Tech Recruiting at COYO, a love story in five acts
By: Vanessa Mauri Stephan
Tags: Intranet, Software, Agile, Tech, Recruiting

Swipe right on us!

Do you still remember the last time you went on a first date? Whether it has been last week or some fifteen years ago, you surely remember that tingling sensation paired with curiosity, high hopes and a slight sense of discomfort and insecurity. Because, depending on your age at the time, you might or might not have realised that this could be the start of something truly great.

We at COYO don’t want you to feel even a tiny bit different when handing in your application and meeting us for the first time. But just as in dating, this is 2020 und niemand möchte die Katze im Sack kaufen 😺 / and nobody wants to buy a pig in a poke 🐷 before committing long-term.

We are not saying that you might end up spending the rest of your life with us, but… who knows what happens. 😉

Classical old-school recruiting goes like this: submit your application, get invited to the job interview, out-do all the other applicants, get the job, cool, see in you in three months. And this leaves you with that great fist-pumping feeling and thrill of anticipation but equally unsure about how things will unfold.

At COYO, we have a different and modern approach to recruiting. We care about you from the very moment you will have your first touchpoint with us. And we believe that a potential future employee should be treated equally well the ones that can actually call COYO a work home already.

Therefore we conduct a recruiting process that anticipates the greatest pitfalls during hiring and addresses them right away. Good for us, even greater for you. Because we believe that this leads to a higher dedication within the process, not only from us but also you, making it far less likely that things “aren’t working out” between us during the probation period.

That’s why we have opted for a five-stage application process. During the different steps we will find out together whether we as a company and team fit well with you as potential new COYOneer. To ensure this, you will get to know as many colleagues as possible and experience our spirit at first hand.

After receiving the application, we will check if your background and experience matches our requirements. We always try to give you as much information as possible in the job advertisement already.

To provide you with a first-hand idea of what our product, which, ultimately, is the heart and soul of our company, looks like, you also get access to our brand new COYO Discovery 🚀 platform, which is 100% based on our actual product. What better way to figure out if you could potentially fall in love with our product than experiencing it in real life?

Step 1: 📞 Phone interview. If everything matches, we invite you to a 30-minute telephone interview with one of our recruiters. The interview is like a first date. We talk about the position, expectations, your motivation, general information and answer a lot of open questions. After the telephone interview, both parties reflect and decide whether they want to continue the process. The respective department that is looking for an addition to the team is, of course, involved in our decision-making process.

Step 2: 👾 Tech task and code review. This technical task always has a direct relation/connection to your future working routine. Once you finished the task, a “code review“ will take place, during which you will talk via Zoom to one of our developers about your solution. This helps to see whether your skills fit the position and whether you enjoy solving these kinds of tasks. Here you also have the possibility to ask all the tech questions you have and see if our technical approach fits to your expectations.

Step 3: 👥 Face-2-face interview. Now it is time to stop the blind dating and actually go all-in! This personal meeting takes place with the potential future lead and one of our recruiters, in person, plus sometimes another team member. You will also get the chance to check out our office and experience the “COYO spirit“. The interview puts a focus on the professional and personal job-fit. It gives all of us the opportunity to get to know each other better and to answer each other’s open questions.

Step 4: 🛋 Sofa talk with the team. During this meeting, you get the chance to get to know your team personally — without HR and the lead being present — and of course the team gets to know you. The focus of this step is clearly put on team-fit.

Step 5: ☕️ Coffee talk with the C-level. When the you and the team are all on the same page and feel that you could move forward and work well together in the future, the fifth and final step takes place, the “coffee talk”. During this meeting you will meet one of our C-Levels — either Daniel, Stefan or Jan — and get the chance to find out which values and goals we are guided by. We explore if your mindset and values align in with our company culture and values. Of course, you can ask the C-Levels anything you would like to know about our strategy and vision as well.

It doesn’t take 36 questions to fall in love. Sometimes, five steps are enough for you to make a smart decision: do you want to swipe left or right? Time will tell if we are, indeed, your soulmate or just a fling ♥️