According to a study by Inc. Magazine, finding a new job is one of the top 10 most popular New Year’s resolutions.
For those seeking a fresh start in 2020, attending networking events and perusing job boards are significant first steps. But considering factors beyond desired salary and job title are just as important: company mission and office culture should also be considered in the process.
That's why we spoke with three managers at fast-growing Seattle tech companies, who shared which traits they look for in new hires, as well as what insider facts might surprise jobseekers to learn about their companies.
What they do: Typically, interviews are conducted by a future superior or department head. For engineering leads, however, the technical interview means productivity takes a hit. With Karat, companies can now partner with full-time experts who specialize in conducting interviews that are fair, predictive and enjoyable. Karat’s interview engineers conduct technical interviews on the client’s behalf, increasing the client’s capacity to interview prospective employees and helping them meet their hiring targets.
One thing that would surprise people about Karat: “Many companies are still learning how to respect employees as people and not just workers, but that’s something that’s really core to Karat’s values,” said Director of Communications Gordie Hanrahan.
He added: “Work-life balance was something that both of our co-founders stressed during my interview process, but it was still a concern when I first joined the team. Luckily, both Jeff and Mo lead by example. We're an agile, hardworking team, but we’re also really good at shutting off at the end of the day so people can focus on their families, friends, pets, happy hours, hobbies, workouts and personal lives. Unless something crazy happens, our Slack channels stay quiet overnight, letting everyone recharge.”
Work-life balance was something that both of our co-founders stressed during my interview process.”
One trait all team members share: “Curiosity. Karat’s mission is to make every interview fair, predictive and enjoyable. We do this to attract people who love asking questions. Every employee is encouraged to ask smart questions to really understand ‘why’ we do what we do,” said Hanrahan.“And because Karat isn’t a hierarchical company, anyone who has a good question has a seat at the table. This grounds all of our decisions in the mission and keeps us focused on adding value to our clients.”
What they do: When small businesses need help growing, hiring consultants and buying software can be expensive. Enter vCita. A business management and client engagement app tailored specifically for service providers, vCita helps businesses interact with clients and drive opportunities from web, mobile and social.
One thing that would surprise people about vCita: “Our CEO, Itzik Levy, will fly in once a quarter to meet with everyone to see if they have any feedback. He checks in to see if there's anything vCita could be doing differently, and asks employees if they have any ideas on the day-to-day or the product as a whole,” said Sales Manager Marcus Babcock.
He added: “This communication-focused mindset is mirrored by all executives and management. It always surprises people how easy it is for anyone to share an idea or an opinion on a process.”
Our CEO, Itzik Levy, will fly in once a quarter to meet with everyone.”
One trait all team members share: “A trait that everyone shares is curiosity. We look for people who are naturally curious about topics that touch our client’s work, such as technology, psychology, sociology and business,” said Babcock.“Due to this, we end up having a lot of different backgrounds on the sales team. We all learn from each other, as well as external resources. We then transfer that knowledge to the rest of the team and to the client.”
What They Do: Operating for over 25 years, Getty Images is one of the largest suppliers of stock images, editorial photography, video and music, with an archive of over 300 million assets.
One thing that would surprise people about Getty Images: “In addition to being a global leader in licensing creative and editorial visual content, we are also an innovative tech company that focuses on providing our customers with advanced tools to discover that content,” said Dan Gifford, senior data scientist.
He added: “For instance, to assist in finding the perfect image, we bring the power of visual search to our library of over 300 million images. In content research, our creative experts and data scientists work together to discover visual trends, annotate our imagery and flag content we can’t display on our sites. It’s a special place to work where both ‘left brain’ and ‘right brain’ thinkers collaborate to move the world with images.”
Our creative experts and data scientists work together to discover visual trends.”
One trait all team members share: “Besides a love of imagery, we are collaborative and enjoy working with one another. The data science team works extremely closely with the product, content and engineering teams to achieve our innovative goals, and we have a lot of fun doing it,” said Gifford. “Recently, we participated in a ‘stock photo challenge’ and while the scene is staged, those smiles are real! We had a blast recreating the types of images we see daily and poking a bit of fun at ourselves in the process.”
