Four developer candidates assessed for a Frankfurt digital agency

Situation

A digital agency in Frankfurt’s Innenstadt, 30 staff, builds websites and web applications for Mittelstand clients. Its only senior developer had resigned, and the two founders come from design and project management. They had four candidates for a full-stack developer role (TypeScript, React, Node), found through their own network and one job board, and nobody in the building who could tell a good developer from a fluent one. The last hire in this role had been chosen on interview impression and had left within the probation period.

Approach

We wrote a scorecard for the role first, together with the founders: five criteria, each with a description of what “meets” and “exceeds” looks like. The criteria: code quality, breaking a problem down, communication with non-technical colleagues, working in an existing codebase, and ownership of delivery.

Then we designed a work sample that mirrors the real job: a small bug in an existing React and Node codebase, plus one feature to add, sized for three hours at home. Every candidate received the same brief, the same codebase and the same deadline. We told them in advance how it would be scored.

We reviewed the four submissions against the scorecard and wrote one page per candidate. Then we ran a 60-minute structured technical interview with each of them, walking through their own submission and asking the same set of questions. The founders sat in on the last 20 minutes of each interview for culture and communication. Everyone scored independently before comparing notes, to keep first impressions out of the decision.

Result

In this scenario two of the four candidates met the bar. One had impressed in the founders’ own first round and delivered a work sample that did not run. One quiet candidate, whom the founders had ranked last, delivered the cleanest submission and explained every decision in it. The written comparison ranked the two recommended candidates with the trade-off spelled out: one stronger on the front end, one on delivery ownership.

The founders made an offer to the top-ranked candidate. It was accepted, with a start after the three-month notice period. The two declined candidates each received a short written reason, which we drafted. The scorecard and the work sample stay with the client for the next developer hire.

Total founder time in the process: about six hours across three weeks. Without the assessment they would have decided on interview impression again.

What it cost

€2,200 fixed price for one role with four candidates: scorecard, work sample design, review of four submissions, four structured interviews and a written comparison with a recommendation. That sits between our €1,400 role screen and the €2,400 per-candidate deep assessment, because the work sample was shared across the four rather than built for each. The price was quoted before the work started. The job-board posting the client had already placed was theirs and is outside our fee. The engagement is covered by our 100% money-back guarantee: full refund on request within 14 days of delivery.

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