{"id":18545,"date":"2019-01-24T21:56:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T21:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/?p=18545"},"modified":"2022-05-26T21:59:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T21:59:48","slug":"interview-at-rival-iq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/blog\/interview-at-rival-iq\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Get Engaged: Our Alternative to a Full-Day Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that we do things a little differently around Rival IQ HQ, and our job interview process is no exception. We\u2019ve got a behind-the-scenes look at one of our most beloved and out-of-the-box office culture moves: the Engage Day.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all sat in endless interview loops where it\u2019s hard to keep your answers straight from one interviewer to the next. And don\u2019t forget the dreaded (and downright discriminatory<\/a>) blank whiteboard. Scratch that and reverse it for the final (and hopefully fun!) hurdle before you can call yourself a full-fledged Rivaler.<\/p>\n

\"The

We’re at least this goofy in person.<\/p><\/div>\n

First things first: What\u2019s an Engage day?<\/h2>\n

\u201cI liked that they wanted to experience someone as a coworker and not just an interviewee.\u201d \u2013Tiffany Lin, Rival IQ Product Manager<\/p>\n

After a few 1:1 or 2:1 interviews, we invite our top candidate for an open role to spend a workday at our office collaborating on a specific project. We spend time together with the candidate before the big day getting them onto Slack and email, and invite them to hop into our communication streams by asking questions and\/or looking around to get a feel for us. Knowing that a candidate\u2019s time is valuable, we also put them on our payroll\u2013a full day of work plus prep is a significant time investment, and we think it\u2019s important to compensate, whether the day results in a hire or not.<\/p>\n

We partner with the candidate to identify a project that they can work on during their Engage day. The candidate has time to prep, but the day is focused less on a polished presentation and more on providing plenty of chances to work together with our team. Projects have included email marketing projects and blog posts (like this one<\/a>), and coding problems like fixing social posts bugs and changing how we pull keywords. We do our best to make sure the project speaks to the candidate\u2019s strengths and can be achieved in a day\u2013the Engage process is all about candidate engagement, evaluation, and collaboration, not just testing.<\/p>\n

The candidate spends the day working on their project and collaborating. There\u2019s also more 1:1 time with other members of the team, and a team lunch that\u2019s strictly social.<\/p>\n

Once the day is done, we ship the project together and traditionally include a fabulous GIF, like this one.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Both sides head home to do some thinking, and hopefully an offer is extended and accepted.<\/p>\n

Why we interview this way<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt was really fun to be able to \u201ctest the waters\u201d and see the team at work without the pressure of a first day. Of course there were nerves, but by the end of the day it didn\u2019t feel like a job interview anymore, just a project we were working on together.\u201d \u2013Christina Everett, Rival IQ\u2019s Digital Marketing Manager (and newest hire).<\/p>\n

Seth Pollack<\/a>, our head of Engineering and Culture, knows that he can get a good sense of skills from a resume or phone screen, but all the interview loops in the world won\u2019t tell you whether someone can actually get things done or how they\u2019ll fit in with the team. \u201cThe Engage day (formerly known as an Audition) arose from the need to get a better sense of a candidate before their first day on the job,\u201d Seth says.<\/p>\n

\"Three

This whiteboard session was completely staged for the photo op!<\/p><\/div>\n

Originally, the interview process culminated in a sizable trial period\u2013we would contract candidates for a week (or more!) before making an offer. Contract-to-hire is a common startup hiring practice<\/a>, but can be tough on a candidate who\u2019s after stability or benefits. Without the job security, contracting at a company for 30, 60, or 90 days can also discourage a candidate from jumping in with both feet, which is exactly the kind of employee we want here at Rival IQ.<\/p>\n

All this time together really helped us assess fit on both sides, but wasn\u2019t feasible as the company scaled, so we set out to shrink down this trial period into something that\u2019s manageable for both the candidate and for us. We\u2019ve reduced the time a candidate spends in our office to one jam-packed day, and find that the Engage process leads to stellar fit and retention.<\/p>\n

Of course, we also want candidates to get as much as they can out of the day by seeing our team in action. From our codebase to how we interact at the food trucks at lunch, they can decide if we\u2019re a set of folks with whom they want to spend 40 hours a week. The decision to jump to a new company is a big one, and as data-driven people, we always think more information is better \ud83d\udcca.<\/p>\n

About half our company has been formally hired this way, and of course, that number grows every time we add another team member. We also want to pour one out for candidates who aren\u2019t the right fit at the end of an Engage day\u2013always better for both sides to figure that out early instead of a few months in.<\/p>\n

Wrapping it up<\/h2>\n

If you read this blog or have talked to any of us, you know that one of our central values as a company is transparency. From financials<\/a> to sprint planning<\/a>, we want every Rivaler to know exactly where we are and where we\u2019re headed. We apply this same spirit to our hiring process, so a candidate has full knowledge of what we\u2019re up to as they make the big decision about whether or not to come work with us. Asking a candidate to spend a full day with us may sound like a tall order, but that mutual investment makes all the difference in creating a fun, warm, collaborative working environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that we do things a little differently around Rival IQ HQ, and our job interview process is no exception. We\u2019ve got a behind-the-scenes look at one of our most beloved and out-of-the-box office culture moves: the Engage Day. We\u2019ve all sat in endless interview loops where it\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":18551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLet\u2019s Get Engaged: Our Alternative to a Full-Day Interview | Rival IQ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Everything you need to know about our Engage day (our alternative to a full-day interview): how it works, why it's important to us, and how it came to be.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rivaliq.com\/blog\/interview-at-rival-iq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let\u2019s Get Engaged: Our Alternative to 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