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How to Hire Ninja Coders Without Visiting the Silicon Valley?

Updated on Jan 07, 2020

How to Hire Ninja Coders Without Visiting the Silicon Valley?

Hiring people is difficult, and hiring coders, especially ninja coder is even more than difficult! But who is a Ninja coder?

They are known as the developer polyglots who don’t limit themselves to one language. Instead, they have a base programming language and are comfortable working with other coding languages as well. A ninja coder is skilled enough to navigate through various languages and databases in order to solve every possible technical challenge.

Now with digitization becoming a widespread phenomenon, hiring a ninja programmer has become as the utter need for every enterprise.

So how do you hire them?

Do you judge them on the basis of your technical skills? Do you take them through a proper interview or check their coding abilities? Or simply plan to visit the Silicon Valley?

While testing the coding capability is a primary step in assessing the potential hire, here are some actionable tips that can help you hire the ninja coders.

Try To Find The Ninja Coders In Their Natural Habitats #

You don’t just stumble on and find a Ninja coder that will work for your project. These coders are quite passionate and strive to gain excellence in their domain. So, rather than finding them from hiring websites, try looking for them in their natural habitats such as Hackathons and sites like Reddit, GitHub, and more.

Hackathons #

It is an event where the various passionate coders and programmers collaborate to make new software. Although events like hackathons are educational, but you can dive deep into the web and find a coder or two for your enterprise.

Check Open Source Contributions Sites #

The open source contribution sites include GitHub, Reddit, and more, which allow the programmers to make a contribution to the open source projects. On these sites, you can take a look at the candidate’s code sample and then contact them for the further interview process.

Check The Coders Skills In Real-Life Scenarios #

There are coders who sound promising initially but are not quite proficient in their coding skills. So, to measure his actual ability to code, go for an on-screen coding test on the type of cases that are frequently used in your projects.

You can also create a 5-10 Multiple Choice Question assessment that incorporates questions from multiple coding languages. You can include conceptual questions, technical questions, and coding scenarios that can test the candidate’s knowledge on different topics such as global periods, object-oriented programming structures, situational analytics, and more.

According to a 2018 Talent Assessment Study by Mettl, there is a 105% increased usage of Technical MCQ’s during Talent Acquisition and L&D process.

Consider Checking Their Online Portfolio #

Ninja Coders have their presence across the web. If they don’t have it, they are probably not the ninja coders.

Start checking their StackOverflow profile and see what kind of problems solver and analyzer they are. You can also see their Twitter accounts; ask for the link to open source code, blog or the applications and websites, which they have previously designed.

Just checking what kind of work they are good at will give you an idea of what they are most proficient with.

Ask Them The Appropriate Questions #

Ninja Coders always have a lot of programming languages on their plate. Whenever you want to hire them, make sure that they can back up all the skills which they have to listen to their resume.

  • Ask them the questions that can judge their knowledge on various coding languages.
  • Request them to give you the details of their last project.
  • Perform a detailed analysis of their programming skills.

This answers to all the questions will tell you a lot about their expertise. However, a ninja coder should not be an expert only in coding; he should also have strong thinking skills, must be able to work with a team, and have good organizational expertise as well.

You can assess these skills by asking the following questions-

  • How do you diagnose the problem when code stops working?
  • How do you keep up with all the latest development and coding trends?
  • Do you have any failed projects?
  • What do you do to meet the specified deadlines?
  • Give Them A Small Test Project

There are candidates who have an amazing portfolio, seem like an excellent cultural fit, but are not able to work through the code. Whether you are hiring a single language coder or a ninja coder, never hire them before giving a test project.

A 2018 research by Mettl says that use of assessments in the IT industry has grown by 132% from last year, and is driven by multiple factors such as increased demand for unique expertise and tech talent from all the industries.

This project should be a short-term one and must have a defined mission statement as well. Moreover, it should be ideally done in a few days. You can also give him the options to work remotely or can call him on the location as well.

If he completes the test project successfully, you can hire them or judge him again on the basis of other technical and logical parameters.

The Bottom Line #

Along with all the above skills; if you choose a ninja coder, hire him on the basis of his learning skills. Don’t hire them for what they know. Instead, select them on his capabilities of learning.

Robert Half says – Time spent on hiring is time well spent.

Moreover, programming and coding trends keep on changing all the time and a person who does not intend to learn will lose out soon. So, whenever you plan to hire a ninja coder, make sure he is keen to learn, equipped with the various programming languages, problem solvers, and is ready to fit in your programming environment.

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