How TRIBE10x drives recruiting success

By Ali Viqhar
Tribe10x Partner

Driving innovation requires talented and dedicated engineers.  Due to the many issues faced in the US market in finding engineers to keeping engineers on staff to factoring in the overall fully loaded costs of engineering talent, more and more US based companies are turning to offshore engineering solutions.

Each offshore location has its own issues related to talent availability, culture, English proficiency, schooling, experience, etc.  Tribe10x partners have operated in numerous countries throughout the world.  Operating in the same time zone is simply a “game changer” for Agile development as well as other development methodologies.

The past 10-15 years has dramatically changed the ability to operate in nearshore Central American countries and now being in the same time zone is a reality. Central American countries have recognized the opportunity to be the “India of engineering” without the time zone, language and cultural challenges associated with India.  These countries, with Columbia leading the pack, have increased their educational opportunities in engineering, their focus on teaching English, their tax incentive zones, their overall welcoming of foreign investment and building entities within their borders.  These investments made at the turn of the century are bearing strong fruit in 2020.   Today, Columbia is graduating high numbers of engineers, large companies have invested in building large technology centers and innovation is thriving.  And Tribe10x partners are in the thick of it!

Recruiting the very best talent for our clients is key to our overall success.  We follow many steps to ensure we “recruit to fit” for each unique client need.

Step One: Defining the winning candidate

We define the winning candidate closely with you, the client.  We want to make sure we fully articulate the type of person and type of skills we are looking for.  Tribe10x will help greatly here as there is always a balance of setting the bar versus the associated budget versus the overall team and where the desired individual fits within the team.  By way of example, the best restaurants have a kitchen consisting of a head chef and sous chefs and supporting staff.  It would be a nightmare in the kitchen if all that was working there were top chefs.   While the tendency of a client is to say “hire us the very best top ten engineers” that is most likely not what they want.  What they often want to say instead is “hire me the very best top team”.  Our goal in this first step is to understand where you are going, what you are trying to achieve long term, and what type of team we want to put in place together that gives you a strong backbone for future growth, team development and overall success.  This is then translated into the profile of the individual team member we will be recruiting – level of experience, overall knowledge and training, cultural and past client experiences.

Step Two:  Locating and fielding candidate profiles

Experience has taught us that the very best profiles often come from our own internal team. With over 1800 associates we have a robust referral process in place to help source potential candidates.  We also use a strong network of recruiting professionals in each local market and have our own team of HR professionals to support the process.  As profiles are received, they are stored in our internal data bank and those that are strong potential candidates for a call move on to the next step in the process.  Key criteria here are meeting the minimum requirements and strong command of the English language.

Step Three: Initial Screening Call

During this step we reach out and call the candidate.  All conversations are in English to ascertain their level of proficiency.  We are verifying all criteria in their initial profile and confirming availability.  We then move onto sharing the client’s culture, work ethic, the specific location and the type of work we are specifically looking at.  We are confirming English, we are confirming work ethic, we are confirming skills, we are confirming past work experience, we are confirming location and availability.  If all aligns, we move on to the next step.

Step Four – Testing and Verification

During this critical step we are verifying skills and past experience.  We send the candidate a Hacker Rank link created for the specific profile and we test the candidate for the specific skills in coding and testing we are looking for.  We also do a preliminary employment verification to ensure the accuracy of past experience.   If there are any major red flags, we notify the candidate of the concerns and in most cases politely discontinue discussions.  Assuming the candidate passes through the testing and verification step we move onto the next step.

Step Five – Technical Interview 

At this stage we conduct an in-depth technical interview with the client using one of our senior engineers to ascertain the background and history of the candidates learning.  We walk through test results and address any specific questions or approaches used and why.  We balance years of experience versus what the experience as and how that plays into the desired candidate profile.  We are looking out for any red flags on past experience and client interactions.  Likewise, we are also ascertaining the candidate’s desire and goals from a technical perspective – where do they want to grow technically and what motivates them.  We share the proposed position and what technically that will require and the growth opportunities in the position.  We then move onto the next step if all is well received.

Step Six – In person interview with Tribe10x HR

At this point in the process the candidate has been very well screened.  We now want to have our HR team interview the candidate for all the soft skills we believe necessary for success including intellectual ability and curiosity, results orientation, team player, maturity, honesty and self-awareness, sufficient business acumen, planning and organization, interpersonal skills, and communication.

Step Seven – Client Approval

At this stage we share the results of the candidate with the you the client and gain approval.  By this time the candidate has been thoroughly vetted on many levels.  In addition to sending a full resume and picture we also share the details of each step.

Step Eight – On Boarding

This is the welcoming step and one of the most important.  We want the candidate to feel very welcomed and comfortable in their new environment.  Even if they are on a small team, we make sure they are immersed with as many other teams as possible to ensure that the work environment overall feels like home.  Obvious paperwork for banking, payroll, taxes etc. are completed and time is set up and spent with the you the client to spend as much time as is needed to get them fully vetted on the company’s mission, vision, values.  A full overview of the technical stack and architecture is provided, key introductions to US staff are made and the first couple of weeks schedules are agreed to.