{"id":1349,"date":"2020-12-16T18:29:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T18:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/instrumental.com\/?p=1349"},"modified":"2024-02-19T18:02:46","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T18:02:46","slug":"instrumentals-most-important-product-is-our-interview-process-three-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instrumental.com\/resources\/company\/instrumentals-most-important-product-is-our-interview-process-three-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Instrumental\u2019s most important product is our interview process, three years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instrumental helps engineers find and fix issues on their manufacturing lines \u2013 from prototype through production. Our vision is to create an intelligent system that can continuously optimize the manufacturing process, leading to higher yields, less waste, and more time for engineers to do engineering. In short: we help companies build better.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re focused on optimization for our customers, and we\u2019re also committed to optimization ourselves: how we approach challenges and how we operate. Three years ago I posted an article about Instrumental\u2019s interview process \u2013 breaking down how our process works and how it had evolved in our first two and a half years of existence as a company. Many candidates who interview at Instrumental have mentioned the article in their interviews as helpful at understanding who we are as a company \u2013 so in the spirit of optimization and iteration, here\u2019s our 2020 update, which includes the iteration we\u2019ve done since 2017 as well as new updates for the pandemic realities of 2020.<\/p>\n

Five and a half years into building Instrumental, I know the most important ingredient in building a great company is building a great team. As a woman founder, CEO, and someone who founded and runs\u00a0an organization for women in STEM<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the need for diversity is personal. It\u2019s the world that I want to live in. It\u2019s the world I strive to build at Instrumental. There are a lot of things about the trajectory of Instrumental I do not actually control (as much as founders like to tell themselves otherwise) \u2013 but one thing I do have a lot of agency over is how it\u00a0feels<\/em>\u00a0to work here. I strive to build a place where, regardless of our stock price, employees look back and are glad they chose to spend a part of their career with us.<\/p>\n

You can tell a lot about how a company operates and what it cares about from its interview process. Our engineering interview template was one of our first \u201cproducts\u201d as a company, and as we have grown we\u2019ve leveraged the learnings of thousands of hours of interviews to evolve our process to maximize signal for both parties and to remove bias, all while being as efficient as possible. No process is perfect and true to our culture of continuous improvement, we reflect and iterate after every interview. We\u2019ve also come to realize that intentionality cannot stop at the interview, and we\u2019ve now built out a robust onboarding and training program that every Instrumental employee takes part in. We believe we need to both hire the best people and empower them to have early impact.<\/p>\n

Like many companies in the Bay Area, we\u2019re actively seeking passionate people to\u00a0join our team<\/a>. Even before the pandemic, in the best cases candidates only get small glimpses of any new company they are considering: little bits about the team, the culture, and the impact of the work. Our interview and onboarding process reveals so much about who we are \u2013 so hopefully it\u2019s another data point candidates can use to learn more about Instrumental.<\/p>\n

What we look for in candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Instrumental

Instrumental in the woods<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Fundamentally, our process is designed to identify candidates who will be able to grow and thrive at Instrumental. We are a group of passionate people who naturally play to win \u2013 we seek out opportunities to be helpful (to each other, to our customers) and are always thinking about how we can do better next time. We believe people aren\u2019t ever finished, and so we seek out those who are curious and who love to learn. For junior team members, we look for good instincts and demonstrated ability to overcome challenges; for seasoned team members, we\u2019re looking for craftsmanship and the ability to coach others. We are a highly communicative team where productive disagreement is not only encouraged, it\u2019s part of the job.<\/p>\n

What the interview process is like<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every role at Instrumental starts with a list of core competencies that evolves into a modularized \u201cinterview template\u201d. Each module is designed to assess and understand at least one core competency to be successful in the role, identifies a specific interviewer, a stated goal for the module, and the specific questions we will ask every candidate. Those who interview in person will often see the interviewer enter the room with a paper printout of the module in hand. By asking consistent questions of every candidate, we reduce biases and ensure the goal post isn\u2019t inadvertently moved in the interview.<\/p>\n

We recognize that when we are interviewing a candidate, that the candidate is also interviewing us \u2013 so we try to create opportunities for the candidate to interact with multiple future teammates on their direct team as well as a mix of individuals from other teams in the company. All of our interviews follow a very similar process.<\/p>\n

1. Resume Review<\/p>\n

We\u2019re looking for passion in the role \u2013 demonstrated by personal projects (if you\u2019re new to the field) or professional experience. We don\u2019t care about your educational background: most of our job descriptions do not include educational requirements. We\u2019re focused on your experience and what we can learn about you from what you choose to share.<\/p>\n

2. Introductory Call<\/p>\n

As a candidate, your time is valuable. The goal of this call is to spend 20-30 minutes so that both sides can determine if the opportunity is interesting. You might speak with a member of our talent team, hiring manager, or even CEO \u2013 we ask candidates high-level questions about their prior experiences and open-ended questions about their interests to ensure alignment to the role. In turn, we share a high-level overview of Instrumental, how we\u2019re thinking about the role and its impact, and the team. Instrumental builds cutting edge technology in an industry where most candidates have no prior experience or knowledge \u2013 so we encourage candidates to ask lots of questions, even if they seem basic!<\/p>\n

3. Take-Home Assignment<\/p>\n

Scientific research<\/a>\u00a0has shown that one of the best indicators of performance in a role is a work sample (Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J.E. 1998). As a result, every single role at Instrumental has a work sample as part of the interview process. Sometimes it comes early in the process, right after an introductory call, and sometimes it comes later, as part of processing what you\u2019ve learned about the opportunity and team. We know that our candidates are busy, so we\u2019ve tried to design assignments that are thoughtful and aligned to the role. The assignment is less about \u201cthe right answer\u201d and more about your methodology and approach to a solution. We believe the work sample approach is the closest representation of real-life work at Instrumental.<\/p>\n

4. Onsite and \u201cOffsite Onsites\u201d<\/p>\n

Our onsite philosophy is that you are interviewing us as much as we are interviewing you. For individual contributors, we try to keep onsites under five hours. For leaders, we often have multiple \u201crounds\u201d of onsites as we get to know each other better. The onsite consists of modules that change for each role, but generally includes an in-depth demonstration of Instrumental\u2019s product and how our customers use it to solve problems, a technical deep dive, at least one team exercise, and a module focused on learning more about how you tackle challenges.<\/p>\n

For in-person onsites, you\u2019ll also have time to spend with your potential teammates, get to know what they care about and why they love Instrumental. We leave time at the end of every interview for questions so that candidates can get a diverse perspective on what it\u2019s like to work at Instrumental. We recommend using the time to ask several different people\u00a0the same questions<\/em>:<\/p>\n