Today`s topic

Improving Mentimeter’s candidate experience with Alva’s coding tests

Since launching in 2012, Mentimeter has been empowering over 208 million users to engage with interactive presentations using their Audience Engagement Platform.  The core values behind this mission – working smartly and transparently while adopting a consultant mindset - are values that also trickle into Mentimeter’s recruitment process.

Before Mentimeter approached Alva Labs for help, Senior Frontend Engineer Jacob Klapwijk and Engineering Manager Kristian Hellquist spent considerable hours interviewing prospective candidates.

"When it comes to finding and hiring the best developers, being able to determine what skills and real-world problem-solving an applicant can bring to their role is crucial to Mentimeter's continued success."

The challenge

Jacob and Kristian quickly realised that the time spent in interviews could be directed elsewhere in business. At first, they engaged an external coding tool to cut down the hours required for technical interviews.

However, the tests were too generic and failed to go deep into the domain.

 ' "The tools we tried provided a setup with outdated technologies, and very theoretical questions. This meant that the tool's functionality did not meet our requirements, and the issues continued to persist."'

Engaging with Developers in a Language They Understand

After some deliberation, Mentimeter approached Alva Labs and booked a demo. Jacob wanted to see how Alva’s frontend hiring pipeline worked and he tried the platform on a real candidate. Afterward, Alva’s support team walked Jacob through the steps to conducting a follow-up code review.

Jacob was pleasantly surprised by the demo, and decided to make the switch to Alva’s coding tests.

 ' "We found that the Alva cases didn't give away to candidates exactly what they needed to do, without making it too difficult. This enabled us to get a full picture of their experience and key skills to ensure they were the right technical as well as cultural fit."'

After a few months of successfully using the Alva Labs setup for the frontend, Kristian wanted to replicate the same process for the backend hiring pipeline. Once the demo, internal evaluation, real candidate test, and a follow-up code review were concluded,  Mentimeter’s hiring team were able to start interviewing right away.

The Results

Thanks to Alva’s testing solution, the team at Mentimeter were able to adjust their tech assessment process and provide all applicants with the chance to choose their preferred programming language and stack to work with. 

This not only significantly improved the user experience but also meant that the hiring team was able to get enough data points about a candidate's competencies to make an informed decision.

Today, Mentimeter uses Alva Labs across four different hiring pipelines: frontend, backend, data science, and DevOps.

 ' "Alva has been very eager to support us if we have any questions regarding a case that an engineer has submitted. They're always quick to respond and nothing is too much trouble. They come highly recommended."'