How Tech Companies Are Changing the Recruitment Industry

Categories: Advice for HR Professionals, Advice for Start-ups and Entrepreneurs, Recruitment Advice, Trends and Learning

How Tech Companies Are Changing the Recruitment Industry

Some of the biggest names in the tech industry wouldn’t be where they are now if not for their talented employees working tirelessly to put these companies on the map. An organization’s workforce will always be one of its key strengths, so they always make sure they get top talent to help run the company and achieve its business goals.

Huge tech companies devise and introduce some of the most innovative yet meticulous methods to recruit the best in the business. They are so comprehensive that a recruitment agency or HR team could take a page out of their books to fine-tune their recruitment process and find the right talent.

Google

The search engine giant has built a reputation for having some of the most rigorous recruitment processes. A potential candidate must undergo tight preparation to ace that job interview and secure the position.

According to Google employees, the interview process they had to go through was difficult or even very difficult. In fact, before they became employees, they had to pass three stages in the recruitment process that includes undergoing 29 interviews. If you’re a company that receives a million CVs a year, you’ll have to take the necessary measures to find who’s the best for the position.

The whole hiring process begins in the company’s Careers platform. Potential candidates will find all the necessary information that will guide you in applying for a position. The process is outlined clearly with all the information standardized for a more streamlined application.

A candidate simply clicks a button and receives a form where they can upload their CV and provide basic contact information.

The interview is divided into two main sections that consist of a phone interview and an on-site interview for a more comprehensive analysis of a candidate. Both interviews differ depending on the role.

The review can take a couple of weeks since this thorough approach has two key stages. The first involves a hiring committee made up of Google employees at varying levels in the company. They will work through all the materials on the candidates and make their top picks.

The recommendations of the hiring committee are added to a candidate’s packet, which is passed on to senior management. This is when the final decision is made.

Facebook

Being a relatively new company, Facebook has scaled so quickly that it has also adopted modern hiring techniques. Some of their processes are similar to Google’s which have practical focus with a clear consideration of employee satisfaction.

From the sample questions published on Glassdoor, you can see an interesting theme that incorporates both tactical and lateral thinking. While Google is known for asking abstract and unpredictable questions, Facebook’s approach is wholly grounded in its products.

The company utilizes multiple interview stages, with one successful candidate reaching a whopping 17 rounds. All applicants must first go through a short 15-minute interview, which is designed to pluck out candidates early in the process until the final rounds.

After all the candidates have gone through the necessary stages to reach the point of being hired, a small group of senior engineers is given veto power where potential hires are given the yes or no. Based on the article by Process, senior engineers have this final decision because of their involvement in the onboarding process of their new hires. Newly hired developers are immersed in a bootcamp that stretches into a six-week program. This bootcamp exposes them to Facebook’s deep well of code and in the end, this will help them decide what team they want to work with.

Take note that this process only applies to engineering or developer roles at Facebook. For non-engineering roles, there’s a different set of questions and panel that the applicant has to go through.

Apple

Compared to Google and Facebook, Apple’s hiring process involves specific groups having their own style and strategy. So if you’re interested in multiple departments, you’ll have to be interviewed separately.

The rest is pretty much standard protocol for Apple. A candidate will receive a phone call for the preliminary interview. He or she will then be invited to come over for a day packed with more interviews from different senior employees. This is where they separate the candidates who don’t necessarily fit the bill and proceed to whittle down the pool to the best.

Microsoft

Microsoft has a straightforward recruitment process that involves a preliminary phone interview, before being invited to go through three rounds of testing: 1) written and online test, 2) technical interviews, and 3) HR interview.

The great thing about the company is that it has the quickest average response time after an interview, compared to Google that may take weeks before a candidate can get an update.

Amazon

Amazon has around five stages in its recruitment process. After being invited to go through the screening process, a candidate must first go through the written round, which consists of an aptitude and a technical test.

Online coding round comes next, where candidates are presented with 3-4 coding questions with intermediate difficulty. They will then go through a series of technical rounds to test their capabilities before reaching the most technical-intensive round given by a hiring manager. Finally, they reach the end of the road with an HR professional conducting the interview.

Recruitment Process 2.0

Looking for talent with the best technical abilities also takes a special kind of recruitment process, and these companies appear to have them down pat. What makes their process stand out from standard corporate methods are:

1. Their focus on a candidate’s comprehensive technical know-how, which is important for tech companies who are trying to build products and grow the company.

2. Ability to fit into the culture, which is important if their hires are going to thrive and reach their potential.

3. Being thorough with the recruitment process. It’s the only way to find the best of the best.

Do You Have What It Takes to Be Part of Their Team?

While these tech companies have very unique and meticulous ways of looking for their next hire, recruitment agencies can also provide the same level of accuracy. Recruitment agencies can thoroughly check for culture fit and technical proficiency which an in-house recruitment might not be able to deliver.

You can partner up with a recruitment agency to maximize their strategies in place to hire for tech and IT positions. This expertise covers from fullstack developer and mobile developer roles, to frontend developer and backend developer roles.

These big tech companies may have different takes on how they hire new talent, but the way they conduct them tells you how they can be thorough in finding the best to join their team. They’ve all managed to finely tune their hiring process that goes way beyond the standard corporate methods. There is indeed one reason why these companies are highly successful in their industry: their people.

TJ Pestano