The best way to see if someone can write code is to have them write code. Therefore, we test everyone!
The trick is to make the test as similar to your every day work as possible. Don’t send them through a list of multiple choice questions on the finer points of JavaScript. In my experience, there is very little correlation between book smarts and streets smarts.
I had a client early on who thought the answer would be to hire computer science grads from Columbia (he lived in New York at the time). This was before we did testing. Anyways, after 4 weeks and 3 graduates, we hadn’t moved the company forward at all. They had all the books but hadn’t done anything on the streets.
Don’t test as part of your filtering process. Filter well, then choose your horse and make your bet. Some developers won’t take tests without pay. We tried compensating, but it ended up being too costly, so we switched to just guaranteeing work if they pass the test. Passing is as easy as submitting code we could bill for.
You’ll definitely need to test every person on your team, but that can be a challenge for non-technical founders searching for a tech lead. There are lots of third party test administrators out there, but we find that most if not all are too theoretical. We don’t have a good solution for this problem except that we could help you set a test if you need.
As a benchmark, of the 1% of developers that make it through our filters and to a test, only about 1/2 of the devs pass.
With all rules, there are some exceptions. A coding test is less important, like when you’re hiring a dev shop with lots of past experience, a solid online reputation, and public reviews.
As mentioned previously, you shouldn’t use testing as part of filtering candidates. If you’d like to read more about how to filter well, download our free Guide to Tech Projects for Non-technical Founders.
If you need hands on help with your project, Buink has years of experience managing and completing technical projects on time, under budget, and with a high level of quality. Contact Buink today.
