Hiring Remote Developers: Tips for Evaluating Candidate Resumes

Tech companies are at the forefront of the flexible working revolution, with a growing number of employers offering remote working, matching an increase in demand from developers seeking flexible arrangements. In today’s post, we will take a look at how to evaluate candidate resumes and CVs when hiring remote developers, showing you how to bring more transparency to your hiring process.

Hiring remote workers provides plenty of benefits for tech firms, including a wider talent pool and encouraging agile, efficient work that takes advantage of the growing number of available remote working tools. We’ve already discussed how to succeed at remote hiring and the process you need to have in place as an organization.

But it’s also important to consider the pitfalls when hiring remotely, such as resume transparency and ensuring your recruitment process identifies any misleading candidate information as well as new AI tools that are allowing candidates to hack their way through interviews. Let’s take a look at some tips for transparency in remote developer hiring practices.

Benefits of hiring remote developers

Being open to hiring remote developers gives your business the best chance to recruit the most talented software engineers. Research indicates that almost 4 in 10 software developers are only interested in remote working opportunities. This means that if you’re not willing to include remote workers in your job search, you’re missing out on a considerable chunk of the available talent pool.

Hiring remotely also gives your workers the best chance of achieving a healthy work-life balance. Although this is an obvious benefit for the employees themselves, it can also benefit you as an employer, with your workers more likely to be healthy, energized, and ready to produce their best work.

Guide to hiring remote developers

When you’re looking to recruit remotely for your software developer team, it’s essential to think in advance about the recruitment process to ensure you attract the most suitable, talented candidates. Remote hiring requires a strategic approach and plenty of oversight to mitigate any potential risks. Here are a few tips to ensure you hit the mark with your hiring of remote talent:

Create bespoke job descriptions: A bespoke, tailored job description is essential when it comes to remote hiring. It’s important to understand the different requirements for remote workers compared to office-based employees, so you should write each job description specifically for the role in question.

Do your research on candidates: Whether your remote candidates are from an employee referral or a direct application, it’s important to do your homework on them. Follow up with colleagues and associates who’ve worked with them in the past, and seek endorsements that can vouch for their quality and reliability.

Use video interviewing: Video interviewing is one of the key tools to get to know your candidates and assess their suitability for the role. Design a clear, consistent interview guide, and make sure you take the time to get to know each candidate during your video call.

Design a robust onboarding process: Onboarding is one of the most critical aspects of any recruitment process, but it’s especially important for remote hires. A well-designed, thorough onboarding process can help the employee feel more at home in their role while also helping you learn more about them. 

Source from remote recruitment specialists: One way to consistently source reliable, well-qualified remote candidates is by using remote recruitment specialists. This can relieve some of the unknowns about remote candidates, such as transparency surrounding their credentials, and providing access to a talent pool you can have confidence in.

Why resume transparency matters in remote tech hires

Resume transparency is one of the key issues employers face when seeking remote developer candidates. Studies indicate that more than half of people are willing to lie about their skills, experience, or education on their resume. With the reduced personal connection that’s a consequence of remote working, this is likely to be even higher for remote candidates. People are less likely to be dishonest about their credentials if there’s a chance of them being called out on it face-to-face, and conversely, the physical disconnect between employers and remote candidates is likely to have the opposite effect. 

Identifying resume transparency issues and dishonesty in remote developer applications is also critical to your future working relationship. A candidate who lies about credentials on their resume may also be more comfortable misleading you about their work. You may find that a candidate who’s lied in their resume struggles more with the work you assign them. They might also be more likely to exaggerate their working hours, rely on AI tools to support them, or even outsource their own work.

Tips for evaluating remote candidates

These tips can help you avoid resume transparency issues and identify the most suitable candidates for your remote developer positions:

Spotting resume discrepancies

Spotting resume discrepancies requires a careful, attentive approach to candidate screening. Look for employment gaps, dates that don’t align, vague details about previous jobs, and a lack of detail about career achievements, qualifications, or promotions. If the candidate fails to quantify their contribution and impact in previous roles, this can also be a warning sign. Check the text for any abrupt or grating changes in tone and language. These could indicate the candidate has copied and pasted aspects of their resume from a different source.

All these checks require a keen eye and the time and resources to check each resume in detail. While ATS applications can take some of the burden of resume screening from you, it’s still important to take the time to verify each application personally. Talent sourcing services can also help you to confirm the credentials of candidates. Resume templates and examples, like those offered by CVwizard.com, are often helpful in understanding exactly what to look for in a candidate’s resume.

Evaluating skills

Skills-based hiring can be one of the ways to overcome transparency issues in your remote hiring practices. Prioritizing the right types of skills over employment history and qualifications can help you avoid transparency issues. Taking this approach does, however, mean you’ll need to check and verify the skills of your candidates. Look out for evidence in their resume of their skills at work and the impact those skills made. If a candidate provides a simple list of their skills without any context or evidence to support them, this should raise suspicion.

You can also verify skills by asking direct questions about them at the interview stage. Ask the candidate to provide you with examples of how they’ve used a specific skill to bring about a positive outcome. Take care to listen for answers that include quantifiable evidence about the impact they made.

Confirming credentials

Hiring remote workers can mean a greater reliance on referrals to confirm candidate credentials. Without the benefit of meeting candidates face-to-face, it’s important to get some insights into their personality, qualities, and style of working. This could be from someone who’s worked closely with them before, such as a colleague or former employer, or someone who has vetted them previously, such as a recruiter. You can also use LinkedIn to verify the skills, employment history, and qualifications of the candidate, as well as connect with their professional network for feedback and endorsements.

Identifying AI-written resumes

The advancement of AI has many benefits for the tech industry, but it also increases the likelihood of candidates misleading employers about their resumes. Being wary of AI-written resumes can help you spot candidates who don’t have the necessary skills or experience. Look for overly formal, impersonal language, over-reliance on keywords, and a lack of quantifiable achievements. Ask more than one person to review the resume to sense-check for AI content, and if necessary, use an AI content detector to identify whether the candidate has had help from an outside source.

Conducting Virtual Interviews

Once you’ve identified qualified candidates to move on to the next stage, it is time to conduct virtual interviews. This stage helps you evaluate things like skills, cultural fit, and even experience.

The rise of AI has also brought about cases where users are trying to hack their way through the interview either by using AI to answer the questions you are asking, so watch for delayed responses, obviously,y you need to give people time to respond and account for any nervousness but watch out for too much jerking, someone who seems like they are waiting for something or stalling.

Below are some more tips for effective remote interviewing:

• Use a reliable video conferencing platform with screen-sharing capabilities and have a backup plan in case of technical issues.
• Prepare structured interview questions to test for technical and soft skills. At Trustshoring, we like to conduct technical interviews as well, which are reviewed by our Fractional CTOs, allowing us to really drill down on the skills of the developers we are screening. So, consider doing live coding exercises or sending over an exercise that the candidate can work on and submit.
• Have multiple team members (if you can) also speak to your potential candidates. This is a great way to test and see if there is a good cultural fit.
• Finally, allow ample time for the candidate to ask questions about the role, how your company is structured, who he or she will be working and collaborating with, and so on.

Conclusion

Remote hiring, while allowing for greater access to a much larger talent pool, the rise of AI tools means that extra care must be taken when evaluating remote candidates to ensure resume transparency and identify the best fit for your open roles.

The keys are to be thorough, use all the virtual tools and data at your disposal, trust your judgment, and go the extra mile to get to know candidates during the hiring process. Finally, you also need to prepare your company to hire remote developers or any other remote roles. You need to have the right processes in place that describe how to work, tools, structure, and so on. That way, you are making it easy for your remote employees and providing everything they’ll need to succeed.

FAQ Section

How can I tell if a resume has been written or enhanced by AI?

There are a few potential signs that a resume may have been written by AI, including overly formal or impersonal language, excessive use of industry jargon and keywords, “fluff” or filler content that lacks specifics, and a lack of authentic voice. You can also try running resumes through AI content detectors. However, the best approach is to carefully review resumes yourself and verify any claims that seem exaggerated or misleading.

How do I verify the technical skills of remote developer candidates?

There are a few effective ways to assess a remote candidate’s programming skills, such as conducting live coding exercises via video, reviewing code samples from their previous work or personal projects, asking highly technical interview questions, having them complete a skills assessment, and talking through how they would approach hypothetical problems. Asking for references who can speak to their technical abilities can also provide valuable insight.

How important are soft skills for remote developers compared to in-office roles?

Soft skills are arguably even more important for remote roles than in-office ones. Remote developers need exceptional written and verbal communication skills, the ability to collaborate effectively using digital tools, strong time management and organization, and the self-motivation to work productively with minimal supervision. Make sure to ask behavioral and situational interview questions that get at these key skills.

What are some common red flags to watch out for in developer resumes?

Be wary of resumes that are overly vague and lack specifics about the candidate’s contributions and impact, have inconsistent formatting or abrupt changes in tone that could signal content being copied from elsewhere, list skills without any context or supporting examples, have large unexplained gaps in employment, or make claims that seem exaggerated or too good to be true. Always trust your instincts if something doesn’t feel right.

How do I integrate remote developers into my existing team?

Integrating remote team members requires intentional effort to keep them engaged and connected. Schedule regular video team meetings and one-on-ones to keep them in the loop. Use collaborative tools like Slack, Teams, and project management software to communicate asynchronously. Make sure they feel heard and included in decision-making and assign an onboarding buddy to show them the ropes. Finally, plan occasional in-person meetups if the budget allows to foster personal connections and team bonding.

What should I do if I suspect a candidate hasn’t been fully truthful on their resume?

If you spot signs that a candidate may have misrepresented their experience, skills, or credentials, the first step is to seek more information. Ask probing follow-up questions in the interview and see if their answers align with their resume. Contact references and ask for specific examples of the candidate’s contributions. You can also request to see certifications, degrees, or work samples. If you have sufficient evidence that they have lied, you may choose to remove them from consideration. But if it was likely an oversight, it’s worth giving them a chance to explain.