Is it time to delete CVs and personality tests?

Carina Parisella

Innovation & Technology Editor, bluenotes

If you visit any technology conference or forum you will have heard that, in order to win in the digital future, big businesses - like banks - will have to morph into software companies. So how do you recruit a software engineer?

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I recently sat down with two of ANZ’s expert software engineers to discuss how open sourcing software can attract “top talent”. And why it’s time to delete CVs and personality tests.

"If [someone has] a beautiful mind and can think of things in novel ways… that's far more valuable.” - Angrish

For ANZ's digital division senior engineer, Julia Ogris, software engineering is more than just a job. After 15 years in the industry, including a stint at tech giant Google, Ogris still sees herself as tinkerer working on her craft.

However a recent personality test told her something else: to her great surprise she discovered the career to which she was least suited was … software engineering.

“I'm pretty happy I took the test at this stage of my life when I won't be rattled but when I started studying computer science it might have taken me down another path,” she says.

Tech lead for ANZ’s engineering acceleration, Mark Angrish, argues big businesses needs to reconsider recruitment practices for staff in technology, adding that open sourcing can help attract talent.

“Using open source data and being part of the ecosystem [helps your company] become a destination for people wanting to join an organisation,” he says.

Angrish, who used to run his own start-up with a focus on recruitment for engineering, says “having people aware of the activities you're doing and enticing them to come and talk to you is really important”.

He says if you simply focus on behaviours or personality tests in the recruitment process you may reduce candidates to a line item.

“If [the candidate] has a beautiful mind and they can think of things in novel ways… for me that's far more valuable.”

Listen to the podcast above to hear the full conversation.

Carina Parisella is innovation editor at bluenotes.

The views and opinions expressed in this communication are those of the author and may not necessarily state or reflect those of ANZ.

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