The Interview Process

Let’s talk about joining Code Collective

By the time you finish an interview process with Code Collective we will know each other well and we’ll know how much we like each other. Our interview process has been designed to test for the subjective skills and technical skills we feel we want in our teams. It is also designed to expose you, the candidate, to Code Collective as transparently as possible so you can make sure we’re the right company for you.

To start Code Collective will need access to your CV (or equivalent if via online recruitment platforms).  If Code Collective finds your CV attractive we will reach out and invite you to participate in our interview process.

Your commitment – Less than 4 hours

  • Initial Round – A CV and 60 minutes in front of a web browser at home
  • Over the phone or over coffee chat – 45mins
  • Final Round – 2 hours at Code Collective’s office

Once the interview process is complete Code Collective will be in a position to decide if you, the candidate, are a good fit. Code Collective will then potentially extend an offer to join the team.

This is as far as you really need to read. What follows is a little more detail about the two interview rounds.

The online round and your CV – Ding ding

Below we run through what we expect when reading through your CV as well as the 2 online tests we’ll send through to you for completion before we meet for round 2.

CV Submission + Assessment

While reading your CV we are looking for evidence that you may be a good fit.

What we look for in your CV:

  • Good academic institution and good results.
  • Good past companies. Good track record with past companies.
  • Sees themselves as a full stack developer (perhaps with a tendency towards some speciality if senior).
  • Likes to work for a smaller company.
  • Has interests outside of work. Side projects. Personal goals. Is engaged with life.
  • Has a connection with the developer community (Blogs, Speaker, Meetup, Code tournaments).
  • An indication of “an ability to” and an “excitement for” code.

Online Tests – 60 to 90 minutes

Given an agreement to meet for the first round interview. The candidate will receive two online tests to complete. Together they should take around 90 minutes.

The first test is a version of Code Collective’s Logic and Coding Literacy online test. The objective of the test is to understand how you think through problems, how you think logically and to assess your coding ability. The test doesn’t have a lot of code, although there is some. Some of the code might be Typescript, Javascript, C# or SQL but you’ll be fine as long as you can code, even if you’ve never used those languages.

The second online test is 16personalities.com. It is a Myers-Briggs personality classification. This is useful for guiding the rest of the interview and for both Code Collective and you as a candidate to understand how you might fit into a team.

The Preferably-In-Person at Code Collective’s offices round

This is the second and final round of our interview process. We’ve kept the whole process short because we don’t want you to be whisked off by another development company if we’re actually a better home for you.

The final step includes a conversation and two assessments with two of our senior developers. The purpose of all these interactions is to get to know you and how you work and think in the coding world. It is also an opportunity or you to get to know us a bit better.

Let’s meet and chat interview – 45 minutes

This is a conversational interview. It is an opportunity to get to know each other and gauge how well suited we are to work together.

What we look for in our candidates:

  • Enjoys learning
  • Handles failure well (Is able to recalibrate after missteps)
  • Believes in self improvement
  • Believes in communication
  • Has an ability to work within team structures as well as challenge them appropriately
  • Has an ability to work within a framework, or building structures.
  • Is a healthy enabler.

Technical Assessment – 2 hours

The technical assessment consists of two separate exercises.

The first exercise involves working with some existing code. The candidate will interact with a senior Code Collective developer who will provide some objectives for an existing piece of code. The candidate will work with code and also spend time explaining their thinking to the senior Code Collective developer. It is a solo and interactive exercise. This assessment is technical.

The second assessment involves working through a scenario. We assess the candidate’s ability to write code in a simulated real world environment. This exercise focuses less on the code and more on the candidate’s awareness of the team they are working with and their engagement with an imperfect world we typically experience in software development environments.

Offer and a quick hello

At the end of the final round Code Collective will evaluate how the interview process went. If we decide we want to work with you, Code Collective will extend an offer. Typically at this point the you, a soon to be Code Collective staff member, will come through to the Code Collective offices to orient yourself and meet more of the team.