Senior Java Developer recruitment within 20 days

Sometimes clients come to us with quite crazy recruitment ideas. And although we’re not a company that chase rainbows, we really like challenges and we’re not afraid to go beyond the scope of services usually provided.

The non-standard recruitment opportunity came in the autumn of 2017, and it was Spartez who approached us with an idea.

Spartez is a Gdańsk company that both develops Atlassian products and creates its own paid add-ons to their ecosystem. The problem was that there are not enough Java Developers in Tri-City to meet their recruitment needs. Therefore, they needed engineers who were willing to move.

However, there was a problem with the recruitment process itself, which would normally require programmers to take several trips to Gdańsk. Therefore, instead of requiring candidates to come to the north of Poland, the company focused on its own mobility. This need turned into an idea for the Krakow Roadshow, which we gladly joined.

Senior Java Developer recruitment was to look like this

• Humeo & Spartez Talent Team during the last week of October and the first two weeks of November contact the candidates and verify their competences.

• In the second and third week of November, the first stage of recruitment takes place, consisting of remote live coding.

• In the third week of November during the weekend, engineers from Spartez come to Krakow to meet the candidates.

• Feedback and the offer took place in record time – several minutes after the conversation.

The goal of Spartez was to create a remote team from scratch, which is why the candidates had the choice of either moving to Gdańsk or working in 90% remote, with regular delegations to Gdańsk.

Advantages of the offer

• Very good company brand.

• (Atlassian) product, highly valued by programmers.

• Attractive salary.

• Possibility of remote work or – in the case of relocation – very large support in this process.

• Novelty – when a new and unusual offer appears on the market, it becomes really popular.

• Very hard deadlines – candidates knew what and when to expect.

Disadvantages of the offer

• Remote work on such a large scale, uncomfortable for many candidates.

• Regular delegations needed – in the case of remote work.

• Very hard deadlines – no room for even small delays.

A further advantage was the time in which we were conducting recruitment – in autumn we were attacked by a huge smog. Therefore, the idea of moving to the Tri-City for people from Krakow at that time was much more tempting than, for example, in spring.

As Spartez had a double-digit number of vacancies, expectations for Humeo were very high (but genuine). We provided them with a recruiter who worked exclusively on this one process for nearly a month.

What we managed to do

We organized a brief in which Spartez very clearly communicated what qualifications he expects from future employees. In terms of requirements, the bar was set really high. On the other hand, Spartez Talent Team provided me with a lot of specific information, and all communication was characterized by a huge transparency and openness to discussions.

In order to avoid contacting the same people (Spartez employees were also actively sourcing), we divided ourselves properly the Krakow talent pool and started conversations.

The results of our actions

Why such a small conversion (number of approaches -> recommended candidate)?

Although the offer response rate was very large, for most people neither remote work in such a large extent nor relocation was a comfortable option. At the same time, the majority emphasized the attractiveness of the offer, which stands out from the rest.

Quite a large group asked for more details in the telephone conversation and asked for time to think about the offer. However, after thinking it over, the vision of such a big change was overwhelming.

The candidates sought were persons with Senior/Principal competences, who have usually started a family and settled permanently in Krakow. In such cases, candidates needed to consult their life partners before making such binding decisions.

It’s also worth mentioning that Spartez was positively surprised by the level of candidates we recommended. It’s confirmed by the fact that only two people didn’t make it to the last stage.

Roadshow summary

After the project was completed, both parties felt that the work done was valuable. The whole went well for several reasons:

During the entire project, communication between Spartez and Humeo was regular and open in the first place. All problems and ambiguities were immediately cleared up.

The hard deadline was extremely motivating for total focus.

Spartez had clear expectations of the candidates they needed. Due to this, the recruitment process was very systematized and the offer could be submitted within 15 minutes of the end of the interview.

Are there any cons of roadshow projects?

There are definitely a few. It’s worth mentioning them here and considering them before introducing a similar solution in your company.

First of all, it should be remembered that the vision of relocation for developers from Krakow isn’t very attractive. Mainly since there are many interesting job offers in Krakow. To make just 4 offers, we needed to send as many as 400 messages. We’re certain that with the same number of people contacted, in the case of recruitment in the same city, it would be much more effective.

And here we come to the second con of such a recruitment solution – the large organizational effort needed to carry out the roadshow project efficiently. This process required the full commitment and cooperation of several people from the company and nearly titanic effort. We’re not claiming that it’s impossible in another organization. However, it should be noted that the level of organization and cooperation of the Spartez team was very high and achieving it will undoubtedly be a big challenge for many companies.

Senior Java Developer recruitment – summary

From our point of view, “roadshow” is a great solution to use, but rather on the home market (that is, where the company’s office is located). It should work especially well in situations when we want to quickly scale the team. If we would like to use it outside our market, we advise you to carefully analyze first whether you have used all the options to acquire candidates locally. Only after such an analysis can you clearly state that you are heading in the right direction.

Regardless of which variant you choose, Humeo is always happy to help 😉

Michał Bieńko

IT Recruitment Consultant