How We Doubled Ateam Soft's Engineering Team Growth Rate in 6 Months
When faced with a talent shortage, and an ambitious product roadmap, how do you scale your engineering team without compromising on quality?
Here’s how we doubled our engineering growth rate in just six months:
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𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗘: SCALING AMID A TALENT SHORTAGE
With an ambitious product roadmap, our challenge wasn’t just hiring more engineers; it was hiring the right talent fast enough to meet the demand—without overloading the team.
At one point, only 1 in 15 candidates passed all interviews, and we were losing potential hires due to a lengthy recruitment process.
The numbers were clear:
50 candidates dropped out yearly.
25 hires lost annually due to a slow process.
Engineers spent excessive time interviewing.
We needed a faster, smarter way to screen candidates.
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𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗪𝗘 𝗗𝗢𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦
Our strategy focused on two critical changes:
Refining the Recruitment Process
Supporting Our Engineering Teams
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𝗥𝗘𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗧𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦
A) Introducing a Technical Pre-screen
Our recruiters lacked the ability to properly assess technical skills early in the process, leading to too many unqualified candidates moving forward.
We introduced a technical pre-screen, allowing recruiters to assess candidates' computer science fundamentals upfront. This simple change significantly improved the quality of candidates entering the pipeline.
→ Result: We screened out 40% of unqualified candidates, saving 600 engineering hours annually.
B) Revamping the Take-home Challenge
The five-hour take-home challenge was causing 40% of candidates to drop out. We introduced an alternative: a one-hour live coding interview.
→ Result: Dropout rates fell from 40% to 0%, giving candidates flexibility while maintaining rigorous standards.
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𝗦𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗖𝗘𝗦𝗦
We also focused on easing the burden on our engineers, who were spending too much time interviewing.
A) Training More Engineers to Interview
We increased the number of engineers trained to interview, spreading the workload across the team. This reduced the reliance on a few key engineers.
B) Hiring a Scheduling Assistant
A dedicated assistant took over administrative tasks, freeing recruiters to focus on identifying the right candidates.
→ Result: These changes gave recruiters 35 hours back per week to focus on screening candidates, and reduced engineering time spent on interviews by 33%.
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𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗙𝗜𝗧𝗦
The impact of these changes was clear. We doubled our hiring rate without adding more recruiters, and we managed to scale our engineering team without compromising on quality.
Our engineers now spend 20 hours interviewing per hire, compared to 30 hours previously, saving 1000 hours over 100 hires.
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