High-tech hiring and the malleable modern career
Author Stephanie Walden for Indeed Prime on Mashable Redefining today’s career paths and securing top-tier talent in the tech world
The modern career path is rarely ever a straight line, nor it is a logical sequence of ones and zeroes.
Particularly within tech companies, it’s tricky for hiring managers to find — and retain — top-tier talent. Sourcing candidates, conducting comprehensive interviews to assess skills and cultural fit, and testing technical abilities can take an agonizing amount of time when a product launch is looming.
Additionally, companies have to incentivize employees to stick around — especially when poaching is a constant concern.
The entire process is worth it, however, when candidate and company find a symbiotic fit.
Below, we spoke with four talented employees at top-tier tech companies about their current role, how their companies hire and onboard and how technology has shaped their career path.
Yony Feng, CTO, Peloton Cycle
PELOTON CYCLE IS A CUTTING-EDGE FITNESS PROGRAM, COMBINING AT-HOME EQUIPMENT, AN APP, LEADERBOARDS AND IRL CLASSES IN A HIGH-TECH STUDIO.
Yony Feng has been involved with Peloton Cycle since the company’s inception. With a background in both larger-scale technology companies (Cisco and Skype) as well as smaller organizations like Ticketfly, Feng knew immediately he wanted in on Peloton from the ground up. Since joining the company in 2012, he’s helped hire and groom an expanding engineering team of about 35 employees. The company hopes to bring this number closer to 50 by the end of 2016.
After spending years in the Bay Area learning what makes a successful startup tick, Yony Feng was ready to explore entrepreneurial interests of his own. When a friend called to ask if he wanted in on a startup by the name of Peloton Cycle, he jumped at the chance.
“I was excited for the opportunity to deliver a product in a small team, on a more agile vision,” Feng reminisces.
He joined the company in 2012 and quickly began working on a number of engineering elements in a pre-launch fervor. From the get-go, Feng was tasked with creating a cohesive ecosystem and seamless user experience.
The role was a huge endeavor in terms of sheer technical expertise. Not only does Peloton offer cycling classes at its upscale, IRL studios; the company’s primary focus is on replicating this experience for at-home fitness enthusiasts.
From a technical perspective, this involves knowledge of hardware, video streaming technologies, leaderboard systems, and rather complex mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
For the first year at Peloton Cycle, Feng focused primarily on helping bring the vision to life. Soon, it became abundantly clear that the engineering team needed a boost. Feng began building a team.
Feng knows that the size of a company directly impacts the type of hire to seek out — something he’d observed in prior experience hiring at both Skype and Ticketfly. Peloton’s relatively small size demanded a specific type of employee.
“[Over time], it’s become more and more necessary for me to refine the hiring and onboarding process,” he says. “It’s a dialogue during the entire interview process for [candidates] to understand our ecosystem, and for us to understand how are they going to perform.”
“Whenever I see something as a huge challenge, I’ve gotta give it a try.”
Re-creating realistic scenarios a candidate may encounter in their day-to-day is an involved process. Onsite interviews with candidates typically include between five and six hours of meetings and technical testing.
Before that stage, however, conversations start via phone. What begins as a relatively standard interview progresses to a pop-quiz — all conducted remotely using a site called collabedit. Using the platform, interviewers can observe candidates coding in real-time.
“These are problems meant to test the candidate’s ability to solve a problem, and we ask the candidate and the interviewer to jump on the same session. There’s a dialogue happening here, which allows us to see how comfortable the candidate is with writing code, as well as their coding style and structure.”
In the more extensive, in-person interview, candidates meet with the entire design, product and engineering team — the whole spectrum of colleagues with whom they’ll potentially work. The interviewer may use whiteboard exercises to address additional questions intended to display the candidate’s thought process.
“We want to identify people who will be successful in the future, not necessarily test the knowledge they already have,” Feng says. “Particularly in technology, it’s important to interview people who are adaptable and have an eagerness to tackle a challenge. Every week there are new problems — especially on a small team — that no one may know the answer to. It’s important to hire people who won’t back down from that situation.”
So how to find these rockstars? Sourcing candidates involves keeping an ear to the ground at all times. “I find them any way I can,” Feng says with a laugh.
Mike Germano, Chief Digital Officer, VICE Media; CEO, Carrot Creative
VICE MEDIA IS A PLATFORM FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM WITH A FOCUS ON DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT AND BROADCASTING; CARROT CREATIVE, A VICE COMPANY, IS A FULL-SERVICE DIGITAL AGENCY BASED IN NEW YORK CITY.
Mike Germano is an understandably busy man, balancing duties as both the head of digital at publishing platform VICE Media and CEO of Carrot Creative. He pushes for unique recruiting methods and thinking outside the box when it comes to finding top-tier talent — and these efforts have paid off: Carrot Creative has been a Crain’s “top place to work in NYC” for two years now.
In order for an organization to earn the coveted title of one of Crain’s “best places to work” in NYC, a city infamous for its ambition and dedication to career-oriented craziness, it must be doing something right on the recruiting front.
Mike Germano is partially in charge of cultivating the corporate culture that’s helped Carrot Creative secure the prestigious title two years in a row.
When seeking candidates, Carrot Creative’s hiring managers take care to do things differently. Germano says the company prefers to avoid recruiters, utilizes social media diligently, focuses on relationships with educational institutions, and puts candidates for tech positions through a variety of tests to ensure both cultural fit and technical expertise.
Germano also says that hiring smart comes down to a comprehensive approach.
“Candidates meet with not only technical managers, but also members throughout departments to discuss various aspects of the job and [the company itself]. We put a lot of emphasis on the candidate’s natural excitement and drive, not only for what they do, but also for trying and learning new things.”
When necessary, Germano says, candidates take custom-tailored coding tests that determine proficiency with various languages.
In addition, the company has an active presence at hackathons and in other collaborative environments, both online and IRL.
“Many members of our team attend hackathons, teach classes, participate in panels, and contribute to open source — all things that build organic connections with other smart, creative people in tech,” explains Germano. It’s because of this mentality that Carrot also has a well-established presence on Github. On the site, the company’s page details how Carrot’s employees work together as a team.
The company also builds open-source tools such as Roots. These platforms draw talent to the company in an organic manner.
Carrot puts a huge emphasis on its relationship with the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), an organization with which Carrot works closely to find recruits in new media.
“It’s a place where we have built a lot of enthusiasm and loyalty from both staff and students,” says Germano. Carrot not only visits classes, participates in new media speaking events and hosts students at its Brooklyn office, but it also sends “Carrot care packages” to students during intense times of the year like midterms and finals.
These packs include goodies such as: shirts (because there isn’t time for laundry), snacks (because there isn’t time for real meals) and lightsabers (because, of course), Germano says. Carrot even opens a tab at local pizza delivery companies during finals week and render to ensure students are adequately fueled.
“We do this because we get it and we care, and because know exactly what [finals] time is like. It’s the least we can do to support (and entice) our future hiring pool,” Germano explains.
“We put a lot of emphasis on the candidate’s natural excitement and drive, not only for what they do, but also for trying and learning new things.”
Adam Denenberg, CTO, iHeartRadio
IHEARTRADIO IS AN INTERNET RADIO PLATFORM BRINGING LISTENERS THEIR FAVORITE STATIONS AND TUNES FROM ANYWHERE ON THE GO.
With a career path that’s blossomed from software engineer to CTO, Adam Denenberg has a long, involved history with the tech world. Before iHeartRadio, he worked at big names like Comedy Central and About.com, as well as for various startups. The majority of his recent work has been focused on new media and Internet-based companies, building large-scale consumer products. Denenberg holds a BS in computer science and a minor in physics from SUNY Albany
Adam Denenberg knew he’d found the perfect career fit when he had the opportunity to join the iHeartRadio team.
“iHeartRadio had absolutely everything to offer that I wanted in my next adventure: an amazing product, a great culture and tremendous scale,” he recalls. He found the job through tedious networking paired with serendipitous timing.
Having found his own dream career, Denenberg puts considerable effort into helping other future tech stars discover theirs.
“One of my core focuses since becoming CTO has been on recruiting efforts,” Denenberg says. “We have completely rebuilt our recruiting and hiring framework from the ground up, and I am extremely proud of where we are today.”
To ramp up these efforts, the company has made a few key moves: Ensuring that each job description is an active reflection of what a candidate will do the first year on the job, for example.
The company also employs a “scorecard” system for figuring out if candidates measure up during interviews. This scoring system includes a number of checklist items, such as skill level, motivation, cultural fit and other factors that may indicate success. At the end of the interview, the decision must be a unanimous “yes” from all interviewers for the candidate to move forward.
“This process is extremely transparent, covers all aspects of a candidate and has yielded excellent results for us,” he says.
“We have completely rebuilt our recruiting and hiring framework from the ground up, and I am extremely proud of where we are today.”
In terms of testing technical expertise, Denenberg says the company has found success with online code-pairing sessions, and with assignments that candidates must complete before the onsite interview.
HackerRank, a challenge-based platform designed to help engineers hone their skills, has proven a valuable tool for this process as well.
“[These methods] allow us to get better insight into [candidates’] attention to detail,” he says. “The really great candidates will write Unit Tests and even leave comments about how they would improve the problem. This saves us a ton of time from bringing candidates onsite prematurely. It also serves as a potential talking-point for a technical follow-up, by having the candidate improve upon what they’ve already done.”
Rachel Hazes, SDET,
Shutterstock SHUTTERSTOCK IS A LEADING STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY, STOCK FOOTAGE AND STOCK MUSIC PROVIDER.
Rachel Hazes is living what one might call “the millennial dream,” working in a role that pairs her passions with a paycheck. Hazes is an SDET — software development engineer in test — at Shutterstock. Her exemplary career path is a prime example of how modern employees view career trajectory. Though Hazes began her professional life in architecture, she later made the shift to programming in pursuit of her interests in tech. She’s excelled in her current role.
Rachel Hazes first discovered her love of code as a freshman in architecture school, when she found herself far more interested in 3D-modeling elements and basic programming than in actually designing buildings.
After graduation, Hazes made a tough choice: to continue her education and commit to pursuing programming. She enrolled in an immersion course at General Assembly in NYC, where she built projects that allowed her to work throughout the full stack over a three-month span. By the time the course was over, she had a few projects under her belt — and in her portfolio.
“I felt I had found my passion in tech, something that kept me endlessly curious and in awe of the possibilities,” she says. “It suited me very well.”
Regardless of her career shift, Hazes’ background in architecture hasn’t been a complete wash.
“I think [it’s] helped me think about design at multiple scales and as an iterative process,” she explains. “In architecture, you have to keep in mind the multiple scales at play as you are designing, and not become overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problem. You must use the process to question, investigate, layer and build.”
She applies the same mentalities to her coding work.
“I’m always trying to keep self-awareness in mind, to know when I am a bit lost and take a moment to re-frame the question,” she says. “When writing code, I try to think about the bigger question or architecture choice when I find myself stuck, remembering to step back.”
“There’s nobody better than a new employee to ask the tough questions.”
Hazes has had a great deal of support along the way, within the programming community and from mentors. She found her current role through a fellow programmer.
The interview process at Shutterstock involved discussing Hazes’ work and passions; she had to speak extensively about each project and how she’d brought it to life. She also completed a whiteboarding challenge. Luckily, she was familiar with this type of problem-solving from her work at GA.
Hazes’ current team, Editor, was an appealing rung of the career ladder from the get-go.
“The technologies were in part what brought me here. We recently released our first tool in beta. This is my first time in the field working on anything at this scale,” she says.
“We know we don’t have all the answers, but we’re getting better at being comfortable with that reality, and still moving forward.”
Working with GA paid off in more ways than one. Establishing a community of peers with similar career goals has been paramount to Hazes’ success.
“It’s really the first time I’ve felt a part of a community of like-minded people,” says Hazes. “I found my place. We all got to geek out about what we wanted to build.”
Technology in the form of online communities and classrooms brought the group together, and provides support to this day: The group still stays connected via a Slack channel.
For coding and general career success, Hazes believes it’s a never-ending growth process — and, from a company’s perspective, one for which new brain-power can be illuminating.
“You have to revisit your process at least every year,” she says. “What worked in the past might not be the right option anymore. There’s nobody better than a new employee to ask the tough questions. If the team is open to receiving constructive criticism from a newcomer, the project or product will be that much better in the long run.”
Catherine Williams, Chief Data Scientist, AppNexus
APPNEXUS IS A GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY WITH A FOCUS ON CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE AND PROGRAMMATIC ONLINE ADVERTISING.
Catherine Williams has a PhD from UW Seattle and a background in math and academia. Prior to joining AppNexus, she held post-doctoral positions at Stanford and Columbia. She found her way to her current role through connections with entrepreneurial friends and, despite some challenges along the way, hasn’t looked back.
Shortly into a burgeoning career as a research math professor, Catherine Williams’ came to a startling realization: She was miserable.
The career she’d built up to this point had been a linear one; she’d carefully crafted it through prestigious degrees and academic roles.
“While I loved my subject (and still do), the academic lifestyle left me feeling isolated and disconnected from the world,” says Williams. “So after a long, bittersweet year of breaking up with my first life plan, I started looking around for [other options].”
The tech industry made sense: It was informal, allowed for creativity and was fast-paced enough to hold Williams’ interest. An ad tech position in particular seemed like a fit due to Williams’ background in mathematics. And demand for qualified candidates was high.
Though she barely knew how to code at the time, Williams began teaching herself JavaScript using w3schools.
“I entertained myself immensely by writing a painstakingly styled webpage that contained a not-very-efficient sudoku solver,” she says. “Even though I’ve never used JavaScript since, that experience gave me confidence that I could pick up other technical skills.”
Today, as AppNexus’ chief data scientist, Williams is in a unique position — not only as a woman in a highly technical role, but also as a woman in the C-suite.
Sadly, today’s technology landscape doesn’t provide Williams with many female comrades at her level — though she says the sense of adversity has strengthened the bonds with fellow women who do work in tech.
“Part of the challenge is trying to ignore the feeling that, due to my level and relative scarcity, I have to represent not just myself and maybe data science, but also tech women generally,” she says.
On top of this pressure, being an exec in the tech world comes with a great deal of tension and responsibility. It’s a balancing act between attending to executive duties and keeping up with cutting-edge technologies.
“It’s a challenge to stay fresh enough to be able to lead and strategize effectively without actually investing all the time to retain hands-on expertise,” she says. “My partial solution is to have my team teach me things whenever possible.”
Williams employs a hands-on leadership style, viewing her employees as people and not simply cogs within the company.
“There’s an intricate intellectual challenge here, of figuring out how a person’s skills can best contribute to the organization, and then figuring out what he or she wants and [determining] the right intersection — and how to maneuver that person toward the sweet spot,” she says.
As with Hazes, Williams’ first career choice wasn’t without its lessons learned.
“I do think that having taught undergraduate math classes for years helps,” she says. “Being up in front of a room, trying to convince a class full of students that linear algebra is actually beautiful and necessary and they should dedicate hours of their lives to mastering it — it’s not that dissimilar from convincing a team to work on a new project with a specific outcome.”
Throughout her time at AppNexus, Williams has seen drastic shifts in the onboarding process.
“When I first started at AppNexus, all onboarding materials were on our internal wiki, and I just had to dive in and read everything,” she says, going on to explain that much of today’s training material at AppNexus is still wiki-based, but it’s also structured into linear training modules via Litmos, a learning management technology platform.
During the onboarding process today, AppNexus’ engineering employees get access to the same databases Williams used as a quantitative analyst — MySQL, Vertica, Netezza. Additionally, they get access to a Hadoop cluster that includes all of the team’s raw logs. Employees also receive training on Python notebooks and big-data tools like Hive and Spark.
“Understanding these tools is now a prerequisite for the role. It’s a sea change,” says Williams.
“I really believe that just having a mental model, even a rough one, of how different pieces of technology work is massively useful for most 21st century careers.”
In terms of advice for other women and young people trying to break into tech, Williams offers the following: “If you like learning and solving puzzles, and tech appeals to you even a little — make the leap! There are so many paths now to learn how to get started coding. It’s worth it.”
Williams also advises those in tech to expect the unexpected and to view their roles — and companies — as works in progress.
“Everything changes,” she explains. “Even if it seems good right now, no organization or process or team can be static — sooner or later, something will need to change. The lesson for me has been to be open to it, that it doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong. After all, growth requires change.”
And as for the C-suite?
“My being here has much more to do with luck than any specific strategy or planned preparation,” Williams admits. “But I also think there’s a lot of wisdom in the old saying that luck equals preparation plus opportunity.”
