What to consider in the recruitment of a Data Scientist?
In the recruitment of a Data Scientist it is essential to define the exact need and job description. In addition, it is pivotal to find, identify and attract the candidates with the most potential. It is also very important to test and evaluate their skills.
How to identify a potential candidate?
What kind of image do the words Data Scientist create in your mind? Do you see a person working on past reporting? Or someone who has turned their gaze to predicting, anticipating and prospecting for the future? Or something in between?
The Data Scientist title includes many variations globally and company-specifically. The scale is wide. There are technical process operations and machine learning, production-oriented and operational processes, customer service, marketing, and everything in between. What is the first task for recruitment? To clarify and define what the candidate will concretely do in that particular company and position.
A good Data Scientist is a number-oriented mathematician who is infinitely curious and interested in new things. Everything is based on curiosity. They question whether all the existing data has been given to them. Why? So they can pick the relevant things from it themselves. The key is to provide them with a clear goal. A good Data Scientist will do anything with numbers to find a way to achieve it.
There is a lot of competition in the recruitment of Senior Data Scientists. Their recruitment happens most efficiently through headhunting. With Juniors, the traditional recruitment process works well instead. It is central to know the development process of the Data Scientist position. This helps to distinguish rising stars and the future’s pearls from the beginning of the journey. The challenge in the middle of the competition is to stand out. It is important to pay attention to the employer image and show interesting projects and future prospects. The best experts can afford to choose.
Testing competence gives certainty and efficiency to recruitment of a Data Scientist
Testing a Data Scientist’s competence provides certainty and efficiency to recruitment. It also gives a good indication into whether the candidate has the key ability to master the whole. Are they able to understand data processing as well as the handling of prediction models and different solutions? The technology is always based on mathematical models, which are implemented with various tools. The level of code says everything about competence.
At ICT DIRECT, all interested Data Scientist candidates in headhunting are asked to take the test. This happens early in the recruitment process at the same time when they are asked to deliver a CV. The tests do not only test technical competence. They also test motivation, as participating in the test requires approximately 1–1,5 hours of time. We have at our disposal a multi-purpose testing platform, Filtered. It offers the possibility to conduct tests at different levels. Competence can be tested separately from the basic level to more demanding levels, regarding data processing and model optimisation.
In addition to technical tests, Filtered can be used to include company-specific interview questions. It also helps to ensure that each candidate has done everything from start to finish all by themselves. After the test part, the recruitment process continues with personal conversations regarding personality, motivation, communication skills, future goals etc. All sections of the system, from coding to interview questions, are videotaped. The whole package is then presented to the customer. The customer also has the possibility to use the system together with the candidate remotely. They can test the collaboration and workflow interactively together by coding, making models, and drawing processes.
Invest in the quality of recruitment and testing competence
Recruitment always requires a lot of resources. The price to pay for the wrong kind of recruitment decision is far too high in so many ways. Investing in the quality of recruitment and testing competence reduces this risk essentially. Read more about testing competency. And contact us – let’s take care together to find the Data Scientist that best suits your company’s needs!
