A Recruiter’s Guide to Assessing Tech Skills—What Candidates Say Matters Most
Posted on:
by Sean Whelan
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights
Job Interview Preparation
In today's competitive IT world, assessing IT skills is more important than ever. There is a growing demand in the market for speclised talent from technical professionals, for example AI or Machine Learning based roles that have been on a continuous growth, these are some of the technical skills that need to be assessed for the future.
Why Your Technical Assessment Process Is More Critical Than Ever?
From a business’ perspective; This is essential that a business gets this right. Coding assessments were always the go to for an overall assessment of candidate technical ability, this was always very general and may have not covered important areas of different technical factors that involve the business that may be important to test candidates on.
Companies nowadays need to align their goals within their hiring and how they filter their talent pools. Now more than ever, hiring needs to be a strategy that loops back to the business goals and its growth plans. Competition is another reason as to why this is so crucial.
Technical Software Engineers are in high demand, and with AI tools like ChatGPT, it’s never been easier for candidates to craft a resume that looks great on paper. But the real question is—can they actually do the job? We’ve seen it time and time again: a CV packed with all the right buzzwords, but when it comes to the technical assessment, the gaps start to show. That’s why companies are doubling down on deep technical interviews to really put candidates to the test. If you’re hiring, don’t skip this step—it’s the best way to separate true technical talent from those who just talk the talk.
What Are Candidates Saying?
For the most part the candidates I deal with are happy to do coding assessments, technical tests, hackeranks etc…
From my own examples; I had a candidate interviewing for a senior .NET role, where the client needed someone with deep technical expertise in .NET and Azure. The goal was to bring in an engineer who could rebuild their platform from the ground up and develop a more robust API.
The interview process started with a standard screening call, but the real test came in the technical round. Instead of just answering theoretical questions, the candidate was presented with a real, ongoing problem the company was facing and tasked with solving it.
Their feedback? Incredibly positive. They appreciated the hands-on approach, as it gave them a real sense of the company’s technical environment, day-to-day challenges, and problem-solving expectations. It also helped them identify potential issues early on—before even receiving an offer—allowing them to assess if this was the right fit for their skills and career goals.
What does this tell us? - Candidates want technical assessments to reflect real-world challenges—giving them a glimpse into what their day-to-day responsibilities would be, the types of problems they’ll face, and how they’ll collaborate with a team to solve them. Traditional timed coding tests that focus on the basics are becoming less effective, especially in a world where answers to standard problems are just a quick search away. To truly assess a candidate’s abilities, companies need to move beyond generic coding exercises and incorporate problem-solving tasks that mirror actual work scenarios.
How Can Recruitment Agencies Help?
A lot happens before the interview even begins, and that’s where recruitment agencies play a crucial role. During the screening process, we go beyond just ticking boxes—we analyse CVs to spot the key technical skills that align with what our clients are looking for. But it doesn’t stop there. We also dig deeper through conversations and vetting techniques to get a clearer picture of a candidate’s real capabilities, ensuring they truly match the technical expectations of the role.
Then there’s the final interview stage—the culture fit. While it might seem like a formality, it’s actually one of the most critical steps for both the client and the candidate. This is where we step in to qualify a candidate’s motivations and mindset. By meeting them face-to-face, we gain valuable insights into their enthusiasm for the role, any concerns they might have, and whether they’re fully invested in the opportunity. This helps our clients avoid last-minute surprises and ensures they’re making an offer to someone who is not just technically skilled but genuinely excited about joining their team.
One of the biggest ways we add value is by freeing up our clients’ time so they can focus on what truly matters—assessing the technical skills of candidates. We could do this in many ways; doing the initial screening call, shortlisting candidates that are tailored to what the company needs, processing background checks and references for each candidate to give more freedom to the client to add more time into a technical screening.
We have done this in GemPool many times to a lot of our clients, this allows a more streamlined approach to clients that are under pressure but also need a deeply technical candidate. If you would like help with your recruitment process, get in touch with us.
