Low: 28k, High: 62k - Mean : 43,736 SEK (23)
● Average age
○ 29.3 years old
○ Some told us some I just guess based on linkedin :)
○ It didn't factor in the candidates chances, it was about role and fit etc..
● Average years of experience for 23 candidates that interviewed
○ 5.3 Years
● Total recruitment time
○ 9 weeks = 4.5 weeks a candidate, approx 4 interviews a week for us

18. To Summarize

19. Summary
● Story and relevancy to role and future role in the company - Align these!
○ Dont say a future role that isn't in the company when asked where you will be in 3/5 years
■ Only one candidate said they would be working with us if they got the job (++ for the candidate)
● Salary range for the position in your head, researched and available
● Go deeper than the home page when researching for developer roles
○ Ask the recruiter/hr tough questions so you know the libraries being used on the platform
○ Share knowledge, understanding and question on these during the interview (++ for the candidate)
○ Take notes on new ones to help you in other interviews and grow as a dev
● Screen the recruiter on the phone hard, for true details on the role
○ This reduces the risk you end up somewhere you don't like
○ You save time on the process

20. Thanks, Any
Questions?
Contact me:
Oliver Dolan
me@oliverdolan.com
www.oliverdolan.com
www.worldfavor.com