Talent acquisition is one of the most complex organizational processes, with immense impact on businesses in the long run. When paired with the crude fact that great leaders are nothing without great teams, the importance of an effective and sustainable recruitment strategy becomes self-evident. Team augmentation clients are therefore setting the course for the future and Code & Pepper is honoured to contribute its unique know-how to their success on the FinTech scene.

When in Rome… Flexibility

Equipped with a power tool of Agile philosophy, our recruitment process is very flexible. A detailed map of client’s specific preferences and requirements enables quick adaptation of selection criteria. This way, while working remotely from our offices, your dedicated developers will feel a part of the core team and strictly follow your company culture.

By default, team augmentation service is built on new hires. This helps achieve a coherent and sustainable management strategy, and ensures exclusive, long-term engagement tailored to the needs of a specific project.

Loud & Clear… Transparency

Although relieved from the burden of headhunting, clients stay in the loop at all times. Constant access to a shared datasheet with candidates’ info guarantees full transparency. Ongoing instant communication via a private Slack channel ensures that all engaged parties get updates on the go and can track day-to-day progress.

Filling the bill… Duration

Our methodology has been tested in the field and seems to work like a charm but it doesn’t exist in the void. Market conditions and client’s availability are two key factors in the talent acquisition process: duration of recruitment depends heavily on technology choice and your responsiveness.

When hiring experts in popular technologies, it usually takes approx. 2 weeks (from the date of CV submission) to complete the flow. In rare cases, finding engineers with enough experience in a niche technology (+ specific domain knowledge) might take longer. As a countermeasure, we maintain open communication with our community of developers, who are always ready to provide referrals. Luckily, Polish software engineers have both skills and ambition, so quality candidates are hardly ever in short supply.

Final say… Decisions

This brings us to the question of distribution channels. Apart from posting a job offer on our website and LinkedIn profile, we use specialised job boards (e.g justjoin.it) and popular dev tools: GitLab, GitHub, Stack Overflow.

Professional know-how in the field of FinTech software development translates into thoughtful recommendations. Some advanced options, such as test recruitment might give even more insight into the skillset at your disposal. Still, whether you choose to take our advice or follow your gut feeling, the final decision is always yours to make.

Force to reckon with

All things considered, Code & Pepper is far from operating like a typical recruitment agency. Our systematic process is strictly tailored to the software development environment in the FinTech context. Advantages of such a focused approach form a long list, topped off with hands-on experience in the field. We pride in technical expertise and include the most experienced team members in the recruitment process (our CTO and Tech Leads prepare & verify sample tasks).

Strong sense of ownership is another important feature. Project managers come on board early on, collecting requirements and maintaining quality assurance. They also provide an important insight into those interpersonal skills which might prove essential when working on a project in a dispersed team.

All aboard… Case studies

Outsourcing, nearshoring, team augmentation… call it what you might, it boils down to more nimble coding fingers dedicated to developing YOUR product. The selected TA success stories from across the globe are both inspiring and motivating.

Smart Pension: The long game

With 100+ people in the development team, this big organisation has matching expectations. Their process is more complex, with the main focus on code quality and perfect culture fit. Smart Pension is highly involved in our TA efforts, has a very clear vision of an ideal candidate and detailed guidelines to guarantee long-term commitment.

A multi-step process takes candidates through a ground-mill of auditions:

  1. CV screening is the first stage, with a spotlight on minimum eligibility conditions.
  2. Next, the recruitment funnel rapidly narrows. Our recruiters conduct introductory interviews, verify English skills, discuss experience, employment terms and salary expectations. Candidates learn about Smart Pension, their products, the TA model and team structure.
  3. If green-lighted, candidates jump on a quick initial call (15 min) with the company in-house team member. They briefly discuss relevant experience and project objectives.
  4. At that point, Smart Pension picks candidates to receive a sample task.
  5. Smart Pension specialists verify test assignments and provide feedback: if positive, we schedule the final meeting.
  6. The last online interview is longer (~2.5 h) and involves a group of in-house specialists (developers, Scrum Master, Head of Engineering):
    • Technical part revolves around practical knowledge of the leading programming language (in this case: Ruby on Rails) and problem-solving skills.
    • Culture fit is tested with a custom set of questions. Other topics include remote work guidelines and aspects of team management.

After a thorough analysis of the collected insights, Smart Pension makes its final decision. New recruits confirm specific terms of employment and sign contracts.

Monkee: Short & sweet

A smaller team working in a startup mode allows for a simpler talent acquisition process. The more so, as time is of the essence.

Custom TA process prepared for Monkee boils down to 2 steps:

  1. Our recruiters perform initial candidate verification in the form of CV screening and an online call.
  2. The most promising candidates level up to an e-interview with the company representative (usually the CTO). During the final sit-down, candidates provide access to sample code and their technical competences are verified. Decision about employment comes shortly after. Code & Pepper deals with all formalities asap and new team members are ready to roll.

AZA: Baptism by fire

AZA Finance is an interesting example of an evolving partnership. At first, our cooperation was project-based. However, their experience was so positive that they’ve decided to coin a long-term alliance in the form of team augmentation. This model was a perfect compliment to the company policy focused on diversity and a truly international approach to team building. Reaping the benefits of the accumulated capital of trust, AZA now relies on our ability to find the right match. Moreover, their rapid growth calls for a swift process based on the expertise of our engineers and the keen eye our recruiters have for team working ability.

Mind the [talent] gap

As every technology solution was once just an idea in somebody’s mind, the human factor remains critical also in the age of AI and machine learning. Not surprisingly, leveraging talent acquisition is the focal point of virtually every FinTech’s growth strategy. In the age when geographical distance is no longer an issue, there are no limits to how you can benefit from the specialised recruitment process offered by Code & Pepper.