Although the Web may have helped the clarion call that “resumes are dead” – paper resumes, at least – employers still need ways to evaluate the experience and skill set of people they hire. This is particularly important for startups who, with far smaller staff sizes, have to make each hiring decision really count.
And hiring programmers can be particularly challenging, as you can’t really look at a resume and judge someone’s coding expertise.
CodeEval offers a platform for identifying good programming candidates. The service, which is free for academic purposes, enables you to set a programming test in a variety of languages.
Currently, CodeEval allows for tests in Python, C, C++, Java, Ruby, Perl and PHP. You can write your own problems or choose from the Knowledge Base of pre-existing ones. The tests are automatically evaluated by the program and candidates scored.
Employers receive a report on the top candidates, so as to make better hiring decisions.
There are, of course, other ways in which programmers can demonstrate their skills, such as providing potential employers links to their GitHub profile. But the CodeEval’s interface, ease-of-use, and scoring mechanism might make it a good place to start for those looking to make a technical hire.
