How to source and shortlist {role_name}

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 offering specialized programs in DevOps, cloud computing, or software engineering. Consider institutions known for strong tech programs.
  • Company Career Pages:
    • Promote openings on your company's career page and ensure it reflects your company's culture and values.
    • Examples:
      • Company A Careers
      • Company B Careers
  • Role-Specific Job Boards:
    • TechCareers: Focuses on tech roles including DevOps and SRE positions.
    • Stack Overflow Jobs: Good for finding developers with specific tech skills.
  • Geography-Specific Job Boards:
    • United States:
      • Indeed - Broad reach and robust filtering.
      • Glassdoor - Useful for company reviews and job listings.
    • India:
    • UAE & KSA:
    • Remote Positions

What are the best practices for headhunting {role_name}?

  • Leverage Advanced Search Filters:
    • Use advanced search options on professional networks to filter candidates based on specific skills, experience, and location.
  • Engage with Industry Communities:
    • Participate in forums and online communities related to DevOps and SRE to find passive candidates who are active in discussions and projects.
  • Attend Industry Events:
    • Network at conferences, webinars, and meetups focused on DevOps, cloud computing, and site reliability engineering.
  • Build a Talent Pipeline:
    • Maintain a database of potential candidates for future openings, even if they are not actively seeking new roles.
  • Use Referrals:
    • Encourage current employees to refer candidates, especially those who have worked with them in previous roles.

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}

  • Experience with Specific Skills/Technologies:
    • Question: How many years of experience do you have with AWS or Azure?
    • Auto-Reject Criteria: Less than 3 years.
  • Experience in Related Technologies:
    • Question: How many years of experience do you have with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins or GitLab?
    • Auto-Reject Criteria: Less than 2 years.
  • Knowledge of SRE Practices:
    • Question: Can you describe your experience with incident management and uptime monitoring?
    • Auto-Reject Criteria: No relevant experience or less than 1 year.
  • Geographical Location:
    • Question: Are you based in the US, India, UAE, or KSA, or are you open to remote work?
    • Auto-Reject Criteria: Candidates not willing to relocate or work remotely if that is a requirement.
  • Education and Certifications:
    • Question: Do you have a degree in Computer Science or a related field, and any relevant certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect)?
    • Auto-Reject Criteria: No relevant degree or certifications 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}

DevOps Tools

  • Question 1: Which of the following is a container orchestration platform?
    • Options:
      • Jenkins
      • Docker
      • Kubernetes
      • Ansible
  • Correct Answer: Kubernetes
  • Question 2: What tool would you use to automate the deployment of your application?
    • Options:
      • Ansible
      • Jenkins
      • Docker
      • Kubernetes
  • Correct Answer: Jenkins
  • Question 3: Which tool is used for containerization?
    • Options:
      • Jenkins
      • Docker
      • Kubernetes
      • Terraform
  • Correct Answer: Docker

Cloud Platforms

  • Question 1: Which AWS service is used for object storage?
    • Options:
      • EC2
      • RDS
      • S3
      • Lambda
  • Correct Answer: S3
  • Question 2: What is the main service for compute in Azure?
    • Options:
      • Azure Functions
      • Azure VM
      • Azure Blob Storage
      • Azure SQL Database
  • Correct Answer: Azure VM
  • Question 3: Which of the following is a serverless computing service in AWS?
    • Options:
      • EC2
      • Lambda
      • S3
      • CloudFormation
  • Correct Answer: Lambda

CI/CD Pipelines

  • Question 1: What does CI stand for in CI/CD?
    • Options:
      • Continuous Integration
      • Continuous Improvement
      • Continuous Inspection
      • Continuous Infrastructure
  • Correct Answer: Continuous Integration
  • Question 2: Which of these is a CI/CD tool?
    • Options:
      • GitHub
      • Bitbucket
      • Jenkins
      • Jira
  • Correct Answer: Jenkins
  • Question 3: What is the purpose of a CI/CD pipeline?
    • Options:
      • To monitor application performance
      • To automate the building, testing, and deployment of applications
      • To manage cloud infrastructure
      • To track project progress
  • Correct Answer: To automate the building, testing, and deployment of applications

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 Rating (1-5) Comments
Experience with DevOps Tools
Experience with Cloud Platforms
Problem-Solving Skills
Communication Skills
Cultural Fit
Work Sample Test
Recruitment Bullet

Check for consistency in responses from the candidates.

Recruitment Bullet

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