HR Perspective: Technical Interviews for Mobile App & Web Developers

When someone is looking for a job, there are some objectives that he or she is looking for besides a good salary. In IT, the job demands a lot of time to solve problems on a normal basis. That can sometimes be very stressful. How do the developers survive the excess work load and still stick around? Well, that's why we have an organizational culture. So, what is an organizational culture? How you can implement it in your interviews as a recruiter?

organizational culture optimized

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a set of perceptions, feelings, attitudes, habits, beliefs and ways to interact between coworkers (Gross, 2008). In human resources, we're always looking for ways to improve the workplace to have a better work environment. For example, our organizational culture promotes these six values: exceed expectations, professionalism, teamwork, integrity, fun, and learn & adapt.

HR looks for developers who are compatible with our organizational culture. Therefore, we all need to reflect this process in our interviews. For this objective, the tech advisors, marketing and human resources worked on a new process for the “Technical Interviews”, which includes the following:

Manual of technical skills
Inform all software developers about the Company's benefits
Inform about new customers
Phases of the Technical Interview
Best Practices for Technical Interviewers

This new process reflects our organizational culture and the manual of technical skills contain the best programming practices that all developers must have. The new phases of the technical interview reflect our values: exceeds expectations, professionalism, teamwork, integrity, fun and learn & adapt.

This process helps us to find the best developer that the company needs. We have many types of candidates who apply. They could be arrogant, reserved, outgoing, friendly or shy. However, most of the candidates become very nervous about the technical interviews. Sometimes, they don't show their full potential because they are just too nervous. They could think why they are not good enough for this position?. It's not about all the years of experience that a developer has, but it is about what they have done during those years. We could have candidates with many years of experience and they haven't done anything relevant, or we could have candidates with a few years of experience and maybe they have the experience developing many amazing things.

We mainly look for good developers who are passionate about computers and app or mobile development, and who are looking to learn new mobile and web technologies. They should make the development focused on giving the end users more friendly, dynamic and intuitive experience. iTexico’s developers like to work with faster, easier, and cleaner code. They are owners of their projects and they interact amicably with their customers.

Now, I'm going to give some tips to the interviewers about the process that we use at iTexico. I have asked several candidates about their experience with iTexico and other companies. Here is a list of things that they are looking for in an interview:

The interviewer has to evaluate more of the engineering skills than the theoretical part.
Sincerity
The interviewer has to be polite.
The interviewer has tested my logical thinking.
The interviewer makes me feel comfortable.
The interviewer responds to my answers nicely.
The interviewer has fun.
The interviewer makes me feel important.
The interviewer thanks me for the time that I spent on the interview.
They communicate the requirements of the position and the work environment.
The interview has been entertaining.

Do you have all these points mentioned above during the interviews? I encourage to do so and enjoy the interview process. It's always fun to talk to other developers and learn new things about other people. You are part of a great company, and you are helping to make that company bigger and a fun place to work! Remember, it's all about the people.

About the Author

Karina Alejandra Villaseñor is an Industrial Relations specialist with more than 2 years of experience as a recruiter. You can contact her through LinkedIn.