How a penguin in Antarctica helped match companies with the best developers

What do scientists working in Antarctica and remote developers have in common?

Companies hiring remote developers can learn from how research stations hire scientists to work in Antarctica.

Personnel deployed to Antarctica during the winter must undergo a psychological assessment, which tests whether they can handle the stress and extreme weather conditions.

Due to severe winter storms and 24hr darkness, there is no airplane traffic for 7 months between February and October unless a risky flight is made for a life-or-death emergency. 

With temperatures around -76°F, continual darkness, isolation, and cold, the stress will literally drive people insane. Over the decades, such conditions sent several people mad, with stories including tales of fistfights and an Australian staffer who had to be locked in a storage room all winter to stop him from attacking his coworkers.

The psychological assessment also ensures a candidate’s expectations are realistic. Getting an employee out and replacing them is expensive, time-consuming, and causes an unnecessary disruption.

While developers are not likely to start a fistfight over a bug, the consequences of hiring developers are for the long term. 

According to various studies, the cost of hiring the wrong developer is as high as $200,000, with the CEO of Link humans putting the average cost as high as $240,000 in expenses. 

When including the cost of hiring, compensation, productivity loss, disruption, decreased teamwork, and negative impact on employee morale, the cost of hiring the wrong developer, can be extremely high.

So when recruiting tech talents, we also make candidates undergo a psychological assessment, as vetting only for tech skills is not enough. In addition, work motivation, preferences, and expectations impact productivity and retention.

During the psychological assessment, we test if the remote developer can work in a fast-paced company, work independently, be highly proactive and resourceful when overcoming professional and personal challenges, and have the personality traits needed to succeed in a remote work environment.

Without a psychological assessment, we risk matching a company with a developer who might be unhappy and who will leave the company at a critical time. 

Our experience with remote engineering teams combined with breakthrough psychology research allows us to understand each company’s unique needs and match them with the perfect tech talent based on the candidates’ aspirations and goals. 

For the past 3 years, we’ve been helping customers like Deel meet their extreme growth goals while keeping a super high-quality bar of candidates (50+ hires made).

Need international developers who are the perfect fit for your cultural DNA and technical needs? Let’s talk!