How do we interview? Well okay. We're still learning. This is how we approach hiring for Cloud Economists (other roles vary and are available at duckbillgroup.com/careers/). There are six steps.
https://twitter.com/EricGMoore/status/1375270279841255427
Step 1: So you apply by filling out the form. Next, @mike_julian goes through and screens out poor fits.
(He has no job more important than hiring.)
(He has no job more important than hiring.)
What do I mean by "poor fits?" No AWS cost optimization experience, inarticulate answers to the questions in the application, etc. We never "shame" folks for it, we just move on.
Nobody should ever be made to feel like an asshole for applying for a job, full stop.
Nobody should ever be made to feel like an asshole for applying for a job, full stop.
Step 2 is @mike_julian hopping on a call with the candidate to chat and assess general fit. After this point no one will be ghosted; you'll be told if we decline to continue the process, along with why.
Step 3: Then there's a short "homework assignment." These are open ended written questions, and how they're graded is included in the instructions. We're not hiding anything; there's no hidden trick.
Once the assignment is returned, we review it and schedule a 60 minute presentation with us as if we were the client. No slides; it's a conversation. We'll discuss your answers with you.
That's step 4.
That's step 4.
(None of these interviews are antagonistic, or trying to prove that we're smarter than the candidate. We're not shitheads.)
Step 5: A panel interview with representatives both from Sales and the CE team. These people will be your coworkers; their opinions matter every bit as much as yours will if you join us.
What will they be asking you? Behavioral questions that are consistent between candidates for maximum fairness.
Step 6: The final round is a joint call with @mike_julian and me.
We address any questions you have, or any concerns the team discovered during the interview.
I tell you a few things about the company that sound horrible if they come from anyone else.
We address any questions you have, or any concerns the team discovered during the interview.
I tell you a few things about the company that sound horrible if they come from anyone else.
At this point, we make a decision and communicate it effectively. Ideally we make you an offer. Ideally you say yes. Ideally we can stop interviewing and get back to the other things we do here--like tweeting.
Start to finish, the process should give a clear view into who we are, what we believe, how we operate, and what it'd be like to work here. And in turn we want to see what you're best at, not find the thing you're weak at and beat you up on it.
I will now field questions!
Absolutely, and @NatVeisWilliams hit that one out of the freaking PARK.
https://twitter.com/SaturniusMons/status/1375288986680262657?s=20
For CE roles, not currently. We're evaluating it. For other roles, yes.
https://twitter.com/nixgeek/status/1375289711531487242?s=20
Once we send homework, we move as quickly as the candidate wants--typically. Being full-remote has been a boon for this; having to do it all on-site would make it way harder.
https://twitter.com/DexterBerkeley/status/1375289263726632978?s=20
Nothing we can share. Candidate privacy is a big deal.
https://twitter.com/DrSbaitso/status/1375289446472376323?s=20
But that said, I have permission to share one story. We got all the way to the final round (for a different role) with @killedbygoogle before we realized we were thinking about an aspect of our own business completely the wrong way, and the role wouldn't have succeeded.
Specifically, we wouldn't have been able to ensure that he would be successful, and that wasn't palatable to us.
That said, he's most definitely on our list of people we aspire to one day work with, and we've made sure he knows that. If you can hire him, you absolutely should.
That said, he's most definitely on our list of people we aspire to one day work with, and we've made sure he knows that. If you can hire him, you absolutely should.
As an extremely small team, making the right hire is crucial. A bad fit can destroy a team. We're cautious.
https://twitter.com/F_Vaggi/status/1375289393339006977?s=20
People forget that interviews are two-way streets. You want to sell the company as being a great place to work, even if this opportunity doesn't work out.
People talk. Good relationships last longer than jobs.
People talk. Good relationships last longer than jobs.
https://twitter.com/killedbygoogle/status/1375293643943071744?s=20
A careful reading of our job posting outlines who fits best here and who doesn't. For example, we're not venture-funded and thus won't be growing quickly. Desires around being in a rocketship won't fit well here.
https://twitter.com/EricGMoore/status/1375293409628315654?s=20
Something that's easily overlooked is that we're not VC funded; we're profitable, and hiring people cuts against profitability. We don't have a giant SoftBank war chest to hire 200 people and see who works out. We have to be intentional and very thoughtful about hiring.
We try to be as helpful as possible. The later in the process you are when we turn you down, the more specific we tend to get.
https://twitter.com/mattficke/status/1375295920514867205?s=20
We do that because a candidate is investing a lot of time with us. We've personally been on the shit end of companies rejecting us at the last minute and it's awful. We try to do the opposite.
Shout-out to @yammer for rescinding a written offer 20 minutes after sending it!
Shout-out to @yammer for rescinding a written offer 20 minutes after sending it!
Well, the company is 25 months old and less than ten people. Besides, the questions aren't the interesting thing: the answers are. The questions are not trivia; they can be prepared for, but you can't doctor the _quality_ of your responses.
https://twitter.com/DrSbaitso/status/1375296432740069380?s=20
It turns out that "ignoring what tech people say about non-tech things" can have surprisingly positive outcomes.
Shout-out to VC thought-leaders!
Shout-out to VC thought-leaders!
https://twitter.com/mike_julian/status/1375299024438272000?s=20
"Screw it, we'll make them solve FizzBuzz on a whiteboard instead."
https://twitter.com/mike_julian/status/1375299706104897537?s=20
Once we open the req and start making noise about it to drive applicants, it's roughly 6-8 weeks.
A lot of that time is in the scheduling lag. We're not doing "a whole day on-site" and instead scheduling one interview at a time, so...
A lot of that time is in the scheduling lag. We're not doing "a whole day on-site" and instead scheduling one interview at a time, so...
https://twitter.com/Contextify1/status/1375300282179969025?s=20
It clearly works for them. We’re doing something very different.
https://twitter.com/mummid/status/1375306275328827395
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