HOWTO: Become a data scientist or engineer at Aire
Hello! Welcome to Aire.
We are a motley (aarrgh!) collection of researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs. And we are out to make a positive dent in the universe by providing fair access to the financial system to those who are poorly served by the status quo today. Overall, we are trying to build a team that is light on its feet and that will adapt and respond to changing market conditions. We span the continuum of data science, data engineering, application development, DevOps, and information security and place a premium on great judgement, communication, and teamwork.
Admittedly, we are ambitious. There are many moving parts to Aire. Each part needs to be best in class and work well with all the other parts. As such, we are building a cohesive team that both pushes and supports each other, is diverse in background and skills and works well together. Team, Team, Team. We have been through the startup journey enough times, that we know it’s important to get this right.
The result is that we take hiring very seriously. We’re passionately committed to continuing to build an amazing team. Our process is constantly evolving (for the better, we hope). We care not only about getting a great read on people coming through, but also that they have a great experience and enjoy each step. It’s important that they get value out of the time given to meet us. Many of us have experienced interviews we felt were irrelevant, unfair, or just not very nice. Yuck!
We appreciate interviewing takes lots of energy and time. We aim to hire in a way that respects your time and humanity, supports you to deliver your best, and leaves both sides feeling good about the process.
To achieve this, we make sure we are transparent and honest. We want you to have a strong sense of the team you will be in and the people you will be working with. We hope you love us — but we don’t presume it!
We have attempted to lay out a clear set of steps for each candidate that we communicate in advance. Our commitment to you is to be consistent by following these steps for each and every candidate.
You are probably also wondering, who exactly works at Aire? Who are these people?
Aire is chasing a bold idea. It requires creating a change in the ecosystem.
For such large changes to happen, we need a group of highly motivated people who are willing to fight for that change. They are ready to see the world in a different way. They are ready to make their work count for something — not just targets and pennies, but something real. They understand the value of patience. They respect the status quo, but challenge it intelligently. They are curious. They are courageous. They know the world isn’t perfect — but they have the empathy to understand its issues. They read a lot. They ask when they don’t know — and aren’t afraid to ask the tough questions. They aim to bring out the best in people. And yes, they still know how to have a laugh (and occasionally dance too). But most of all, they thrive when they help others — that motivates them.
We hire those people.
Our interview process in detail:
The Chat
Time Required: 30–45 minutes
With: Talent Manager, or Hiring Lead
Where: Phone
The first chat is a two-way conversation and informal. We want to get to know you beyond the CV. Specifically, we are interested in knowing what is really important to you about this potential career change you’re making. We want to make sure we really understand your ambitions and interests. We are also looking closely at team fit — and we hope you are too. We want to give you a good look at how we work, who we are, and what we value. As well as to give you a chance to ask us anything you want to know about us. We will do our level best to answer everything we can.
The Tech Chat
Time Required: 30 minutes
With: An Engineer, or Data Scientist
Where: Video conference, or phone
This is an opportunity to find out more about your technical skills and ability. We’re covering the basics. But we’d also love to share with you more about what the team is doing from the eyes of someone who’s in the thick of it.
Whiteboard (but not in the traditional sense) and Culture and Values
Time Required: 2.5 hours
The technical session will be with: CTO, data scientist and/or engineer
Cultural/values alignment will be with: two people from any area of the business
Where: Our home
Awesome! You are keen. Now we want to understand your technical ability. We are not interested in grilling you with data structure questions, a particular language or technology, or silly brain teasers. Rather, we want to understand how you approach problems, your ability to communicate and discuss complex issues, and how you balance trade-offs.
We also want to get to know you better and find out what it would be like to wrestle with a difficult technical problem together. So we will spend an hour in front of a whiteboard together solving a problem. There is a right answer, but there is no need for either of us to be right. Rather, we want to learn from each other and hopefully get a good understanding of how we might work together.
We want to follow that up with an hour and half with two people from the business. Our culture and our values are at the heart of what we do and how we do it. This is a dive deep on how we work together to deliver value important to the goals of Aire. Expect questions based on your career and life to date. We want to know how you navigate challenges, manage situations and identify the types of environments you operate best in. We’ll chat about team work, how to communicate and work with the non-technical, and how to make effective trade-offs together.
Working together
Time Required: 3 hours
With: One of your peers-to-be
Where: Our home
You’re so nearly there! By this point we’ve covered almost everything. You should have a really good grasp on what we’re offering; opportunity, role, people, environment, expectations … however, this is an opportunity for us to work with you on a problem as we would normally. Pairing on problems is how we roll. There is a defined task which we’ll explain in advance, so no nasty surprises. It’s relaxed, collaborative, and hopefully enjoyable. We never fail to learn something new each time we do this; we hope you do too!
Offer Time!
With: Our CTO — you will have met Tim at least once by now
We’re here! We’ll want to have a call and talk you through it. We commit to making a decision as quickly as possible, and will give you as much information as we can, to help you make the choice that is right for you.
Accept the Offer
Time Required: Up to you!
With: Your family, friends, and closest advisors
Where: Out in the world. Your special place?
We have been on a bit of a journey together. You have almost reached the finish line — We have made up our minds, but you still need to decide. We know this is a big deal!
We want people to come because we are the best option for them. We are building a team for the long term. We want you to feel free to take your time. If you want to take a break before starting, no problem. Extended notice period? We get it. Are there a hundred questions still needing answers? We can’t wait to answer them all. Want to come in and meet with us again? Let us know when.
In short, we encourage you to do what you need to do to make a decision that is right for you. We are invested. It’s now time to give you the space you need to figure this out.
And then you are in. Get ready for the best onboarding week ever. No, seriously. We get super-excited about onboarding our new teammates — and we go out of our way. Check our blog for more!
How to Prepare
We’re looking to understand you and your experience, not computer science theory or the latest trends in software development. So please don’t feel you need to cram your brain full of arcane algorithms or the most recent arguments about agile practice. Things that will make the experience more valuable:
- Go through your experience (CV or LinkedIn) and think about the experiences that you have had at the places that you’ve worked. Be ready to talk about the impact you had, the things you’ve learned, and the team experiences you’ve gone through that will help tell us your story.
- We’ve found that this gets much clearer the more you tell your story, so find a friendly — but rigorous — ear to practise on if you can. We want to know what your contribution was, what value you created, and what you would do differently looking back.
- Choose your development language and environment of choice. Make sure that you’re up-to-date with the core packages and libraries that you’ll want to use to do everyday tasks, that will help you get up and running more quickly and demonstrate your use of the tools during the interview process.
- Find out about us from the internet, your connections, and anywhere else you can get information. Not because we want to test your knowledge of our business, but because it will help you to ask better questions of us — and you’ll get much more out of the process, to inform your decision.
- Think of this as a formal dress event. Just kidding, wear whatever you’re comfortable in!
- Do not expect ping pong tables at the offices. We have our share of fun and random things in the office, and if you like Bonsai, you’ll love our home as do we — but at the root of it all — we are all still here to work because we care about what we are building.
