Press Release: TrueAbility Teams with Linode to Promote Open Technical Positions with Launch of Linux Showdown 9: The Arena Challenge

By April 27, 2015Press Release

TrueAbility Teams with Linode to Promote Open Technical Positions with Launch of Linux Showdown 9: The Arena Challenge 

Performance-based technical assessment platform helps Linode take innovative recruiting approach to help staff new support center 

(San Antonio, TX) April 27, 2015 – TrueAbility, a trusted global performance-based technical assessment provider, today announced it has partnered with Linode, a cloud

hosting provider of high-performance SSD Linux servers, to launch Linux Showdown 9: The Arena Challenge to accelerate the hiring of top technical talent for the company’s new support center located in Haddonfield, NJ. The Showdown runs from April 27 to May 27, 2015 and interested candidates can sign up here to begin participating.

“TrueAbility is a genuinely unique hiring tool for two main reasons,” stated Linode HR Director, Vincent Palochko. “First, it is one of the very few Linux-specific hiring resources. Second, its AbilityScreen® technical assessment platform lets me screen candidates based not only on work history, but also through actual hands-on technical qualifications, and then gives me a detailed report of their skills. TrueAbility is a huge asset and incredible advantage in finding talented and qualified individuals in the Linux field.”

Powered by TrueAbility’s AbilityScreen, the only fully-managed performance-based technical assessment platform operating in a real-time, cloud environment, Linux Showdown 9 pits competitors against the clock (and each other) to solve a simulated server crisis to prove their Linux and Drupal troubleshooting skills. For this particular challenge, competitors are placed in a ‘deathmatch’ scenario to help leader FragmasterX and his team of stranded gamers to get server and communication channels back online within 30 minutes before being forced to forfeit. Onlookers can follow with a public leader board throughout the duration of the challenge. Prizes include:

  • Top spot (1) on the leaderboard:
    • $100 Linode Credit
    • One year of GitHub ($264 value)
    • One Raspberry Pi2
  • Top 5 on the leaderboard
    • $50 Linode Credit
    • One Raspberry Pi2
  • Top 25
    • $25 Linode Credit

“Today’s legacy hiring methods for finding, qualifying and hiring technical talent have not evolved with advancements in technology, and with technical talent shortages at an all time high, there’s no room for error,” said TrueAbility COO and co-founder, Frederick Mendler. “By designing custom showdown challenges for companies, such as Linode, to innovate their technical recruiting methods, we’re influencing a paradigm shift in the way skills-based evaluation is conducted that is not only fast and cost-efficient, but also fun and entertaining and brings qualified candidates through the door.”

AbilityScreen is the only fully-managed, performance-based, technical-assessment platform operating in a live, cloud environment that gives technical professionals the opportunity to conduct real-time “on-the-job” performance interviews demonstrating their technology expertise to employers recruiting qualified technical talent for specific job positions. AbilityScreen removes traditional hiring barriers such as shotgun job postings, phone screens with non-technical recruiters, multiple choice tests, and white board exercises to determine the technical skill of an applicant.

Technical professionals also use AbilityScreen for hands-on skill validation and growth/development through ongoing challenges and showdowns, self-assessments and practice-runs in a lab environment, and community forums. Employers have access to more than 17,000 qualified tech professionals, who can be assessed and qualified for hire. Employers can also post job listings to reach passive and active candidates, invite prospects to conduct a real-time online interview, and utilize detailed assessment results to make better hiring decisions that can reduce time-to-hire by 60 percent.

About Linode 

Linode is a leading cloud-hosting provider founded in 2003. Today, the company boasts more than 350,000 customers worldwide with four data centers in the US as well as two others in Europe and Asia.

Subscribers can create a cloud server with Linode in under a minute for as low as $10 per month. From there, users can then dynamically scale their environments to meet business demands – paying for only what they use, with no long-term commitments.

Christopher S. Aker created Linode with the goal of offering developers powerful and reliable cloud servers at an affordable price. The system interface offers an intuitive control panel that users can replicate on a larger scale using the company’s simple API. The company’s platform also enables customers to fully customize their environments and choose from a menu of add-on features, such as system-metrics-reporting service Longview, backups and NodeBalancers, Managed Services and Professional Services.

In February 2015, BuiltWith.com ranked Linode – home to more than 580,000 websites on the Internet – in the Top-10 of all web-hosting providers. Additionally, CloudHarmony reported a greater than 99.99 percent average for service availability throughout Linode’s datacenters.

For more information, please visit http://www.linode.com

About TrueAbililty 

TrueAbility is a trusted global performance-based technical assessment provider offering a community ecosystem allowing technical professionals and employers to collaborate and measure skill sets through AbilityScreen®. AbilityScreen is the only fully-managed performance-based technical assessment platform operating in a live, cloud environment that automates recruiting and hiring processes to definitively assess and qualify a technical professional’s technology experience.

TrueAbility has executed over 20,000 technical assessments logging more than 18,000 hours of live server practical skill evaluations. Employers have collectively hired hundreds of qualified technical professionals for specific job positions across an array of industries. Founded in 2012, TrueAbility is privately held and headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, please visit www.trueability.com.

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AbilityScreen is a registered trademark of TrueAbility in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. 

Media Contacts: 

Dana Marruffo
BuzzPR/TrueAbility
512.825.9035
dana@buzzpublicrelations.net
Keith Craig
Linode
609.380.7546
keith.craig@linode.com