Step zero: It all starts with a great application
We’ve talked about job applications on this previous post. The bottom line of that post is:
Your [application] needs to show why you’re the person we’re looking for and you connect with us in some way.
Step one: The “vibe” interview
Ok, we liked your application and we scheduled the first interview. How can you prepare for it? You don’t.
In this interview, we want you to be yourself. We want to know the real you. We want to hear your best stories, what you like to do for fun, what you hate, what’s your opinion about some controversial issues, what are your plans for the future and what motivates you to get out of bed every morning.
We’re not interested only in your professional skills, we’re interested in you. You’ll not only be an employee, but you’ll also be a friend. That means we’ll go out drinking, have parties, travel together, go bowling and much more.
Some companies undervalue the “vibe”, but the “vibe” will always come first for us.
Step two: The technical interview
We don’t do whiteboard interviews, we believe they’re not very effective and they don’t show us what a person is capable of doing. Knowing what it takes to ship a product is much more important than knowing how to invert a binary tree.
How to prepare for it? Be ready to go over the projects you’ve worked on in the past and explain how you solved the problems you faced.
We also ask some technical questions to get a sense of where you’re at a skill level.
If you’re at this step and things go well, chances are you’re really close to the trial week.
Step 3: The trial week
If we like your interviews, we schedule a trial week. It’s a paid week where we ask you to work on some challenges on real projects.
The trial week is great because it’s an opportunity for both parts to get to know each other better. We see how it is to work a week with you and you see how it is to work a week with us.
At the end of the week, we won’t decide anything just yet. We’ll do a retrospective where we celebrate, learn, collaborate, commit and improve the relationship. We go over all the good things that happened and also things that didn’t go well and define what we can do to improve on those things.
Step four: The proposal
After a weekend of thinking, we get together again and talk about your trial week. If we think you’d be a good fit, we make a proposal. If we don’t, we tell you why, so next time you can rock your trial week. If you think you wouldn’t be a good fit for whatever reason, you also will have the space to tell us.
Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and in the end, we’ll both say yes. :)
Have I mentioned we’re hiring? Check out our jobs page and see if there’s something for you.
