Step 1 - Telescreen
The first step in your path is a brief telephone interview. We'll have a quick chat about what you're up to at the moment and then do a bit of coding together in an online coding room.
We'll look at the type of problem you might come across on sites like Leetcode and Codewars (don't worry, it's at the more straightforward end of what you'd find on those sites!). This may be code reading or code writing.
We're more interested in your general approach and the thought process you go through, so forgetting the name of a library function or a pesky semicolon isn't a big deal. If you're writing code, you'll be able to pick a language you're familiar with. We also chat through the code you've written and ask a couple of questions about it.
If we ask you to read code, don't panic! It might be in a language you've not worked in before, but we can help you with specific syntax :)
Step 2 - Assessment
We'll send you a larger coding task for you to work on in your own time. This is something on a larger-scale than the coding you did in the telescreen, with more architecture / design decisions to make.
We don't expect you to spend more than four hours on this. And when we say a maximum of four hours, we mean a maximum of four hours. We'd much rather see what you can do in that time with some thought-out bullet points explaining what you'd do if you had all the time in the world, than for you to spend a whole week tweaking and polishing. Programming in real life is about deciding what to focus on and what's important.
Step 3 - Technical interview
This is usually on site, but we can arrange this remotely if needed.* It'll usually last between an hour and two and a half hours depending on what we talk about, and involves a larger-scale coding problem. We'll do our best to set you up with an environment you're comfortable with.
The idea is that this interview reflects real working and real pair programming as much as possible. You can work how you normally work - do you have a permanent Google tab open when coding? So do we! Your interviewers will be a couple of software engineers, and we encourage you to bounce ideas off them and talk things through. The intention is to get as close as we can to real life - considering it's an interview.
Step 4 - Team fit
More of a general chat really. We get to find out how you like to work, what you're looking for, what sort of team you work best in. We want to see if Gearset would fit well with what you're after.
You also get to quiz us! Does Gearset sound like somewhere you'd like to work, are you going to thrive there, are the snacks and coffee up to your standards? This is your chance to find out.
Like the technical interview, this could last up to two hours and is usually an on-site interview,* but we've held these remotely too :)
One last thing…
You'll have time to ask questions at every stage of the process, so no need to save up questions right to the end.
* During the Covid-19 lockdown, we're holding all our interviews remotely. For the technical interview, you'll need to share your screen with us so we can get a feel for how you work, with everything from the code you write to how you find out answers to things you don't know yet with Google.
