We like to mention in our materials that outstanding software developers work for us. I know what you think hearing similar statements; we, however, have strong facts to support our words. I will tell you about it in this article.

The President of the Company recruits software developers himself

The recruitment in Atinea is the responsibility of our President, Andrzej Gąsienica-Samek. Andrzej used to work for 5 years as the R&D Department Head at Comarch. There, at the peak of his career, he managed a team of over 50 software developers he recruited by himself. He learned then to hire the right persons to work in his team. The work in the R&D Department was challenging, hence he could only employ true code masters.

Besides his career with Comarch, Andrzej has had a number of personal successes, including the most important one i.e. the World Champion in Team Programming title. No, I do not write it to adore him or praise his merits. I want to draw your attention to the fact that Andrzej has the right competence to pick, screen out and hire the most gifted software developers, more than anyone else. He does that successfully in Atinea.

What does his method involve?

It all starts with fierce recruitment, killer recruitment as some developers say. A job applicant may have a “poor” CV… or may have the best references possible – we don’t care. Something more important matters to us.

At the very first stage of recruitment, everyone has to face a single task. Yes, just one, but don’t be misled by appearances. The sole task makes most applicants run away from computers in panic. The ones who stay there to compete are the ambitious and a handful of smarties who have found the solution on the Internet and thus got to the next stage. That poses no problem for us because…

There is another task awaiting them at the second stage! But it won’t be that easy this time.

An applicant arrives at our company and after a brief interview, we send them to another room. There is a computer there with the task to solve. No internet, no tips. Just the applicant, computer and his or her…

SKILLS

They are the focus of our recruitment. Why do we put such a great emphasis on that?

It is again the issue of Andrzej’s experience and insight:

• What is an outstanding CV for if one cannot find themselves in a new work environment?
• Who cares if one has a perfect command of a specific technology yet finds it extremely difficult to learn any other?
• Who cares if one can use ready-made solutions well but simple algorithmics make them sweat and render them unable to find a solution on their own?

We want no such software developers.

We want people who have superior intelligence and will learn any technology in a heartbeat because they know lower-lever languages. Because they solve algorithms in a splendid manner. Because they are intelligent.

We do more than just want them. We actually employ them.

Are you wondering what dark tasks make job applicants panic?

They come from programming olympiads.

It probably does not say much to you, so I will give you a sample task. We used it in a previous recruitment. Here it is:

Click here to see the sample task

I guess you won’t be surprised now if I tell you that we employ less than 10% on average of the initial number of job applicants.

Thus the recruitment provides us with the right applicants we need. Their motivation and enthusiasm may wither away over time, which would lead directly to the low quality of their work. How do we prevent that?

We test our staff’s competence on a regular basis

We check our software developers’ skill in cyclic competence tests called DevDays. Every developer employed in our company regularly gets tasks to solve and receives points depending on their results.

Poor scores provide us with a signal that something wrong is going on. In such a case we talk to people to grasp the causes of their worse results. We always give them our full support and strive to improve the situation in various ways. If such measures bring no effects in the long run though, then… we part with the programmer. It doesn’t come easily to us, because we know he or she is a valuable person, yet the standards we have adopted do not allow us to continue our cooperation.

On the other hand, we always reward people for their great results, which is an additional incentive for them to work hard and develop their skills.

Thus we monitor the “condition” of our staff and every time we repeat without a blink “Yes, only the best work with us”. We know it because it is proven through the successful projects carried out for our clients, through Andrzej’s experience, and through our internal skill assessment system.

To sum up:

• We have a rigorous recruitment system in place, based on tough tasks involving algorithms.
• We employ software developers based on their skills, not CV entries.
• We check our staff’s skills on a regular basis.
• We always recruit people for long-term cooperation; they are never employed for a “single job only”.

The right people are the foundation for our company

We are proud of our software developers. They are a strong pillar of Atinea and we do not intend to compromise. Atinea has and will have outstanding software developers ONLY. We invest in, appreciate and support them with our know-how. In consequence, we have a good atmosphere to work and develop in as well as numerous successes we achieve while providing services to our clients.

If you want to learn how the high skills of our software developers may save you time and money, then… please contact us. Our consultations are free of charge and impose no commitments. This way you may get interesting findings concerning the needs of your company or department. Please contact us – send us a message on the following form or give us a call.