How to get a job @ Sqreen
Part one: the phone screen
Too much information?
When we were first playing around with the decision to open source our internal policies and processes at Sqreen, the question inevitably came up. Should the approach extend to our hiring process and our interview content? Wouldn’t that mean giving too much away to future candidates, allowing them to ‘game the system’?
Well, it depends if you think an interview’s power resides in the element of surprise. Must it be an ambush in order to be effective? Does catching candidates off guard and putting them on the spot lead to more ‘authentic’ interactions?
We don’t think so.
One of the biggest flaws of modern recruitment practices is that by design they often mostly test just the one skill, that is — how well you perform in interviews. Which is really stacking the deck in favour of a certain kind of person who is an articulate off-the-cuff orator, whose first answer is always the best and who shines in new situations where the rules and expectations are undefined. Perhaps this is exactly the type of skill you’d like to assess in an account executive — less so in an engineer. Not because engineers and salespeople are inherently different, but because a job interview more closely resembles a client meeting than a product engineering sprint.
Set expectations for better interactions
One way we found to combat this problem was to give candidates more information upfront about what to expect in each step of our hiring process. We found this helped to remove false negatives, refocus the interview and test more of the right things.
That’s why we always tell our candidates what to expect at the next stage and why we’re sharing the details of this with you, now.
You’re not born a Sqreener, you become one
Becoming a Sqreener today takes seven steps and a standard process for all Sqreeners (whether sales, marketing, product, engineering, operations etc.) looks a little like this:
- Talent Sqreen
- Expert Sqreen
- Technical Sqreen
- Welcome to the Sqreenhouse
- Founder Sqreen
- Reference Sqreen
- Sqreen Offer
Today, we’ll explore in detail the first step, the Talent Sqreen.
What’s a Talent Sqreen?
I’m glad you asked! At Sqreen this is the first step in our process and consists of a 30-minute video call (we use Zoom) with yours truly.
Why video and not phone? I was initially skeptical — video means using software that introduces a plethora of possible things that could go wrong — but it actually changes everything. The ability to see each other’s gestures and facial expressions makes for a much better experience for both sides.
So what about the content of this first conversation?
I have two goals, the first and most important is to share my excitement about what we’re doing here at Sqreen with candidates. In the early stages of the hiring process — and arguably, at every stage — it’s way more important to do this than it is to make candidates jump through hoops.
The second is to quickly and painlessly assess if we’re likely to be a fit in terms what the candidate wants to do and the skills and attitudes they bring.
Find the full script I use on Github here.
The introduction and history
I start by thanking the candidate for their time and checking it still suits to have a chat. Then I set up the structure of the call — I tell them I’ll start by telling them a bit more about Sqreen, who we are and what we’re building and that then I’d love to hear what they might be looking for as a next step.
Then I share the tl;dr version of Sqreen’s history — founded in 2015 by two former Apple engineers who noticed the gap between software development and security teams and decided to build a devtool to fix it. Fast forward to January 2018 and a 3-month stint in San Francisco for Y Combinator, and today we’re 25 people across Paris and SF.
I also mention a little about our approach to community, events and personal development — such as our Sqreenity program that gives our Sqreeners a week per quarter to dedicate to a side project of their choice. (More on this in a separate Medium post soon!)
It’s all about the candidate
If no questions after the introduction I move onto the second part of the call, and ask the candidate to briefly tell me where they’re at right now, what brings them to be looking for or open to a new opportunity and what that might look like.
I don’t necessarily want a line-by-line review of their CV starting with if / where they went to school — I’m looking for a brief but coherent narrative, and any anomalies to be explained. I’ll double check reason for seeking a new opportunity and check this doesn’t raise any flags. Then I’ll check that what they’d like to do next matches what we also have in mind.
Then I ask a few role-specific questions, that I’ve usually determined with the internal team beforehand. For a Ruby Engineer role, I might ask them to tell me more about memory management in Ruby, for an SDR role I might ask how they go about finding the right decision maker.
Logistics and timeline
Then I check where they’re at in their search, and ask what other types of companies they might be speaking with, and how advanced they are with them. This allows me to know if I need to go lightning fast with my process (if they already have 2 other offers on the table) or whether we can go at our regular swift pace. This also gives me some insight into their motivations and career direction, if candidates are speaking to Sqreen but also a large bank, for example, I may need to dig further.
Afterwards, I broach logistical subjects like when they might be available to start their next role (notice periods in France can be up to 3 months), and what sort of salary they might be seeking. I don’t generally ask candidates what they’re currently earning, as I find this to be a lose-lose situation, also, we recruit in California where it is illegal to ask this of a candidate. Many candidates of course, volunteer their current package.
Then I check whether they have any questions about Sqreen, the team, or the role itself. And I explain the next step of our process and give a timeline for when they can expect to hear from me next.
So…how do you get a job at Sqreen?
At each step of our process, we fill out assessment grids with the key attributes required to advance to the next stage.
For my Talent Sqreen, it looks like this:
A few notes on this: Why do we check English level? Because Sqreen is an international company and we only use English in the office. As for being based in one of our office locations, I’ll dive deeper into that in another dedicated post soon — and remember that we also relocate Sqreeners.
Fellow recruiters, what do you look for in a first phone call? What are we missing, and what could we do better?
Stay tuned for part two: the Expert Sqreen! And if you’d like to experience the Talent Sqreen for yourself, I’d love to chat!
