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I’ve been struggling a bit with the balance between testing for hard technical skills and looking at softer qualities like teamwork and communication when hiring .NET developers. On one hand, coding tests are straightforward enough, but they never really show me how someone deals with changing requirements or whether they can collaborate without friction. I’d love to hear how others handle this balance, because too often I’ve hired great coders who didn’t fit in with the team or strong communicators who later turned out to be technically weaker than expected.

[ValensiaRomaro]

That’s a good point. I’ve gone through the same dilemma. What I eventually learned is that you can’t just rely on one type of evaluation. For example, I used to give fairly complex coding assignments that took hours, but honestly the best developers didn’t always perform well under that kind of pressure. What worked better for me was mixing a shorter, more focused coding exercise (something that takes 20–30 minutes) with a problem-solving discussion where I’d ask them to talk through their approach. That way you can see their reasoning process and how they explain it https://blackthorn-vision.com/blog/hiring-net-developers-step-by-step-guide/. For soft skills, I usually set up a group interview with at least one team member present, not just managers. You learn a lot by seeing how the candidate reacts to questions from different people—whether they get defensive, collaborative, or curious.

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Interesting discussion. I agree that neither technical nor soft skills alone give you the full picture. Sometimes the candidate looks strong on paper and even passes the code test, but in day-to-day collaboration you suddenly notice gaps. I like the idea of pair programming as part of the process, because it mirrors real work situations much more closely than whiteboard problems.

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