Building a Better Tech Team Starts with Breaking Stuff First
By George Goodwin
Hiring top tech talent is hard—especially when resumes and interviews don’t tell the full story. Every engineering candidate can talk a big game, but how do you know they’ll actually thrive in your fast-paced, problem-solving culture?
At Brokee, we believe there's a better way to find out: let them break stuff first.
This might sound chaotic—but it's not. It's the smartest, most practical way to discover how engineers really think, work, and solve problems. Here’s how breaking things (strategically) builds a stronger tech team—and how Brokee can help you do it right.
Why Traditional Hiring Methods Just Don’t Work Anymore
Resumes Are Outdated
A resume tells you what someone did—but not how they did it or if they were any good at it. Candidates can list buzzwords, past jobs, and degrees, but none of that guarantees they’ll be a fit for your tech stack, your pace, or your team culture.
Interviews Are Performances
Even the best technical interviews can turn into scripted performances. Candidates rehearse answers, memorize whiteboard problems, and get coached on what to say. You're not hiring a good test-taker—you’re hiring a builder, a debugger, a problem-solver.
What Is the "Break Stuff First" Approach?
At Brokee, we flip the hiring process on its head.
Instead of relying on interviews or take-home tests, we drop candidates into real, broken systems—the kind of buggy, messy, half-working tech environments your engineers actually deal with day-to-day.
Then we sit back and watch. How do they approach the problem? What do they prioritize? How do they communicate? Do they panic or dive in?
This tells you more in a few hours than three rounds of interviews ever could.
How Brokee Helps You Build a Stronger Engineering Team
1. Real Work, Real Results
With Brokee, candidates work on authentic problems pulled from actual codebases—not simplified toy problems. This gives hiring managers direct insight into how candidates will perform in the real world.
2. Less Guessing, More Doing
We move beyond hypotheticals and observe engineers doing what they were hired to do: debug, build, test, and iterate. No guesswork. Just real proof.
3. Unbiased and Fair
Our challenges are designed to be inclusive. We don’t favor fast talkers or resume-polishers—we focus on skills, thinking, and how candidates actually work.
4. Save Time and Hire Better
Brokee cuts down your time-to-hire by giving you high-signal data early in the process. That means fewer interviews and faster decisions—with more confidence that your new hire will hit the ground running.
Real-World Scenarios, Not Theoretical Tests
We’ve seen top engineers shine not because they aced an interview, but because they calmly untangled a nasty circular dependency or rebuilt a broken microservice on the fly.
This is what Brokee’s method is all about—giving hiring managers real evidence of real problem-solving.
How to Get Started with Brokee
Book a demo: We'll show you how our platform works and how it fits into your hiring flow.
Customize your challenge: Choose from a library of pre-built broken systems or bring your own.
Invite candidates: Watch how they work, not just what they say.
Hire with confidence: Make faster, smarter hiring decisions with real-world proof of skill.
Key Takeaways
Resumes and interviews don’t show how engineers really work.
Brokee puts candidates in real broken systems to test how they solve problems.
It’s faster, fairer, and more accurate than traditional hiring.
Hiring managers can see skill in action—not just words on paper.
Building a better tech team starts with breaking stuff first.
FAQs about Building a Better Tech Team Starts with Breaking Stuff First
Why does "breaking stuff first" lead to better tech hires?
It lets you see how engineers handle real problems under pressure. You’re hiring for problem-solving, not just knowledge.
Is this approach only for senior developers?
No! Brokee challenges can be customized for any level—from junior to senior engineers—based on what skills you're evaluating.
How does this help with diversity in hiring?
Brokee reduces bias by focusing on how someone works, not where they’ve worked or what school they went to.
What types of broken systems does Brokee use?
We use real-world scenarios based on common bugs, performance issues, architectural flaws, and more. You can also upload your own codebase challenges.
FAQs About Brokee
What is Brokee?
Brokee is a hiring platform that helps tech companies assess candidates by watching them fix real broken systems, instead of relying on resumes or interviews.
Who is Brokee for?
Brokee is perfect for hiring managers, CTOs, and recruiters looking to hire software engineers with real problem-solving skills—not just polished resumes.
Can I use Brokee with my existing hiring process?
Absolutely. Brokee can replace or enhance your current technical assessment phase. It integrates smoothly with your existing tools.
How do I try Brokee?
You can book a free demo to see how Brokee works and try out a sample challenge.
Ready to Hire Engineers Who Can Actually Solve Problems?
Don’t waste time on flashy resumes and rehearsed interviews. With Brokee, you get to see real skills in real time.
👉 Contact us and start building a better tech team—by breaking stuff first.
