The thought of applying to a new job can be daunting. Whether it’s your first job out of school or you’ve been working in the industry for 10+ years, the process can feel overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to.
At Cubert, Aaron Crespin leads our People & Culture team. He and his team are the first people a candidate meets, and they continue to be a friendly face and resource as they go through the process.
In a recent interview, Aaron shared more on Cubert’s interview process, how candidates can prepare and most importantly, why Cubert focuses on a human approach to finding the right talent for our team.
Hiring for the job of tomorrow
We’re a growing startup with a big mission. Our team is made up of people who are passionate, motivated, and excited to roll up their sleeves to get stuff done. It’s what drives us to solve big, meaty challenges, the problems of today and the future. Because of this and how quickly our business evolves, when we hire, we’re not only hiring for what we need today, we’re also hiring for the job of tomorrow.
Our team is searching for people who’s values align with our company values – people who are innovative, have a passion for winning, and bring an adaptive and entrepreneurial mindset. We look for people who will be their best and bring their best to Cubert and can grow with our business.
We don’t believe in hiring a ‘cultural fit’, instead, we see our new team members as “adds” to our culture.
Our team is made up of people from different backgrounds and life experiences – what links us is our belief in our mission and the way we live our values. Team members wear their hearts on their sleeves and give their all. This is what makes our team at Cubert really special. And we believe this is what’s going to help us continue to make an impact around the world.
Defining the role
It’s our responsibility to set our employees up for success and we believe this starts early. For candidates, this first point of clarity is the job posting. It’s incredibly important that candidates clearly understand what we’re looking for, and what success looks like in their role.
We’ve evolved the traditional job posting into what we call an ‘Impact Description’. This paints a picture of the persona we’re looking for including the desired experience and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) we aim for our hire to achieve. These OKRs carry forward with the candidate throughout their onboarding journey.
Our candidate experience sets the tone for what new hires can expect working at Cubert. We believe this process should be grounded in care, while offering candidates a clear understanding of what success means for their role.
The application process
Like most companies, we have a formal process for applying to a role, and of course you should apply this way. But I’m also a big believer that when you’re looking for a new job you should tap into your network. If you have a connection with someone at our company, ask if they’ll make an introduction.
Whenever I’m directly introduced to a candidate by someone in the business or simply someone I know and trust, it immediately builds credibility and connection.
This also demonstrates an entrepreneurial mindset, someone that believes in building their own brand and being responsible for the future of their own destiny. It’s a great way to show our values align from the start.
While an introduction usually helps get your foot in the door, your resume shares a snapshot of the impact you have within an organization. One of the greatest debates is always what makes a strong resume. Personally, I think it comes down to four things:
- Be concise. If you have less than 10 years of experience, you don’t need more than one page for your resume.
- Use active verbs. Active voice demonstrates better command of language.
- Showcase metrics that demonstrate impact where you can. This may come in the form of OKRs from a previous role.
- Tailor your resume. Tell a story about the role you want to have. Put yourself in the shoes of the person who has the role – what in terms of your experience demonstrates your ability to be successful in this role?
The candidate experience
Once a candidate reaches the interview stage, they speak with a member of the recruitment team to get a feel for who they are, their past experience and overall alignment for the role.
At Cubert, we believe the interview process is a two-way street and that candidates are also interviewing us to see if we’re a right fit for them and their personal and professional goals. That’s why we create a number of touchpoints for people to meet and interact with the hiring manager and a few members from the team.
There’s three things people should try to do in an interview – shift the interview to a conversation, demonstrate a consistent and successful track record, and ask meaty bold questions.
After meeting with our recruitment team, the next interview is held with the Hiring Manager and focuses on behavioural questions. Depending whether the role is technical or not, there may also be an assignment. The next step is having candidates meet some of the other members of their team. It’s a great chance to understand the opportunity, challenges and get a sense of who you’ll be working with. Having a rapport between the Hiring Manager, team and the candidate themselves is important at Cubert, because ultimately we all come together to do great work.
Once all of the team interviews have taken place, a successful candidate will have one last call with either myself, another senior executive, or another member of the recruiting team. We do this as one final check on both our and the candidate’s side to ensure a clear understanding of the challenges we’re bringing them on to face, as well as the opportunities and mission they will be a part of.
Interested in joining the Cubert team? Learn more about our open roles here.