Is talent everything at Fi’s tech team?
We asked Pruthvi Sabbu, a software engineer at Fi and our resident CounterStrike champ, about his experience hiring for the tech team. Below are excerpts from the first part in our series on interviewing the interviewers at Fi.
Let’s get straight to the point, is talent everything at Fi’s tech team?
Not exactly. Skill helps in the short term but in the long run, it’s more about commitment and dedication. I think culture fit is also important for us. During an interview, I focus on your attitude and the degree of responsibility and collaboration you show. For us, it’s about giving and taking respect. We discourage the ‘I know everything’ attitude.
So, what tells you ‘this person could be a Fian’?
To cut a long story short, it’s when I see someone who can work well with the team. There’s a clear distinction when you weigh yourself more than the team. And that goes for a team lead as well.
Passion is another important aspect. Typically, it’s something that gets reflected in someone who has worked dedicatedly or really tried to do their best in challenging tasks. Otherwise, you end up just following orders. If you take initiative, you get to do some crazy and challenging work.
Ownership is key. Ask yourself, do you take up enough ownership on your plate to help others in your team focus on their tasks? We need people who can shoulder one feature completely.
Knowing the right thing to do and then doing it is also important. Someone who just follows instructions won’t know what’s right and wrong. It can be difficult for freshers, but when hiring for senior positions, we expect you to be able to make the right decisions. You should be able to guide people and Fi with the right decisions and best practices.
Who do you think is the ideal Fian?
The ideal fit would have high levels of ownership, skill and commitment. But that’s not to say that we have any specific requirements. On the backend we code only using Go Language but that is not a filter for candidates. I didn’t know what Golang was before joining Fi.
We don’t filter on what you don’t know, we focus on what you do know. We try to assess how good or how well you know the areas that you have worked on.
Interested in helping us build Fi? Check out our open roles here.
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