We only hire bright, kind, and goal-oriented people.

Strong emotional intelligence stands out in our people and plays a big role in what makes our culture unique! We assess for EQ in our interviews, starting with the very first phone screen (which is always with an engineer, not a recruiter!). While bright may sound an awful lot like IQ, we don’t think of it as being the same as smart or brainy. Being bright means being intuitive, perceptive, resourceful, and astute. While we think it’s great to be the kind of engineer who can formally prove an equation for determining the storage requirements of a binary tree, we think it's more important to be the kind of resourceful engineer who can use Pry to get to the root cause of a bug.

Working with those who are likable and engaging is certainly something we all appreciate but we know it’s not enough to be nice. We find it’s imperative to our success to also be kind. Kind allows us to be considerate, thoughtful and helpful. In engineering, you will often hear kind=empathy. Being kind allows us to do what’s right for the company and the individual. We have tough conversations, actively seek out diverse perspectives, and help one another’s growth. Kind is the foundation to our being steadfastly client-focused. We are motivated by empathy for our end users, and commonly make trade-offs in favor of our (internal and external) clients.

The employees at Stitch Fix are goal-oriented folks. This can be be contrasted with someone who is ambitious (enterprising, zealous, fervent, or aspiring). Ambition itself is not wrong, but we reject people whose personal ambitions come before the team's goals. It's important that we're all working together.

We build on each other’s ideas and celebrate wins together.

We’re fortunate to work with an incredibly smart, driven team. While this means that we can get competitive from time to time, our end goal is not to be competitive with one another, but rather compete as a company. For instance, in meetings, our engineering leads make sure to grab a part of an idea, attribute it to that person, and then seek advice from the team as to how we can build on it. Taking the time to recognize each other’s contributions and being open to different viewpoints not only enables us to do our best work, it also drives the best outcomes for the company.

An open mindset is a quality we actively screen for. Every candidate that progresses to the onsite interview is asked to do a presentation, and if we ask technical questions that are peripheral or challenge their assertions, we pay careful attention to how they respond. We’re looking for people who are able to say, “wow, I didn’t think about that” and are open to exploring different avenues.

Until we walk in someone else’s shoes, we don’t judge their journey.

Our biggest differentiator in the financial sector is how we coach our clients. Our trainers provide personal, 1-on-1 support to every single client, helping them set individualized goals, budget, save, repay debts, travel hack, boost credit scores, and secure retirement. As a result, it is extremely important that we have and practice empathy.

Our engineers need to be able to communicate and empathize not only with our clients, but also with our trainers. The current tech team members kicked off their orientation by completing the financial coaching training program. This two-week bootcamp covered everything from debt management to expense management, and how to deal with clients. It also provided EQ training that included case studies, looking at real clients, role playing, and breaking down the different tactics they’ve tried to help previous clients get to financial fitness. We found this insight into the financial training piece of the business to be immensely helpful, and will be a requirement for future tech hires going forward.

Currently, our tech team includes our CTO, Nicole, and three full stack developers. We expect to hire 12 employees to join the tech team by 2021, and look forward to building out our in-house engineering team. If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out!

We value kindness and empathy over intellect and strong opinions.

We want engineers to look forward to going to work every day. The biggest impact on that is always going to be the people you work with, which is why we place an emphasis on hiring people who are thoughtful, kind, and self-aware. We’re the antithesis of a typical bro-y startup – we care about you as a whole person, not just a resource. In other words, engineers are not just boxes that can be moved around on an org chart.

At Culture, we’re building bioreactors and cloud-based platforms that allow companies to easily make and scale bioproducts, powering research behind everything from chicken-free eggs and palm tree-free palm oil, to medicines, natural dyes, and more. Because our company is very engineering-driven (see more below), hiring empathetic engineers is critical. We regularly talk with our customers (in fact, we know many of them by name), so engineers can better understand their perspective.

Our interview process actively screens for empathy, self-awareness, curiosity, and kindness. It’s not about culture fit or a certain gut vibe; we use a specific rubric to assess empathy and self-awareness. It’s also designed so you can show us your best. Instead of all-day onsites, we allow engineers to schedule their final round interviews over the course of a week. Maybe you feel you do your best technical work in the mornings, or maybe you’d rather only interview in the afternoons.

Moreover, during times of turbulence, such as the events surrounding the death of George Floyd or the riots at the Capitol in DC, our CEO Will makes sure to check in with the team and reiterate that if you need to take time off and prioritize self-care, that’s more than okay. During the height of the pandemic when our lab shut down for three months, no one from the team was laid off. Not only that, but our founders also made sure to keep paying our temp contracting staff. Creating an environment where folks care about one another and have meaningful interactions not only makes life better, but it also helps us create the best product possible and succeed as a company.

Angaza engineering culture = rigor + empathy

Building solid software for our users and their typical operating environments requires equal parts rigor and empathy. The majority of our users:

• Use phones that cost less than $50
• Have 3G internet connections, at best, and pay for them by the MB
• Work in the informal economy, some multitasking across multiple small businesses
• May have to travel hours (or days), on foot or by bus, to attend training

Empathy guides our decisions and improves the user experience. Rigor enables successful execution of the decisions we make.

Angazans are interviewed specifically for EQ. We believe it is a hard skill, required to compete successfully in our markets.

Finally, Angazans are encouraged to deepen understanding and empathy by working directly with our customers. We strive to build strong relationships with our widely dispersed user base. While meeting in-person was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, optional travel is often supported. Whether it’s working out of our Nairobi office or riding a boda in Burundi, these experiences can help connect your daily work to direct improvements in people’s lives.

You can’t just be a good engineer. You also need to demonstrate empathy toward your teammates.

It’s important for engineers at Handshake to be able to communicate effectively – and with empathy – in many different contexts. Whether it’s communicating product launches to our customer success team, discussing implementation tradeoffs among the engineering team, or identifying pain-points in design mocks, it’s crucial that engineers empathize with and keep our users in mind.

That’s why we’re committed to putting “Students First.” Engineers must be able to think about problems from a variety of perspectives. What might be the best solution from an engineering standpoint might not be the best solution from a student standpoint. Taking this into account allows us to build amazing products on the Student, University, and Employer sides of the business.

Ultimately, “Act with Empathy” is a core company value. Not only does our interview process screen for this, but we also take measures to ensure it’s practiced in our day-to-day work. For example, after resolving a P0 issue, we ensure our post-mortems are completely blameless. We realize we’re stronger as a team and aim to learn from our mistakes collectively. We also have organically grown into a heavy pair-programming culture because the engineers at Handshake simply have a desire to help each other out. To that end, we make sure to celebrate our people by having people present “Weekly Handshakes” at our weekly company all-hands to give shoutouts to their fellow co-workers.

Ego is the enemy.

The best products are built when everyone has a seat at the table and feels comfortable discussing ideas without attacking the individual proposing them or tying one’s self-worth to their idea. We also believe that empathy is essential for us to build a product that will allow everyone to reach their goals. While there are engineering challenges in the work that we do, building an effective platform for lasting growth and change – one that meets people where they are – is often much more difficult. These are the sorts of problems that require a deep emotional intelligence beyond raw IQ.

At the end of the day, business is all about people.

We make a product for people. We are a company of people. If you can anticipate the needs of a customer, client, or teammate – that is worth its weight in gold.

The cannabis industry in particular requires high EQ. Cannabis affects everyone differently and everyone has their own opinion on cannabis. It is our responsibility as a company within this space to understand, empathize, and continue to progress the cannabis space. Not everyone on our team consumes cannabis. We cover the spectrum: some team members consume cannabis daily, while others have never, which is more than okay! What’s important is that we all understand the market, the role our product plays in it, and are committed to Jane’s mission.

Our team is close-knit (see Heavily Team-Oriented below) and we all share and celebrate our wins together. Having empathy on a team is really powerful. We believe any win from any person feels like a win for the entire group. It’s our strong emphasis on empathy that helps us lift each other up, and laud and applaud one another in an open and non-competitive way.

We’ve passed on candidates who were technically strong but would be difficult to work with. People who feel above the team and that there’s a ‘right’ way of doing things (aka their way) won’t succeed at Jane. There has to be wiggle room, which is why we know we need the full context surrounding decisions. It’s important to collaborate to fully understand all factors at play, whether it’s a certain timeline, timeframe, resource constraints, or potential iterations in the future.

At the end of the day, we’re working with humans and we feel that at a very deep level. As Abe, co-founder and CTO, says, “As a leader, I’ve learned to be a lot more vulnerable and focused on how I can best empower people to do their jobs. There has to be mutual respect, always.”

If you ask any member of our team what makes Newfront unique, the first thing you’ll hear about is our culture.

We’ve built a team of people who are empathetic and kind. Having empathy enables us to deeply understand the needs of our customers, who vary widely across a number of demographics. After all, it doesn’t matter how good of a coder you are if you can’t hear your customer’s needs.

Emotional intelligence is modeled from the top down at Newfront. You’ll never hear “that’s not my job” no matter how high you go. As an example, our co-founder and CTO held office hours to help anyone in the company troubleshoot two-factor authentication setup. Simply put, we do what needs to be done to grow our business and we keep our egos in check along the way.

Technical skills can’t get you anywhere if you can’t communicate with your team.

To assess candidates’ EQ, we have specific interview sessions that are standard across all roles. We look for the ability to communicate and receive constructive technical feedback. We’re also interested in how candidates approach and navigate complex conversations. It’s important to us that every interview panel consists of employees with diverse backgrounds, too, which means you’ll meet a mix of people when you interview: men, women, people who are self-taught, people who have CS degrees, as well as people from different departments and disciplines.

We continue to prioritize EQ once you’ve joined New Relic, too. We invest in our team members and help coach team members to ensure your “soft skills” are getting as much attention to growth as your technical skills. The Learning Development group offers optional workshops on a variety of topics such as Managing Up, Having Hard Conversations, Managing Conflict, Leadership Bootcamp, Executive Presence, and the list goes on. Sometimes attending these workshops becomes a part of an individuals’ formal goals for a quarter.

We also make sure people receive direct and timely feedback, coach them on any negative behaviors they may not be aware of (and recognize when folks successfully change these behaviors). Not only is this a typical part of our weekly 1:1s (see Heavily Team Oriented above), but it’s also something we do in the given moment to address things as soon as they come up.

It’s incredibly important that everyone we work with feels comfortable saying, “I don’t know.”

We care so much about our team and who we work with that we dedicate nearly 85% of our interview to culture. Our first two phone screens involve zero coding (or silly brain teasers) and focus purely on how you approach problem solving interpersonally. We want to work with folks who will fight for the company to be right rather than being right themselves, and want to invest in high-EQ individuals who will make for great leaders in the long-term. We find that as engineers grow more senior in tech, egos can get in the way, and we actively want to fight against that here at Doppler.

Clear and transparent communication is important to us beyond our company walls, too. Customers also want transparency. People who value and covet IQ tend to be less open to sharing mistakes they make, and we’re the opposite. If we have an outage of some kind, we want to be transparent about how it happened and why it won’t again.

Lastly, we consider EQ as a collective to come from a team with diverse backgrounds. By having people from different walks of life, we will be a more well-rounded, thoughtful, and empathic company. Our team started male-centric, but that is rapidly changing moving forward. Alongside striving for gender balance, we want to work with people who have something unique to share with us. Some of the best people we have worked with in past companies started their careers in unexpected ways with unique twists and turns. Those experiences helped shape who they are and thus what the company became. Join us in shaping Doppler!

The old adage goes, "It isn't what you say, it is how you say it that matters."

We strongly believe in the power of empathetic communication and value it highly, so much so that it is actively selected for in our interview process. Specifically, we are looking for people who listen before speaking, are thoughtful with their words, and understand the impact they can have on others. Especially as we embrace a remote-first culture, EQ is super important to foster a strong sense of team and trust, and even more so without the ability to see people in person.

Prioritizing EQ also has a tangible impact on the product development and engineering lifecycle. As a company, we're able to have tough discussions without ever crossing any lines, and are able to "disagree and commit" without any resentment. It also contributes to our blameless culture, where wins are celebrated as a group and misses are never any individual person's fault.

If you want to spend every minute of your time deep in code, this probably won’t be the right place for you.

At Orbit, we value EQ and communication skills a lot. If you’re looking to spend 99% of your time coding, this might not be a fit. Not only do we want everyone to contribute to our strategy, but we also don’t view any walls between the company and community – it’s a diffuse membrane! We regularly share mockups and roadmaps with our community. We believe that engineers infuse the product with empathy, through the meaningful choices they make everyday when building it. This means engineers who join our team inherently need to be able to empathize with others, consider different viewpoints, and connect with humans as much as (or more than!) they do the code.

Your ability to work well with others is more important than your technical skills.

Having technical experience and knowledge is important to us, but only if it is coupled with EQ. Not only are we diverse in our abilities, backgrounds, and personalities, but so are our customers. As an early stage company, it is critical to us that we only hire people who recognize the importance of empathy and emotional intelligence.

In the past, we have passed on technically gifted candidates because they did not share our mindset around how to work as a team. As a small but nimble team, we operate with the assumption that everyone is working toward the same goal: creating the best experiences for our users. To that end, we look for people who are empathetic and curious, who have opinions but don’t assume they are always right, operate with an innate sense of urgency, are willing to take smart risks, and take ownership of their work. During the interview process, we gauge this through the different formal (1-1 discussions) and informal (grabbing food with the team) interactions we have with each candidate. We hope candidates do the same evaluation of us. Ultimately, even the most brilliant minds cannot build good products if they can’t work well together. This is twofold for us as we serve a wide variety of customers ranging from restaurants, to retail, to medical offices.

We believe in transparency – starting with our interview process.

We’re looking for team members who are kind, empathetic, and able to communicate and receive constructive feedback. That’s why we structure our interview process to screen for EQ. We want to put candidates in the best possible position to succeed. When you interview with us, you’ll know who you’re speaking with ahead of time and what you should be prepared to talk about with each interviewer. From the phone screen to the onsite, we want to make sure we respect your time and are transparent at every step. For example, we structure the technical portion of the onsite in a way that mimics what it would be like if you got the job. You’ll be prepped ahead of time on the coding piece (which is structured as a pairing exercise) so you can choose to write some code ahead of time, or not, depending on your preference.

Individuals at Noyo are quick to help one another, whether it’s with the onboarding process or brainstorming on a tough problem. We’re also very respectful and mindful of the language we use during code reviews and follow specific code review guidelines. At the end of the day, we operate from a place of trust and want to help you do your best.

Anyone can affect change at NerdWallet, and the best solutions come from a variety of perspectives.

Inside NerdWallet, engineers are full participants in the problem solving and product development process. Engineering supports a wide variety of disciplines at NerdWallet and our most successful engineers know how to work with a team of diverse people to deliver the best solution for our members. Collaborating effectively requires empathy and we have many mechanisms to provide feedback: All Hands, Q&A, anonymous surveys, 1:1s, team retrospectives, and code reviews.

We look for folks who can openly communicate with their peers and managers. In fact, we encourage everyone to share their personal goals with their managers. Engineers often express interest in learning new technologies, attending workshops and conferences, and practicing leadership and communication, and we support all of those goals.

Outside NerdWallet, our users come from a wide variety of backgrounds and financial situations. Having a better understanding of these perspectives and being able to empathize with them enables us to better design and implement solutions that serve the widest number of people.

Empathy is key to Qualia’s culture.

First and foremost, we believe in hiring people who are kind, decent, and respectful. We’re looking for the best engineers to join our team, and we believe the best engineers have high emotional intelligence.

In such a collaborative environment, it’s imperative that Qualia engineers know how to communicate effectively, as well as give and receive constructive feedback. Healthy team dynamics are critical to our success, so how you approach working with others is just as – if not more – important than how you approach a technical problem. Our most successful coworkers are those who share their knowledge and focus on helping the greater team work better together.

At the end of the day, we’re all working towards the same goal – to make it easier for anyone to own a home. It’s often the largest purchase a person will make in their life, and we’ve assembled a team that’s passionate about easing that process. While not everyone at Qualia has necessarily purchased a house of their own, we expect our team members to be able to put themselves in the shoes of our users – whether it’s the consumer buying their first house or the title agent pulling together all the pieces of the closing. We believe technology is the key to restoring healthy homeownership to the United States, and we’re excited to be at the forefront of that change within the real estate industry.