You need a senior engineer fast. You post a job, engage recruiters, and brace for resumes. What arrives? A flood of mismatched profiles, weak candidates, and a huge invoice.
The traditional recruiting model was built for local, in-office roles — not senior-level remote talent. This article exposes where it fails and how a new model solves the problem.
Failure point 1: the keyword matching charade
Recruiters rely on ATS filters and keyword scans. Resumes with the right acronyms pass, even if the candidate lacks real experience.
Result: You waste hours interviewing people who fail the first technical screen.
Failure point 2: lack of technical vetting
Recruiters aren’t engineers. They can’t separate senior architects from mid-level developers with inflated resumes. They miss critical skills like:
- System design and architecture
- Code quality and best practices
- Problem-solving nuance
The burden of technical vetting falls back on your team.
Failure point 3: misaligned incentives
Recruiters get paid when a candidate signs, not when they succeed.
- Traditional agencies: Incentive is to close fast. Outcome: high cost, low quality, high churn risk.
- Howdy.com’s model: Incentive is long-term success. Outcome: high-quality matches and guaranteed alignment.
The Howdy.com solution: vetting by engineers, for engineers
We rejected the broken model. Our vetting process is run by senior engineers who:
- Conduct live paired-programming sessions.
- Assess architecture, code quality, and problem-solving.
- Ensure only top candidates make it to your team.
Conclusion
Traditional recruiters fail because they chase volume over quality. To find elite remote engineers, you need expert, human-led vetting. That’s what Howdy.com was built for — so you meet only the candidates who truly belong on your team.