How to source and shortlist {role_name}

Hiring guide

About {role_name}

Job description

Source and shortlist candidates

Structured interview

Progression and salary

Where can you find qualified {role_name}?

  • Professional network
    • Leverage your professional network and reach out to former colleagues, industry peers, and tech community members to ask for referrals.
  • Educational Institutions:
    • Partner with universities that have strong engineering and computer science programs to access graduates who may have completed leadership-focused courses or training.
  • Company Career Pages:
    • Ensure your career page is optimized for search engines and clearly showcases your company’s culture, leadership opportunities, and technical goals. Highlight the importance of the Engineering Manager role in achieving business objectives.
  • Role-Specific Job Boards:

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What are the best practices for headhunting {role_name}?

  • Use Targeted Messaging: When reaching out to candidates, craft personalized messages that highlight the unique challenges and opportunities of the role, such as driving a team’s growth, managing high-impact projects, or aligning engineering processes with business goals.
  • Leverage Referrals: Ask your network or employees for referrals to identify senior-level engineering leaders who may not be actively looking for jobs but could be interested in new opportunities.
  • Focus on Leadership Communities: Engage with professional groups on LinkedIn or Slack communities related to engineering management, leadership, and technical strategy.

How to shortlist candidates?

Once you have started to get applications from applicants, a thorough screening process and shortlisting of prospects will help you make the most of your time spent with the most qualified ones. 

Automated shortlisting tools :

Automated screening quickly filters out unqualified candidates, saving time for manual review. This allows the manual process to focus on the most promising candidates, ensuring the best ones are considered for further evaluation.

Screening questions to auto-shortlist based on predefined criteria

like qualifications, location, experience, and skills. Either use job board or use an ATS such as whitecarrot. Here are some questions for {role_name}

  • How many years of experience do you have managing engineering teams?
    • Auto-reject criteria: Less than 3 years of experience managing teams.
  • How many years of experience do you have with Agile or Scrum methodologies?
    • Auto-reject criteria: Less than 2 years of experience working in Agile or Scrum environments.
  • Are you located in [specified location] or willing to relocate/work remotely?
    • Auto-reject criteria: Candidate is not willing to relocate or work remotely if required.

Skill based question to auto shortlist candidate

Analyze the skill test data to automatically shortlist top-performing applicants. (recommended screening test time - 15 minutes). Here are some skill test questions for {role_name}

Engineering Project Management

Assess the candidate’s ability to manage large-scale engineering projects and resources effectively.

  • Question 1: What is a key responsibility of an Engineering Manager in project management?
    • Options:
      1. Code review
      2. Resource allocation
      3. Writing documentation
      4. Server maintenance
    • Correct Answer: 2. Resource allocation
  • Question 2: In Agile project management, what is the purpose of a sprint retrospective?
    • Options:
      1. To assign new tasks
      2. To review completed work
      3. To evaluate team performance and improve processes
      4. To create new product backlogs
    • Correct Answer: 3. To evaluate team performance and improve processes
  • Question 3: Which project management tool is commonly used to track software development tasks?
    • Options:
      1. Jira
      2. Slack
      3. Photoshop
      4. AutoCAD
    • Correct Answer: 1. Jira

Team Leadership

Evaluate how well the candidate can lead and mentor a technical team.

  • Question 1: How should an Engineering Manager provide constructive feedback to an underperforming team member?
    • Options:
      1. Avoid discussing the issue
      2. Give feedback during a team meeting
      3. Provide specific examples in a one-on-one meeting
      4. Assign easier tasks
    • Correct Answer: 3. Provide specific examples in a one-on-one meeting
  • Question 2: What is the most effective way to resolve a conflict between two team members?
    • Options:
      1. Reassign the project
      2. Mediate a discussion to address the conflict
      3. Ignore the issue and hope it resolves itself
      4. Provide disciplinary action immediately
    • Correct Answer: 2. Mediate a discussion to address the conflict
  • Question 3: Which of the following is a key leadership quality for an Engineering Manager?
    • Options:
      1. Micromanaging tasks
      2. Listening to team feedback
      3. Working in isolation
      4. Ignoring deadlines
    • Correct Answer: 2. Listening to team feedback

Budget Management

Assess the ability to manage project budgets and resources.

  • Question 1: What is the first step in creating a project budget?
    • Options:
      1. Assign tasks
      2. Estimate costs
      3. Hire new team members
      4. Increase timelines
    • Correct Answer: 2. Estimate costs
  • Question 2: How should an Engineering Manager handle a budget overrun in a project?
    • Options:
      1. Stop the project
      2. Review and reallocate resources to cover costs
      3. Request additional funds without justification
      4. Avoid addressing the overrun
    • Correct Answer: 2. Review and reallocate resources to cover costs
  • Question 3: What is the role of a contingency budget in project management?
    • Options:
      1. To cover unplanned expenses
      2. To increase project scope
      3. To cover team salaries
      4. To pay external vendors
    • Correct Answer: 1. To cover unplanned expenses

Note - Auto reject candidates if scores less than 70% in this section

One way video interview

Recruitment Bullet

Use tools like hirevue, whitecarrot.io to ask candidates pre-recorded questions about their experience and skills.

Recruitment Bullet

Use sample question given in scorecard.

Collect other information 

Recruitment Bullet

Collect data from shortlisted candidates, such as salary expectations and visa status.

Manual candidate profile shortlisting:

Recruitment Bullet

Thoroughly review the CVs of the top scoring candidates from the automated process

Recruitment Bullet

Look for evidence of the required skills, experience, and achievements

Recruitment Bullet

Review the candidate’s portfolio or GitHub repositories to see examples of their work.

Schedule recruiter calls with the candidate

Recruitment Bullet

Use a tool like calendly or whitecarrot to allow candidates to self-schedule calls based on your availability

Recruitment Bullet

Confirm the call details (date, time, dial-in info) with the candidate via email

What questions to ask in the recruiter phone screen?

Recruitment Bullet

 Use scorecard for rating candidates for recruiter

Recruitment Bullet

Sample scorecard : 

Criteria Sample Question Rating (1-5) Comments
Leadership Skills "How do you provide feedback to underperforming team members?"
Technical Proficiency "What project management tools have you used?"
Budget Management "How do you handle a project that is over budget?"
Communication Skills "Tell me about a time you had to manage conflict in your team."
Cultural Fit "How do you align your team with company goals and objectives?"
Recruitment Bullet

Check for consistency in responses from the candidates.

Recruitment Bullet

Record such scorecards in an ATS like whitecarrot or use google doc

Hiring guide

About {role_name}

Job description

Source and shortlist candidates

Structured interview

Progression and salary