EMPLOYER FAQ

You really have senior people? Isn't interview practice something that's mainly interesting to junior candidates?

Technical interviewing is scary and hard for everyone. We get a lot of senior engineers signing up in large part because they're senior. Imagine you've been at Google or Facebook for a number of years and are starting to think about your next job. You've been on the interviewer side of technical interviews a lot, but it's been a while since you've been an interviewee, and all that nice algorithmic stuff you were so good at in college just isn't top of mind anymore. And you're freaked out a bit because there's so much sparkle around your employer's brand that it's going to be embarrassing to bomb the first few warm-up interviews you'll inevitably do.

Before interviewing.io, you'd probably schedule some throwaway interview with companies you didn't care about and hope for the best. With interviewing.io, you can schedule a bunch of anonymous practice without anyone judging you while you warm up.

As one of our very senior users put it recently,

I think your product is fantastic. It's been ~7 years since I was last on this side of the interviewing table, so this is a very nice way to test the waters a bit as I decide on the next steps for my career. I highly value the anonymity.

The other reason senior candidates like us is that we make it so much easier for them to line up interviews once they're warmed up. Instead of applying online, digging up old recruiter emails, or haranguing their friends for referrals, they can quickly and easily skip to the technical phone screen, saving them weeks of time.

Are your candidates actively looking?

Yes, overwhelmingly so! The honest truth is that interview practice just isn’t that riveting. We’ve seen time and time again that when people are practicing, it means they’re already looking or about to start.

Interviews are completely anonymous? How can we interview someone if we don’t have their resume in front of us?

We know it’s totally weird, but once you get used to it, it works great. The candidates we’ll line up for you have been doing really well in other interviews on the platform, and past interview performance is a much more reliable signal than a resume. We'll also make sure that anyone we line up for you has the requisite experience and seniority that you're looking for.

In terms of etiquette, we find that it works best if you reverse the order of the “sell/getting to know you” portion of the call and the actual technical portion. Say hello, and then jump right into the code. You’ll find that you’re much better at chit-chatting and selling candidates whom you’re bought into because they just did well in an interview than those you talk to just based on a resume.

What about the recruiter call?

Aline, one of our founders, used to be a recruiter, and interviewing.io grew out of that experience. One of her least favorite things about recruiting was getting on the phone with a candidate, selling them, getting excited about them, and then finding out, over and over, that they didn’t pass the technical bar.

By contrast, on interviewing.io, roughly 60% of candidates consistently pass technical phone interviews. That means it’s a good use of engineering time and that the recruiter call can happen AFTER the technical phone screen. Then, as a recruiter, you know going in that you’re talking to candidates who have definitely passed the minimum bar. Then, it’s on you to make sure they’re aligned with your company’s values and to work your magic to sell them like crazy.

Can I use your platform to train new interviewers at my company?

Yes! We can drastically lower the time it takes to onboard new interviewers and make interview shadowing and reverse shadowing much more efficient. Contact us for more info.

Who are you, and why are you working on this?

We want engineering hiring to not suck. Aline (our founder) first got the idea for interviewing.io after realizing that in an engineering resume, where someone went to school isn’t important at all, whereas things like typos and grammatical errors are. To make sure she wasn’t crazy, she showed a bunch of anonymized resumes to recruiters and hiring managers, and it turned out that no one could agree on what a good candidate looked like in the first place. This seemed absurd, given how heavily companies generally rely on pedigree when deciding whom to let in the door.

Finding great talent shouldn’t be that hard, and when you look past the resume and focus on what someone can actually do, something magical starts to happen -- all of a sudden, there’s no tradeoff between an efficient hiring process and an inclusive, unbiased one. We’ve built a company around the idea that efficiency, merit, and fairness go hand in hand, and we’re here to get you the absolute best people, fast, in a way that you can feel good about.

How much does it cost?

You only pay us when candidates pass your technical bar. Email sales@interviewing.io for more info.