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Week in Review: How you show up in interviews could be the difference between scaling fast and wasting critical time

27 November 2023 , by Josh Nel

In this week’s roundup from OfferZen, we deep dive into our data to see how a good hiring experience can boost how developers view your culture and help you scale your team faster, what you need to know about hiring full stack developers and what it costs to hire Ruby developers in South Africa.

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Exclusive Dev Nation sneak peek: A hiring process that showcases your culture can lead to fewer declined offers

Hiring developers is hard and time-consuming. So what do you do if you’re tasked with doubling your team next year? Treating it like you would another software project might help: how can I approach this better and reduce bottlenecks?

The majority of developers have dropped out of a hiring process after a negative experience. This made us wonder: if there was one thing you could change today to help you get more accepted offers, what should it be? We looked at the data from our ongoing #DevNationSurvey to explore factors in your control that can speed up your scaling plan today.

Let’s start by looking at why developers turn down offers. Poor company culture or a culture mismatch is one of their biggest reasons for declining an offer:

Developers' reasons for turning down a role

The data also shows that your interview process is one of the main ways potential team members assess your culture. So, how you show up during an interview can have long-term implications for how developers view your company:

How developers assess company culture

Developers will also share their experiences](https://bit.ly/3yHwbLi), so negative experiences can lead to you developing a bad reputation, which will also contribute to developers declining offers.

So, providing a good experience during interviews is crucial to minimising declined offers and maintaining a good reputation. On top of that, the factors that make for a good experience are entirely within your control. Developers’ top three factors in a positive hiring process are transparency about your process, being upfront about salary, and being briefed about upcoming interviews:

"What do you appreciate in an interview process?"

That means being upfront about what your process involves, how much you’re able to offer for the role, and letting candidates know how to prepare for an interview will show your culture in a good light and might just mean the difference between hiring a great team member and wasting critical hiring time.

If you’re looking for more practical tips to make critical hires faster, we’ve put together a data-driven guide where you’ll get exclusive insights and data into:

  • What to avoid in a hiring process
  • CTO insights on how to speed up your hiring.
  • Downloadable templates to get your next team member on board, sooner.

Everything you need to know about hiring full stack developers

When scaling your team, finding the right full stack developer can be challenging. A poor hiring decision can lead to setbacks, low-quality code, and wasted time.

To help you find the right full stack developer fast, we’ve put together an article with insights and data from South African full stack developers on:

  • What they’re earning
  • Industries with the most Java developers
  • What they’re looking for from their next role

Tweet of the week

Here’s what it costs to hire a Ruby developer in South Africa



Average Salary by Years Experience, showing 25th and 75th percentiles

Want to know what Ruby developers earn in South Africa? We gathered data from 166 developers to better understand what developers can expect to earn over the course of their careers.

Why South African talent is your 2024 hiring advantage

South Africa’s growing developer landscape could be a pivotal asset for your organization in the coming year. But how do you make the most out of this asset? Join us on the 30th of November as we dive into the different facets of hiring SA-based talent, as our panel shares their expertise and real-world insights.

In this webinar, we’ll cover:

  • The unique skills South African talent brings to the table
  • Cost-effective solutions that enable you to tap into this talent pool
  • Identifying the challenges that come with it, and how to overcome them
  • Practical tips and success stories to get started

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