Unravel Tech wanted a senior DevOps engineer who could actually execute—not just talk—had been a months-long nightmare. Until they stopped screening resumes and started looking at real data.
What they used before
Manual screening + posting on communities, whatsapp groups, etc.
Key Challenges
Finding engineers with niche skills (Senior DevOps Engineer) and deep technical fundamentals,
Also, with their specific requirements — high agency, proven before the ability to build and ship
Key Outcomes
Unravel Tech used Utkrusht's platform and hired their candidate in just 9 days, a perfect cultural and technical fit who ticked every single requirement box, after months of failed attempts via agencies and communities.
What They Were Doing Before
Unravel Tech was doing what most small tech companies do: the manual grind and hustle.
Recruitment Agencies:
Community Sourcing: Posting in Slack groups, LinkedIn communities, Discord channels. Hoping someone would see the post, know someone good, and make a referral. This worked occasionally, but the quality was inconsistent and the volume was low. Most referrals were friends helping friends—not necessarily the best technical fits.
Manual Screening & Assessment: Once candidates came in, someone on the team had to:
Read through resumes and try to figure out who was legit
Do phone screens to filter out the obviously unqualified
Schedule technical interviews for the ones who seemed promising
Watch most of them fail basic technical questions
Start over
The process was slow, manual, and exhausting. Every step required human judgment with incomplete information. Every candidate was a gamble.
The team was stuck in a loop: interview, reject, repeat.
The Challenges & Pain Points
The hiring process had several issues -
1. Manual Sourcing Is a Black Hole
Recruitment agencies are supposed to solve this, but they don't. They optimize for volume, not quality. They send everyone who vaguely matches the job description and let you figure out who's actually good.
Unravel Tech was drowning in mediocre candidates while the right people never made it to their inbox.
2. Manual Assessment Wastes Everyone's Time
Once candidates made it through the initial screen (resume → phone call), Unravel Tech had to assess them manually:
Schedule technical interviews
Spend 1-2 hours per candidate evaluating their skills
Realize most couldn't pass basic technical challenges
Repeat
This meant their senior engineers—the people who should be building product—were spending 10+ hours per week interviewing candidates who had no business being there.
And here's the kicker: manual assessment is subjective. Different interviewers have different standards. Some candidates are great at interviewing but terrible at executing. Others are quiet in interviews but ship like machines.
You can't tell who's who until after you hire them—and by then it's too late.
3. No Data, Just "Gut" Feelings
When you're hiring manually, every decision is a guess:
"Their resume looks good, let's interview them."
"They seemed smart in the phone screen, let's bring them in."
"I have a good feeling about this one."
What Unravel Tech needed was objective data showing:
Can this person actually build things, or just talk about building things?
Do they have deep fundamentals, or surface-level framework knowledge?
Are they self-starters with high agency, or do they need hand-holding?
Will they actually accept an offer if we make one?
4. The Best Candidates Weren't Even Making It Through
The worst part about manual sourcing and assessment: you're probably missing the best people.
The best engineers often:
Don't have polished resumes (they're too busy building)
Aren't active on job boards (they get opportunities through networks)
Don't interview well (they're introverts who'd rather code than talk)
Get filtered out early because they don't "look" impressive on paper
How Utkrusht Helped
Utkrusht's platform facilitated pre-assessed candidates with detailed analytics showing exactly what each candidate will perform.
The Difference:
1. Active Sourcing, Not Passive Posting
Most companies post jobs and wait. Utkrusht flipped the script: they went out and found the candidates Unravel Tech needed.
The process:
Utkrusht identified 10+ strong DevOps candidates who matched the technical profile
Called each one to do a quick qualification check (not a surface-level screen—actual questions about their work)
Invited qualified candidates to complete technical assessments
Ended up running 120 assessments to build a strong pipeline
By the time candidates reached Unravel Tech, they'd already been filtered: Utkrusht's technical assessment (can they actually build something?)
2. "Build Something" Assessments That Reveal Real Skill
Utkrusht's assessments don't test trivia or framework knowledge. They test whether you can build and ship.
These aren't questions you can fake. You either know how to architect systems, or you don't. The assessment reveals the truth in just 30 minutes.
Out of 120 candidates who took assessments, Utkrusht identified 8 who demonstrated:
✅ Strong grasp of fundamentals (not just framework knowledge)
✅ Ability to build and ship under pressure
✅ First-principles thinking (not just copying from Stack Overflow)
✅ High technical depth across infrastructure, CI/CD, and orchestration
3. Detailed Candidate Research That Changed Decision-Making
Here's where Utkrusht really stood out: the way they presented candidates.
Most recruiters send a resume and maybe a short blurb. "Here's John, he has 5 years of DevOps experience, let me know if you want to interview him."
Utkrusht sent detailed PDFs for each candidate that included:
📊 Assessment Analytics:
Link to the candidate's full technical assessment
Skill score (objective measure of technical depth)
Performance breakdown (their actual work sample, where they excelled, where they struggled)
🎯 Signal Analysis:
High agency indicators: Self-starters who don't need spoon-feeding
Intent to join: How motivated they are to switch (not just casually browsing)
Salary expectations: Does it fit your budget, or will you waste time negotiating?
Location preferences: Are they open to your setup (remote/hybrid/office)?
🔍 Unique Context:
What makes this person special beyond their resume
Examples of past work that show execution ability
Cultural fit indicators (for Aviral: "Took a college drop to pursue guitar professionally—shows agency and conviction in following through on commitments")
This wasn't fluff. These were actionable signals that helped Unravel Tech make faster, smarter decisions.
4. Assessment Dashboard with Real-Time Analytics
No more black box. No more "we sent you 10 candidates, good luck." Just clear data showing exactly where each candidate stood and why.
The Process:
Unravel Tech created a role with their requirements
120 candidates completed assessments over the course of the engagement (building a strong pipeline for current and future needs).
Utkrusht's platform identified 8 exceptional candidates who scored well on technical depth + had the right cultural signals (high agency, intent to join, salary fit).
The platform showed detailed candidate reports with assessment links, skill scores, intent analysis, and unique context for each person.
Unravel Tech interviewed 8 candidates and shortlisted 2 for final rounds
Made the offer to 2 candidates, 1 accepted
Timeline: 9 days from job opening-to-hire.
"We were spending weeks manually screening candidates from agencies and communities, then watching them fail our technical interviews. It wasn't a pipeline problem—we had candidates. It was a quality problem—none of them could actually do the work. We needed a way to filter for skill before wasting everyone's time."
— Vedang Manerikar, CEO, Unravel Tech
The Results
Main results we saw -
Time to Hire: 9 Days (vs. Months of Manual Sourcing)
With Utkrusht's platform:
9 days from introduction to offer accepted
8 pre-assessed candidates delivered (all technically qualified)
2 shortlisted for final rounds
1 hired
Candidate Quality: 120 Assessments → 8 Strong Candidates → 1 Perfect Hire
The funnel tells the story:
Before Utkrusht:
100+ applications from agencies/communities → 10-15 phone screens → 3-5 technical interviews → 0 qualified hires
With Utkrusht:
120 assessments administered → 8 exceptional candidates (top 6-7%) → 2 finalists → 1 hire who exceeded expectations
That's a 12.5% conversion rate from strong candidates to hire. In senior DevOps hiring, that's exceptional.
But here's what matters more: the hire quality. Aviral didn't just meet the bar—he was the perfect fit.
Hire Quality: Ticked Every Single Requirement Box
Unravel Tech didn't have to compromise on anything:
✅ Technical depth: Strong grasp of fundamentals, not just framework knowledge
✅ Execution ability: Could build and ship, not just talk about building
✅ High agency: Self-starter who doesn't need hand-holding
✅ Cultural fit: Perfect match for Unravel Tech's bias-for-action culture
✅ Salary expectations: Within budget—no awkward negotiations
✅ Intent to join: Actually wanted the role (not just testing the market)
Team Productivity: 10+ Hours Per Week Saved
With Utkrusht's pre-assessment model:
Only interviewed candidates who'd already proven their technical depth
Cut interview time by 70-80% (8 qualified candidates vs. 30+ unqualified ones)
Senior engineers could focus on building product, not screening resumes
That's 40+ hours per month back in the hands of people who should be shipping, not interviewing.
Decision-Making: From Gut Feelings to Data-Driven Hiring
The biggest shift wasn't speed—it was confidence.
When they made an offer, they weren't hoping. They knew he was the right hire. The data proved it.
What Stood Out Most
When we asked Unravel Tech what made the biggest difference, they pointed to two things
Detailed Candidate Research > Generic Resume Forwarding
Utkrusht's platform shows candidate reports in much detail.
For eg: for the candidate that got hired, the report included:
Assessment performance: Scored in the top tier on DevOps fundamentals, infrastructure design, and CI/CD implementation
Intent to join: Actively looking for the right opportunity (not passively browsing)
Salary expectations: Aligned with Unravel Tech's budget
High agency signal: Story about taking a college drop to pursue guitar professionally—showed he follows through on commitments and doesn't need external validation to make bold decisions
Cultural fit indicators: Self-reliant, bias for action, doesn't wait for perfect information
Actionable Signals That Make Hiring Decisions Easy
The second thing that stood out was the rubric-based assessment insights. Utkrusht's platform provides the critical analytics dashboard.
For each candidate, Unravel Tech could see:
📊 Skill Score
Not a subjective "seems good"—an objective measure of technical performance on real-world challenges. Aviral scored in the top 10% of all assessed DevOps candidates.
🎯 Intent to Join
Was this person actively looking, or just testing the market? Aviral had high intent—he was ready to move for the right opportunity, which meant Unravel Tech wasn't wasting time on someone who'd reject their offer.
💰 Salary Range
No surprises in negotiation. Utkrusht provided upfront clarity on expectations, so Unravel Tech knew Aviral was within budget before investing interview time.
🧠 Fundamentals vs. Framework Knowledge
Could this person think from first principles, or did they just know how to use tools? The assessment showed Aviral had deep fundamentals—he could architect systems, not just deploy pre-built ones.
🚀 Execution Ability
Could they build and ship under pressure, or freeze when things got hard? Aviral's assessment performance showed he could execute—not just talk about executing.
These signals were decision-making tools that helped Unravel Tech move fast without sacrificing quality.
Why They Chose Utkrusht Over Others
Unravel Tech had been working with recruitment agencies and sourcing through communities for months. So why did Utkrusht succeed when everyone else failed?
1. Utkrusht's platform is built specifically for small engineering teams and custom dev shops
2. Technical Skills Assessment-First
Utkrusht screened for "can actually build", who'd proven their technical depth objectively.
3. Philosophy Alignment
When Unravel Tech talked to Utkrusht about their assessment philosophy—"build something real in 20 minutes, not MCQs or trivia"—it clicked immediately.
They'd been burned too many times by candidates who interviewed well but couldn't execute. They were tired of resume theater and subjective phone screens.
Utkrusht's approach—prove you can build first, then we'll talk—resonated. It's how hiring should work for technical roles.
"The difference was in the research. Most recruiters send a resume and say 'let me know if you want to talk to them.' Utkrusht's platform shows detailed reports of candidates showing technical skill scores and evidence of work samples.
Plus also other parameters important to us, like — intent to join, salary expectations, and context about what made each person special.
We weren't guessing anymore—we had data. That's why we could move fast and hire with confidence."
What's Next
Unravel Tech isn't going back to manual sourcing and assessment. When they need to hire their next senior engineer—whether DevOps, backend, data, or AI—they know the playbook:
Don't post and pray on job boards
Don't hope agencies send good candidates
Don't waste time manually screening resumes
Instead:
Use Utkrusht's platform and "build something" assessments to validate technical depth
Review detailed candidate intelligence with skill scores, intent signals, and cultural fit context
Interview only the top 5-10 candidates shown by the platform
Make offers fast with confidence backed by data
For companies where senior technical roles are mission-critical, assessment-first hiring with detailed candidate research isn't optional—it's the only approach that works.
"The candidate we hired literally ticked every single box we had, which is rare because as tech teams you usually make "adjustments" when you hire someone.
Strong technical fundamentals. High agency. Perfect culture fit. Reasonable salary expectations. We didn't have to compromise on anything.
That doesn't happen by accident—it happens when you have real data on candidates before you interview them, not after."
Want to hire
the best talent
with proof
of skill?
Shortlist candidates with
strong proof of skill
in just 48 hours
