Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigating the online recruitment and selection journey of novice software engineers: Anti-patterns and recommendations

  • Published:
Empirical Software Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The growing software development market has increased the demand for qualified professionals in Software Engineering (SE). To this end, companies must enhance their Recruitment and Selection (R&S) processes to maintain high-quality teams, including opening opportunities for beginners, such as trainees and interns. However, given the various judgments and sociotechnical factors involved, this complex process of R&S poses a challenge for recent graduates seeking to enter the market. This paper aims to identify a set of anti-patterns and recommendations for early career SE professionals concerning R&S processes. Under an exploratory and qualitative methodological approach, we conducted six online Focus Groups with 18 recruiters with experience in R&S in the software industry. After completing our qualitative analysis, we identified 12 anti-patterns and 31 actionable recommendations regarding the hiring process focused on entry-level SE professionals. The identified anti-patterns encompass behavioral and technical dimensions innate to R&S processes. These findings provide a rich opportunity for reflection in the SE industry and offer valuable guidance for early-career candidates and organizations. From an academic perspective, this work also raises awareness of the intersection of Human Resources and SE, an area with considerable potential to be expanded in the context of cooperative and human aspects of SE.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

Data Availibility Statements

This study relies primarily on qualitative data from focus groups. All the supplementary material is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10436033. It includes: a) Informed consent form; b) Participant characterization questionnaire; c) Interview script for the focus groups; d) Mind map (in .pdf format); e) Focus groups transcriptions.

Notes

  1. Available at: https://gesid.github.io/papers/swe-novice-rs

  2. https://www.taguette.org

References

  • Ahmed F, Capretz LF, Campbell P (2012) Evaluating the demand for soft skills in software development. It Professional 14(1):44–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ahmed F, Fernando Capretz L, Bouktif S, Campbell P (2012) Soft skills requirements in software development jobs: a cross-cultural empirical study. Journal of Systems and Information Technology 14(1):58–81

  • Anderson N, Born M, Cunningham-Snell N (2002) Recruitment and selection: applicant perspectives and outcomes

  • Baltes S, Park G, Serebrenik A (2020) Is 40 the new 60? how popular media portrays the employability of older software developers. IEEE Software 37(6):26–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barbour R, Kitzinger J (1998) Developing focus group research: politics, theory and practice. Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker M, McCarthy P, Daly A (2002) The role of communication in recruitment and selection in Australia. Australian Journal of Communication 29(1):81–92

  • Behroozi M (2019) Towards scientific study of technical interviews using eye tracking. In: 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), pp 229–230. IEEE

  • Behroozi M (2022) Toward fixing bad practices in software engineering hiring process. North Carolina State University

  • Behroozi M, Lui A, Moore I, Ford D, Parnin C (2018) Dazed: measuring the cognitive load of solving technical interview problems at the whiteboard. In: Proceedings of the 40th international conference on software engineering: New Ideas and Emerging Results, pp 93–96

  • Behroozi M, Parnin C (2018) Can we predict stressful technical interview settings through eye-tracking? In: Proceedings of the workshop on eye movements in programming, pp 1–5

  • Behroozi M, Parnin C, Barik T (2019) Hiring is broken: What do developers say about technical interviews? In: 2019 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC), pp 1–9. IEEE

  • Behroozi M, Parnin C, Brown C (2022) Asynchronous technical interviews: reducing the effect of supervised think-aloud on communication ability. In: Proceedings of the 30th ACM joint European software engineering conference and symposium on the foundations of software engineering, pp 294–305

  • Behroozi M, Shirolkar S, Barik T, Parnin C (2020) Debugging hiring: What went right and what went wrong in the technical interview process. In: Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd international conference on software engineering: software engineering in society, pp 71–80

  • Behroozi M, Shirolkar S, Barik T, Parnin C (2020) Does stress impact technical interview performance? In: Proceedings of the 28th ACM joint meeting on european software engineering conference and symposium on the foundations of software engineering, pp 481–492

  • Bourque P, Fairley R (2004) Swebok. IEEE Computer society, Nd

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyce C, Neale P (2006) Conducting in-depth interviews: a guide for designing and conducting in-depth interviews for evaluation input

  • Budgen D (2003) Software design. Pearson Education

  • Chungyalpa W, Karishma T (2016) Best practices and emerging trends in recruitment and selection. Journal of Entrepreneurship & Organization Management 5(2):1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Daneva M, Wang C, Hoener P (2017) What the job market wants from requirements engineers? an empirical analysis of online job ads from The Netherlands. In: 2017 ACM/IEEE international symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM), pp 448–453. IEEE

  • da Silva FQ, França ACC, Suassuna M, de Sousa Mariz LM, Rossiley I, de Miranda RC, Gouveia TB, Monteiro CV, Lucena E, Cardozo ES et al (2013) Team building criteria in software projects: a mix-method replicated study. Information and Software Technology 55(7):1316–1340

  • Dybå T, Prikladnicki R, Rönkkö K, Seaman C, Sillito J (2011) Qualitative research in software engineering. Empirical Software Engineering 16:425–429

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehlers J (2015) Socialness in the recruiting of software engineers. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on computing frontiers, pp 1–5

  • Fenech R, Baguant P, Ivanov D (2019) The changing role of human resource management in an era of digital transformation. Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences 22(2):1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritzsch J, Wyrich M, Bogner J, Wagner S (2021) Résumé-driven development: a definition and empirical characterization. In: 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS), pp 19–28. IEEE

  • Fritzsch J, Wyrich M, Bogner J, Wagner S (2023) Resist the hype! practical recommendations to cope with résumé-driven development. IEEE Software

  • Garousi V, Giray G, Tuzun E, Catal C, Felderer M (2019) Closing the gap between software engineering education and industrial needs. IEEE Softw 37(2):68–77

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrido-Pintado P, García Huertas JG, Leal DB (2023) Identity and virtuality: the influence of personal profiles on social media on job search. Business Information Review p. 02663821231176679

  • Gioia DA, Corley KG, Hamilton AL (2013) Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: notes on the gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods 16(1):15–31

  • Gogoll J, Zuber N, Kacianka S, Greger T, Pretschner A, Nida-Rümelin J (2021) Ethics in the software development process: from codes of conduct to ethical deliberation. Philosophy & Technology pp 1–24

  • Gotterbarn D, Miller K, Rogerson S (2001) Software engineering code of ethics and professional practice

  • Guba EG, Lincoln YS et al (1994) Competing paradigms in qualitative research. Handbook of Qualitative Research 2(163–194):105

    Google Scholar 

  • Gurcan F, Sevik S (2019) Expertise roles and skills required by the software development industry. In: 2019 1st international informatics and software engineering conference (UBMYK), pp 1–4. IEEE

  • Hada B, Gairola S (2015) Opportunities & challenges of e recruitment. Journal of Management Engineering and Information Technology 2(2):1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Heneman HG, Judge TA, Kammeyer-Mueller JD (2019) Staffing organizations. McGraw-Hill

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoda R, Noble J, Marshall S (2011) Grounded theory for geeks. In: Proceedings of the 18th conference on pattern languages of programs, pp 1–17

  • Holm AB, Haahr L (2018) E-recruitment and selection. In: e-HRM, pp 172–195. Routledge

  • Holton JA (2007) The coding process and its challenges. The Sage Handbook of Grounded Theory 3:265–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hora MT (2020) Hiring as cultural gatekeeping into occupational communities: implications for higher education and student employability. Higher Education 79:307–324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamran A, Dawood J, Hilal SB (2015) Analysis of the recruitment and selection process. In: Proceedings of the ninth international conference on management science and engineering management, pp 1357–1375. Springer

  • Krueger RA (2014) Focus groups: a practical guide for applied research. Sage publications

  • Legard R, Keegan J, Ward K (2003) In-depth interviews. Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers 6(1):138–169

    Google Scholar 

  • Lievens F, Chapman D (2019) Recruitment and selection. The SAGE handbook of human resource management pp. 123–150

  • Lindsjørn Y, Sjøberg DI, Dingsøyr T, Bergersen GR, Dybå T (2016) Teamwork quality and project success in software development: a survey of agile development teams. Journal of Systems and Software 122:274–286

  • Lockwood N (2006) Talent management: driver for organizational success’(shrm research quarterly 2006). Electronic) Available at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_6_51/ai_n26909340 9, 2011

  • Maceli M (2015) What technology skills do developers need? a text analysis of job listings in library and information science (lis) from jobs. code4lib. org. Information Technology and Libraries 34(3):8–21

  • Majid S, Eapen CM, Aung EM, Oo KT (2019) The importance of soft skills for employability and career development: students and employers’ perspectives. IUP Journal of Soft Skills 13(4)

  • Marlow J, Dabbish L (2013) Activity traces and signals in software developer recruitment and hiring. In: Proceedings of the 2013 conference on computer supported cooperative work, pp. 145–156

  • Matturro G (2013) Soft skills in software engineering: a study of its demand by software companies in Uruguay. In: 2013 6th international workshop on cooperative and human aspects of software engineering (CHASE), pp 133–136. IEEE

  • Matturro G, Raschetti F, Fontán C (2019) A systematic mapping study on soft skills in software engineering. J Univers Comput Sci 25(1):16–41

  • Meade E, O’Keeffe E, Lyons N, Lynch D, Yilmaz M, Gulec U, O’Connor RV, Clarke PM (2019) The changing role of the software engineer. In: European conference on software process improvement, pp 682–694. Springer

  • Miles MB, Huberman AM, Huberman MA, Huberman M (1994) Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook. sage

  • Moe NB, Stray V, Smite D, Mikalsen M (2023) Attractive workplaces: What are engineers looking for? IEEE Software

  • Moh’d S, Gregory P, Sharp H, Barroca L (2023) Agile human resource management: a systematic mapping study. German Journal of Human Resource Management pp In–press

  • Montandon JE, Politowski C, Silva LL, Valente MT, Petrillo F, Guéhéneuc YG (2021) What skills do it companies look for in new developers? a study with Stack Overflow jobs. Information and Software Technology 129:106429

  • Moore OA, Livingston B, Susskind AM (2023) Résumé screening heuristic outcomes: an examination of hiring manager evaluation bias. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 42(1):104–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morgan DL (1988) Focus groups as qualitative research. Sage publications

  • Novielli N, Serebrenik A (2019) Sentiment and emotion in software engineering. IEEE Software 36(5):6–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Odeh AH, Tariq RS (2013) Recruiting quality software developers. WULFENIA Journal 20(5)

  • Okolie UC, Irabor IE (2017) E-recruitment: practices, opportunities and challenges. European Journal of Business and Management 9(11):116–122

    Google Scholar 

  • Porter LW, Lawler EE III, Hackman JR (1975) Behavior in organizations. McGraw-Hill Kogakusha

    Google Scholar 

  • Prabhakar NJ (2023) Role of new emerging technologies in recruitment and selection process. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning 11(1)

  • Radermacher A, Walia G, Knudson D (2014) Investigating the skill gap between graduating students and industry expectations. In: Companion proceedings of the 36th international conference on software engineering, pp 291–300

  • Ramkumar A, Rajini G (2019) Effective recruitment and selection system for the it software industry in India. Executive Editor 10(1):74

  • Rozario SD, Venkatraman S, Abbas A (2019) Challenges in recruitment and selection process: an empirical study. Challenges 10(2):35

  • Seaman CB (1999) Qualitative methods in empirical studies of software engineering. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 25(4):557–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Searle RH, Al-Sharif R (2018) Recruitment and selection. In: Human resource management, pp 215–237. Routledge

  • Setúbal M, Conte T, Kalinowski M, Araújo AA (2023) Supporting repository . https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10436033

  • Shannon P, Hambacher E (2014) Authenticity in constructivist inquiry: assessing an elusive construct. Qualitative Report 19(52)

  • Smite D, Moe NB (2023) The role of responsiveness to change in large onboarding campaigns. In: International conference on agile software development, pp 132–148. Springer Nature Switzerland Cham

  • Sommerville I (2011) Software engineering 9th edition. ISBN-10 137035152

  • Sonmez J (2017) The complete software developer’s career guide: How to learn programming languages quickly, ace your programming interview, and land your software developer dream job. Simple programmer

  • Stancanelli J (2010) Conducting an online focus group. The Qualitative Report 15(3):761–765

    Google Scholar 

  • Stebbins RA (2001) Exploratory research in the social sciences, vol 48. Sage

  • Storey MA, Singer L, Cleary B, Figueira Filho F, Zagalsky A (2014) The (r) evolution of social media in software engineering. Future of software engineering proceedings pp 100–116

  • Strauss A, Corbin J (1998) Basics of qualitative research techniques. Citeseer

  • Swamy CJ, Beloor V, Nanjundeswaraswamy T (2021) Recruitment and selection process in the it firms. GIS Sci J 8:343–356

    Google Scholar 

  • Thebe T, Van der Waldt G (2014) A recruitment and selection process model. Administratio Publica 22(3):6–29

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler J (2015) Building Great Software Engineering Teams. Springer

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • van Breukelen S, Barcomb A, Baltes S, Serebrenik A (2023) “still around”: experiences and survival strategies of veteran women software developers. arXiv:2302.03723

  • Wats M, Wats RK (2009) Developing soft skills in students. International Journal of Learning 15(12)

  • White J, Drew S (2011) Collecting data or creating meaning? Qualitative research journal

  • Wyrich M, Graziotin D, Wagner S (2019) A theory on individual characteristics of successful coding challenge solvers. PeerJ Comput Sci 5:e173

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the participants for their availability and to the reviewers for their valuable suggestions. This research was partially funded by CAPES - Financing Code 001, as well as CNPq processes 314797/2023-8 and 312275/2023-4. Additionally, we would like to acknowledge the support of the following institutions: Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Pontifıcia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), and Universidade Federal do Cariri (UFCA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Ceará (UFC) - Crateús Campus, Fortaleza, Brazil

    Miguel Setúbal

  2. Computing Institute - Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, Brazil

    Tayana Conte

  3. Department of Informatics - Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Marcos Kalinowski

  4. Center for Science and Technology - Federal University of Cariri (UFCA), Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil

    Allysson Allex Araújo

Authors
  1. Miguel Setúbal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Tayana Conte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marcos Kalinowski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Allysson Allex Araújo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Allysson Allex Araújo.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose

Competing of interests

The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article

Ethical standard

All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript

Informed consent

The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article.

Additional information

Communicated by: Fabio Calefato, Hourieh Khalajzadeh, Igor Steinmacher.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Setúbal, M., Conte, T., Kalinowski, M. et al. Investigating the online recruitment and selection journey of novice software engineers: Anti-patterns and recommendations. Empir Software Eng 29, 125 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10498-w

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-024-10498-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation