Mr. Zoë just recently returned from a whirlwind business trip to several Asian countries.  Being a student of business culture, I couldn’t wait for him to get back so I could pepper him with questions about the work environments, employees and especially about finding great software engineering talent. 

He came home with lots of funny stories and some really great pictures.  When I asked him what the biggest surprise was his answer wasn’t shocking to me, but it did give me pause.  We all know that in sheer volume countries such as China and India tend to graduate more software development engineers then any other.  A huge reason as to why there has been a great deal of hi-tech outsourcing to these nations and why companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Oracle, Sun, the list could go on and on, all have offices in the Asian theater.  It’s a fact that the US just isn’t seeing the same level of interest in software engineering careers or folks graduating from universities with these engineering degrees.  So when it comes to US employers trying to hire domestically, they sometimes have to weed through dozens and dozens of unqualified resumes to find the one candidate that potentially meets their needs.

But what would you do in the opposite situation?  Imagine you were a prestigious employer with offices in one of these countries and you hade to wade through 1500 qualified applicants for one position.  What selection criteria do you use in a situation where each person possesses the educations, skills and experience that are a direct match for the position?

I’m not sure I have an absolute answer, but I would imagine that it could be similar to what some Ivy League or other high caliber universities face when making their way through thousands of applicants each year.  They are looking for something unique that sets candidates apart in their application – activities, personality etc…

I asked Mr. Zoë about this and he told me that they basically screen – and by screen I mean talk to – each and every qualified applicant for the role.  Now I am not sure this is the case for every company, but it was for the few he visited.  That just seems like a daunting task to me.  There’s got to be a better way to find the best person for a job in that situation. 

Ideally it would be great if candidate resumes had some identifying markers, but even more so it would be great if there were a more automated process.  One thought would be a front end system where when people apply they could answer questions that would automatically rank their qualifications against other potential candidates.  I know this has been thought about and probably is out there somewhere.  Is anyone using something like this?

I don’t know.  What do you think?  What solutions are already out there or would you create to solve this problem?

Just rambling today I guess :)