Hiring is becoming more and more challenging for most organizations, especially those that work in a competitive market and have aggressive hiring goals. It’s time to start being creative and thinking outside the box.

It's (Not) a Match!

The recruitment model has always been finding the perfect match for the role, a Rock Star. But we all know it's unlikely that we'll find someone in a short period of time who meets 100% of the requirements. This is especially true when we talk about hiring technical professionals, where we face a double challenge: finding a professional who matches our hiring profile while beating out marketplace competition. 

The New Hiring Mindset

The good news is that the market is changing. We're seeing that companies are hiring based more on behavioral indicators, soft skills, and cultural fit than on technical knowledge, and I’m not only talking about small organizations - this is also a trend I see in some of our big clients. When I first started at Avenue Code, we didn’t have any kind of behavioral assessment built into our hiring process, and having experienced both methods, I can guarantee that the behavioral learning curve is much longer than the technical learning curve. 

DNA Trumps Technical Talent 

So that made me wonder: what if we have a candidate who matches our DNA but who needs some kind of technical preparation before joining our complex projects - should we wait for the candidate to be ready to join us? My answer was no. We should hire with talent as a consideration, but we also need to do a better job training our talent. 

ACP2P (Avenue Code Practice to Perfection) is a recently-launched program at Avenue Code that was created to innovate the hiring process and open the door to innovation, creativity, and opportunities. This program is based on the concept of hiring potential: we want to invite professionals who share our DNA to join our team, and we'll take them to the next level of technical expertise and prepare them to join our high-level client projects in a short period of time!

How it Works

To accomplish this goal, we count on our highly skilled Senior Consultants to support and mentor our ACP2P participants. They prepare our new consultants to reach a high level of knowledge and meet our clients' standards. Program participants are exposed to the complex problems and real-life situations that occur on client sites, giving them the opportunity to accelerate their development and level up their technical skills. They definitely need a lot of dedication, energy, and coffee! 

From a hiring and client satisfaction standpoint, this is the perfect match: our incredible Senior Consultants mentoring new talent with a strong Avenue Code DNA and an enthusiasm for learning new skills!