Remote-First Candidate Experience In Recruitment

This article has been updated on April 7th, 2023.

The pandemic-led era opened an entirely different world to us: tech companies transitioned to working on-site to working remotely.

With this came the shift in hiring processes too. While it’s been exciting for candidates to get hired virtually, it’s an ongoing battle for tech companies to create an engaging, remote-first candidate experience.

Companies like Docusign and Twilio have created an interactive virtual candidate experience for their candidates and so can you.

Wondering how? Well, this article will breakdown the 5 steps you need to take to create an interactive virtual candidate experience.

Keep reading.

What is candidate experience?

Candidate experience refers to how candidates feel about your company once they’ve been through the wringer, in terms of your hiring process. And these candidate ‘feelings’, whether good, bad or ugly, influence candidates in their decision to apply to your company or accept your job offer.

A good candidate experience will encourage candidates to think about working for your company after they see how you treat them. A better candidate experience might make them want to spread goodwill about your company, helping build up your brand.

A twitter user talking about how valuable a candidate is

Source

On the other hand, a bad candidate experiencewill make candidates lose respect for you, both as an employer and as abrand.

Why is a positive candidate experience important?

Probably, there shouldn’t be the ‘why’ for developing a positive candidate experience. Like your company wants to serve your customers better for them to turn into repeat buyers, you need to develop a positive candidate experience for the following reasons:

Attract and recruit better talent

A lengthy and complicated recruitment process results in higher attrition, with candidates dropping off midway due to poor experience. A strong candidate experience strategy identifies such gaps and helps you tweak the process to ensure more talented candidates stick it out till the end. Now you have a bigger and better talent pool to choose from.

Recommended Read: Ultimate Playbook for Better Tech Hiring

Improves your company’s bottom line

A stronger candidate experience is a direct reflection of how streamlined your hiring is. Investing in creating a positive candidate experience adds a lot more to the bottom line than all the other resources that you invest in your hiring process.

Enhances your employer brand

Your employer branding, especially in 2021, is directly related to candidate experience. Bad reviews on social media and Glassdoor will adversely affect hiring new talent, with newer candidates becoming discouraged from applying for a position at your company. If you want to hire the best candidates in the market, you have to take special care of them at every step in the hiring process.

The impact of bad candidate experience

63% of job seekers will likely reject a job offer because of a bad candidate experience, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.Be it through social media, word of mouth, or employer review sites, any negative connotations associated with your organization will spread like wildfire and it can be hard to discourage or control.

You check multiple reviews of a restaurant before ordering food from that place. How many reviews would a candidate go through before deciding not to work with your company?

One review of a negative experience is enough to create a far-reaching ripple effect; top talent will be deterred from applying for your company, candidates will drop off midway through the application process, or getting candidates to say yes to your offer letter becomes harder than it should be. This directly leads to a decline in profitability.

5 steps to improve candidate interview experience

Good candidate experience is a package. It starts right from the time a candidate applies to your organization up until the candidate accepts your offer letter. How to improve candidate experience in recruitment?

Here are 5 steps you can take to get your candidate experience from good to great in recruitment.

How to create a remote-friendly candidate experience

Step #1—Understand the candidate journey better

A candidate’s journey starts right from the point they start looking for a job. But how are they going to land to your advertised role, apply for it, and most of all—how are you going to keep them engaged through the entire cycle?

You see? Candidate journey is a multi-step process which includes:

Awareness
Consideration
Interest
Application
Selection
Hire
Onboarding

If we break down these steps into a basic cycle, here’s what it looks like:

Alex, a Front-end Developer is looking for a new role. He gets to know about HackerEarth hiring for the Front-end Developer role from one of his colleagues; scrolls through the company’s website, their social media, and their Glassdoor reviews.

He is interested in working with the company. So, he fills out the job application.

This is the pre-selection phase. Now, the role of the organization comes into play to make the candidate’s experience positive and nurturing.

The company sends the email to Alex about his selection and what the next selection steps would look like. He has to complete an assessment—the first qualification step in his selection criteria.

Once Alex submits his assessment, the recruiter emails him about the next steps that will take place in both the scenarios—whether he gets selected or not.

Case 1: Alex gets selected

Alex will receive an email invite to join the Facecode’s call where the HRs will ask him their questions, and give live feedback on the code he submitted in his assessment.

Case 2: Alex does not get selected

If Alex fails to pass the assessment, he will receive the email from recruiter about his application not moving forward.

In both the cases, Alex knows he’ll not be left hanging in the middle of the process—and that’s a relief!

Step #2—Master the basic remote interview etiquette

#1 Use online skill assessment tools as the first step of your remote interview process to screen candidates from a high volume of applicants. This cuts down the actual number who progress to the video interview stage, allowing you to spend more time on creating a better candidate experience.

#2 Be accessible to your candidate. With everything operating remotely they will be bound to have plenty of questions, and they need to feel connected to you. Keep them engaged with personalized communication like sending them emails with pointers on what equipment they will need for the interview, and how to create a distraction-free environment.

#3 Send candidates useful resources to help prepare for their interview. Give them references of questions they might be asked, and other similar tips.

Step #3—Showcase company culture

A successful recruitment process builds excitement about working for your company. It highlights company culture, values, mission and gives a glimpse into a candidate’s future work environment.

While it’s often easier to show them your company’s culture in person, it’s limited in the remote setup. Here’s what you can do instead:

Show them the fun team building activities your company does to keep the entire team bonded.
Show them instances of how the managers interact and take care of their team members.
Set up informal video calls with the rest of the team for the candidate to get a sense of who they’ll be working with.

Step #4—Don’t leave candidates hanging

In a remote setting, regular communication is key. Set expectations on:

How and when you will communicate?
What the interview process will be?
How long it will take?

Describe each stage of the remote interview along with what tools you will be using. Proactively communicating changes to your hiring process and any hiring delays will help avoid confusion and improve the candidate experience.

How to follow up with candidates after interviewing them

How to follow up with candidates after interviewing them

Source

Lack of feedback post interview is a major peeve of candidates as stated by 40% of the respondents of HackerEarth’s Developer Survey 2021. Send out timely feedback after each phase of the process.

And if the candidate was not selected for the role, that needs to be communicated too. Ghosting candidates as a form of rejection is an absolute NO. Tell them what they did well and give actionable tips on how to do better the next time. Candidates will appreciate that you took the time out to inform them personally.

Recommended read: How You Can Leverage Candidate Experience To Attract Top Talent

Step #5—Use remote interviewing tools

When you integrate intelligent remote interviewing tools into your hiring process, it’s easy for hiring managers in all departments and locations to replicate the same experience for each candidate, ensuring consistency.For example, use collaborative coding tools for your developer candidates like FaceCode to see the candidate's code in-action, give them live updates, send automated summaries and recordings.

Reinvent your remote candidate experience

Candidates and recruiters alike are dealing with unprecedented circumstances and anxieties that were unimaginable just over a year ago. A rethink in your remote hiring process to provide candidates a favorable experience is necessary at this point. Doing so, you showcase them the value of empathy.

There's no time like the present to fight the good fight! Invest in candidate-first practices to create a positive candidate experience that is rivaled by none and most importantly, stay empathetic.

Revolutionizing Mobile Talent Hiring: The HackerEarth Advantage

The demand for mobile applications is exploding, but finding and verifying developers with proven, real-world skills is more difficult than ever. Traditional assessment methods often fall short, failing to replicate the complexities of modern mobile development.

Introducing a New Era in Mobile Assessment

At HackerEarth, we're closing this critical gap with two groundbreaking features, seamlessly integrated into our Full Stack IDE:

Now, assess mobile developers in their true native environment. Our enhanced Full Stack questions now offer full support for both Java and Kotlin, the core languages powering the Android ecosystem. This allows you to evaluate candidates on authentic, real-world app development skills, moving beyond theoretical knowledge to practical application.

Say goodbye to setup drama and tool-switching. Candidates can now build, test, and debug Android and React Native applications directly within the browser-based IDE. This seamless, in-browser experience provides a true-to-life evaluation, saving valuable time for both candidates and your hiring team.

Assess the Skills That Truly Matter

With native Android support, your assessments can now delve into a candidate's ability to write clean, efficient, and functional code in the languages professional developers use daily. Kotlin's rapid adoption makes proficiency in it a key indicator of a forward-thinking candidate ready for modern mobile development.

Breakup of Mobile development skills ~95% of mobile app dev happens through Java and Kotlin — This chart illustrates the importance of assessing proficiency in both modern (Kotlin) and established (Java) codebases.

Streamlining Your Assessment Workflow

The integrated mobile emulator fundamentally transforms the assessment process. By eliminating the friction of fragmented toolchains and complex local setups, we enable a faster, more effective evaluation and a superior candidate experience.

Old Fragmented Way vs. The New, Integrated Way — Visualize the stark difference: Our streamlined workflow removes technical hurdles, allowing candidates to focus purely on demonstrating their coding and problem-solving abilities.

Quantifiable Impact on Hiring Success

A seamless and authentic assessment environment isn't just a convenience, it's a powerful catalyst for efficiency and better hiring outcomes. By removing technical barriers, candidates can focus entirely on demonstrating their skills, leading to faster submissions and higher-quality signals for your recruiters and hiring managers.

A Better Experience for Everyone

Our new features are meticulously designed to benefit the entire hiring ecosystem:

For Recruiters & Hiring Managers:

Accurately assess real-world development skills.
Gain deeper insights into candidate proficiency.
Hire with greater confidence and speed.
Reduce candidate drop-off from technical friction.

For Candidates:

Enjoy a seamless, efficient assessment experience.
No need to switch between different tools or manage complex setups.
Focus purely on showcasing skills, not environment configurations.
Work in a powerful, professional-grade IDE.

Unlock a New Era of Mobile Talent Assessment

Stop guessing and start hiring the best mobile developers with confidence. Explore how HackerEarth can transform your tech recruiting.

A New Era of Code

Vibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today, when code is produced quickly through AI, the true value lies in designing, refining, and optimizing systems. Our role now goes beyond writing code; we must also ensure that our systems remain efficient and reliable.

From Machine Language to Natural Language

I recall the early days when every line of code was written manually. We progressed from machine language to high-level programming, and now we are beginning to interact with our tools using natural language. This development does not only increase speed but also changes how we approach problem solving. Product managers can now create working demos in hours instead of weeks, and founders have a clearer way of pitching their ideas with functional prototypes. It is important for us to rethink our role as developers and focus on architecture and system design rather than simply on typing c

The Promise and the Pitfalls

I have experienced both sides of vibe coding. In cases where the goal was to build a quick prototype or a simple internal tool, AI-generated code provided impressive results. Teams have been able to test new ideas and validate concepts much faster. However, when it comes to more complex systems that require careful planning and attention to detail, the output from AI can be problematic. I have seen situations where AI produces large volumes of code that become difficult to manage without significant human intervention.

AI-powered coding tools like GitHub Copilot and AWS’s Q Developer have demonstrated significant productivity gains. For instance, at the National Australia Bank, it’s reported that half of the production code is generated by Q Developer, allowing developers to focus on higher-level problem-solving . Similarly, platforms like Lovable enable non-coders to build viable tech businesses using natural language prompts, contributing to a shift where AI-generated code reduces the need for large engineering teams. However, there are challenges. AI-generated code can sometimes be verbose or lack the architectural discipline required for complex systems. While AI can rapidly produce prototypes or simple utilities, building large-scale systems still necessitates experienced engineers to refine and optimize the code.

The Economic Impact

The democratization of code generation is altering the economic landscape of software development. As AI tools become more prevalent, the value of average coding skills may diminish, potentially affecting salaries for entry-level positions. Conversely, developers who excel in system design, architecture, and optimization are likely to see increased demand and compensation.
Seizing the Opportunity

Vibe coding is most beneficial in areas such as rapid prototyping and building simple applications or internal tools. It frees up valuable time that we can then invest in higher-level tasks such as system architecture, security, and user experience. When used in the right context, AI becomes a helpful partner that accelerates the development process without replacing the need for skilled engineers.

This is revolutionizing our craft, much like the shift from machine language to assembly to high-level languages did in the past. AI can churn out code at lightning speed, but remember, “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” Use AI for rapid prototyping, but it’s your expertise that transforms raw output into robust, scalable software. By honing our skills in design and architecture, we ensure our work remains impactful and enduring. Let’s continue to learn, adapt, and build software that stands the test of time.

Ready to streamline your recruitment process? Get a free demo to explore cutting-edge solutions and resources for your hiring needs.

What is Systems Design?

Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.

Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.

Systems Design, in its essence, is a blueprint of how software and applications should work to meet specific goals. The multi-dimensional nature of this discipline makes it open-ended – as there is no single one-size-fits-all solution to a system design problem.

What is a System Design Interview?

Conducting a System Design interview requires recruiters to take an unconventional approach and look beyond right or wrong answers. Recruiters should aim for evaluating a candidate’s ‘systemic thinking’ skills across three key aspects:

How they navigate technical complexity and navigate uncertainty
How they meet expectations of scale, security and speed
How they focus on the bigger picture without losing sight of details

This assessment of the end-to-end thought process and a holistic approach to problem-solving is what the interview should focus on.

What are some common topics for a System Design Interview

System design interview questions are free-form and exploratory in nature where there is no right or best answer to a specific problem statement. Here are some common questions:

How would you approach the design of a social media app or video app?

What are some ways to design a search engine or a ticketing system?

How would you design an API for a payment gateway?

What are some trade-offs and constraints you will consider while designing systems?

What is your rationale for taking a particular approach to problem solving?

Usually, interviewers base the questions depending on the organization, its goals, key competitors and a candidate’s experience level.

For senior roles, the questions tend to focus on assessing the computational thinking, decision making and reasoning ability of a candidate. For entry level job interviews, the questions are designed to test the hard skills required for building a system architecture.

The Difference between a System Design Interview and a Coding Interview

If a coding interview is like a map that takes you from point A to Z – a systems design interview is like a compass which gives you a sense of the right direction.

Here are three key difference between the two:

Coding challenges follow a linear interviewing experience i.e. candidates are given a problem and interaction with recruiters is limited. System design interviews are more lateral and conversational, requiring active participation from interviewers.

Coding interviews or challenges focus on evaluating the technical acumen of a candidate whereas systems design interviews are oriented to assess problem solving and interpersonal skills.

Coding interviews are based on a right/wrong approach with ideal answers to problem statements while a systems design interview focuses on assessing the thought process and the ability to reason from first principles.

How to Conduct an Effective System Design Interview

One common mistake recruiters make is that they approach a system design interview with the expectations and preparation of a typical coding interview.
Here is a four step framework technical recruiters can follow to ensure a seamless and productive interview experience:

Step 1: Understand the subject at hand

Develop an understanding of basics of system design and architecture
Familiarize yourself with commonly asked systems design interview questions
Read about system design case studies for popular applications
Structure the questions and problems by increasing magnitude of difficulty

Step 2: Prepare for the interview

Plan the extent of the topics and scope of discussion in advance
Clearly define the evaluation criteria and communicate expectations
Quantify constraints, inputs, boundaries and assumptions
Establish the broader context and a detailed scope of the exercise

Step 3: Stay actively involved

Ask follow-up questions to challenge a solution
Probe candidates to gauge real-time logical reasoning skills
Make it a conversation and take notes of important pointers and outcomes
Guide candidates with hints and suggestions to steer them in the right direction

Step 4: Be a collaborator

Encourage candidates to explore and consider alternative solutions
Work with the candidate to drill the problem into smaller tasks
Provide context and supporting details to help candidates stay on track
Ask follow-up questions to learn about the candidate’s experience

Technical recruiters and hiring managers should aim for providing an environment of positive reinforcement, actionable feedback and encouragement to candidates.

Evaluation Rubric for Candidates

Facilitate Successful System Design Interview Experiences with FaceCode

FaceCode, HackerEarth’s intuitive and secure platform, empowers recruiters to conduct system design interviews in a live coding environment with HD video chat.

FaceCode comes with an interactive diagram board which makes it easier for interviewers to assess the design thinking skills and conduct communication assessments using a built-in library of diagram based questions.

With FaceCode, you can combine your feedback points with AI-powered insights to generate accurate, data-driven assessment reports in a breeze. Plus, you can access interview recordings and transcripts anytime to recall and trace back the interview experience.

Learn how FaceCode can help you conduct system design interviews and boost your hiring efficiency.

5 Steps To Create A Remote-First Candidate Experience In Recruitment