Belén Jadraque | HR Manager at TrustYou

Belén is an HR Manager at TrustYou. Today she shares with us how they foster good Candidate Experiences during their hiring processes and how Circular helps them be more efficient in their day-to-day operations.

Interviewer: Welcome, Belén, to this quick interview, and thanks so much for your time. Let’s start with something that’s somewhat of a mystery for many recruiters when it comes to attracting applicants. Job descriptions. How do you structure these at TrustYou?

First of all, we include an overview of the company and we make sure that our mission, values and culture is reflected. Our team comes together from all corners of the world to join TrustYou, we are adventurers and pioneers, and we are focussed on creating a more human experience. As adventurers, we live to travel the world, we are tech geeks, but – most of all – we come together to truly improve the travellers’ experiences by transforming data into intelligence. We do this by analysing travellers’ reviews, so our ideal candidates are those that enjoy travelling and adventures.

Also, we add the technical skills required and what skills are nice to have (but not required). On top of that, we always include the perks and benefits of the company, and we make sure to mention our flat organizational structure.

In the end, our job descriptions are quite brief, I would say, and I think it’s better that way. The language that we use in our job offers is also very simple and transparent. We strive together for open communications. The CV is not a be-all and end-all for us. We want motivated, proactive people who are willing to learn new things every day. Our aim is to offer the Best Employee Experience ever coming from the best Candidate Experience. We go out of our way to please and motivate our employees. We offer them continuous training which enables them to learn and constantly expand their knowledge.

We’re aware that many profiles can fit a particular job position. We make candidates an offer that depends on their expertise, what they can contribute to the team, and on the developer’s expectations.

I: How is the hiring process for a developer at TrustYou?

When we receive the application, we filter the profiles we think could fit and we send them a coding test. Our tech team then corrects it, and it usually takes about a week to get the results, depending on the urgency. When they pass this test, I’ll then make a first cultural check call, which serves as the first interview. The next step is for them to have an interview with the tech team including at least two people, the manager and a team member. Our engineering team is very close and very warm, they always welcome the candidates with a huge smile on their face and try to make the candidate feel comfortable. Finally, as a last step, we invite them for a probation day in the office – this is such as an event for us. We invite them to spend a day at the office so they can see how it feels to work at TrustYou and so they can meet the whole team. In the morning, we give them a task to complete, that they have to deliver by the afternoon. They will have the chance to work on a more complex problem and show us more about their skills. The goal of this challenge isn’t to get the right result, but to see the way the person reaches the result. We invite them to present it after lunch to the CTO, VP of Engineering and to the rest of the tech team. I’m always there, too, to give my support to the candidates. We collect the feedback from all the members, and if everything goes well, we make them an offer to join our team. To be honest we pay more attention on how the candidates talk and respond to questions, than what the candidates know. We believe candidates can be taught about technology but can’t be taught to be confident, nice to customers, or think creatively.

I: Indeed very structured and completed. How long does this whole process normally take?

We try for it not to take longer than 3 weeks, maximum 1 month, but it really depends on how urgent it is to add the candidate to our workforce.

I: What particularities does a hiring process have when interviewing developers?

Personally, I really like interviewing developers, it is always fun! I find very interesting the clarity that developers have when communicating. They come for the project, so if they consider that your project has added value on the market, then that’s a very positive sign. This is something I really like about TrustYou, that the project is attracting great talent, employees will work in an effective, autonomous feature-based team, where they will get to play out your dev skills in a high-impact driven environment. Next, I think it’s very important that candidates are honest throughout the hiring process: if you don’t know something, it’s better to say it upfront. We also value the candidate’s willingness to learn the things they don’t know. As I said before, it’s very important to have people who are interested in continuing to hone their skills. We want someone who can identify themselves with TrustYou and represent it wherever they go.

I: What best Candidate Experience practices do you apply in your hiring processes?

One of my favorite Walt Disney quotes says: “You can dream, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality” – that is one of the reasons why we don’t have strict processes, our company’s culture is one of open-mindedness and we truly believe this makes us unique. We are available for them 24/7, and we do whatever we can so that they always feel comfortable. I try to be in constant communication with them, providing feedback to make sure that they have all the info they need. We are very transparent: we share our expectations ahead of time and show them what their day-to-day work would look like. We also send Candidate Experience surveys to analyze their experience and we use their feedback to learn and to improve as a company and as a recruitment team. Being a TrustYou means being part of something big and the truth is that we receive very positive feedback! Will you be one of them??

I: How did you find your experience when hiring your most recent developer candidate with Circular?

Extremely positive! I am very satisfied with the community. The talent that I meet is very well filtered and I always get candidates that match our requirements and job description. I use many recruitment platforms and Circular is the best one by far. It is very visual and easy to use, and that helps me be more efficient. Keep rocking, Circular team!!!