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Quantifying technical skills

Today, many recruiters and hiring managers assume that measuring skills is difficult and resource-intensive. Thus, they feel that they can’t afford to include the skill assessment step in their hiring process or they put it off till the very end of the process. 

Therefore, when people learn about CodeSignal’s Coding ScoreTM which quantifies technical skills in an effective and elegant manner ready to be used at the very beginning of a hiring process, they often are astonished. Some even put it: “The future of hiring has arrived.”

Think of our Coding ScoreTM like a credit score. While people think credit scores have existed forever, that’s not the case. In the early 1950s, if you wanted a loan, you’d actually have to go into an interview at a bank and the decision was based purely on your conversation with a banker. If the banker was having a bad day, you didn’t look like him, or you didn’t have the right pedigree, chances are you weren’t getting a loan.

The old process inevitably introduced a lot of bias into the process. And simply, it was bad for business because you were not able to make data-driven decisions.

Which is why today, credit scores are used to make automated decisions on lending. 

Everyone now knows what the ranges are and how to interpret a credit score. It’s created a concept for people to rally around.

You might argue that credit scores are not perfect. One of the weaknesses of credit scores is that it’s largely based on history instead of measuring the ability to repay a loan directly. 

CodeSignal’s unique Coding ScoreTM is, instead, a truly direct measurement of current ability and skills. We create assessments that simulate real-world job experiences and give them an environment that is very similar to their day-to-day. 

Unlike the singular credit score, the Coding ScoreTM varies by the type of test someone takes. For example, someone can have a certain score for our General Coding Assessment and a different score for our Specialized Coding Assessments which might measure Java or data science skills. 

Each assessment produces its own score, but they’re all measured using the same numeric scale so they’re easy to understand. We actually use the same scale as the credit score, where it goes from 300 to 850 and the ranges are mapped out similarly to the credit score. 

Organizations can use Coding ScoreTM to completely replace the resume. Having a high Coding ScoreTM enables organizations to bypass biased resume reviews and understand if someone has the right skills and abilities to actually do the job. Coding ScoreTM replaces the subjective measures typically seen in the hiring process with a completely objective measurement. 

However, organizations should not just use Coding ScoreTM when assessing a candidate. Just like having a high credit score doesn’t guarantee you a loan, having a high Coding ScoreTM shouldn’t guarantee getting a job. It’s kind of like the right to play – they get their foot in the door and can start a conversation regardless of pedigree or previous experience. 

Using Coding ScoreTM simplifies the top-of-funnel screening of candidates and enables organizations to truly scale their hiring in a smart, data-driven way. It also creates a high-quality candidate experience because candidates can understand why they did or didn’t make it to the next step and work on improving their skills.  

This blog post is based on the twenty-seventh episode of the data-driven recruiting podcast hosted by CodeSignal co-founders Sophia Baik and Tigran Sloyan. You can find and listen to this specific episode here or check out the video version embedded above.