How to nail the remote interview?
Hey,
I'm Sergio Pereira, and this is the Remote Work newsletter 👋
Last week I told you about my own path to get the first high paying remote job that changed my life.
This week I'm explaining how to impress your interviewer in order to get your remote job.
As a CTO of remote teams, I've led hundreds of interviews with candidates from all around the world. These are the 4 things you should nail when interviewing for a remote role:
1) Relevant experience to the role
In most companies, the first step of any selection process is to review CVs of all applicants before any interview starts. Only the candidates with most relevant experience to the role will move to the next steps. Usually that's less than 50%, depending on number of applicants.
Here, hiring managers want to see if:
• You've worked with the required technologies before,
• You've worked with them for long enough as required by the job description,
• You've worked in roles that are considered relevant, given the responsibilities of this role.
There isn't much you can do to prepare for this one, just make your experience count. Two recommendations are:
• Apply to roles where you feel your past experience is more relevant.
• Craft some changes to your CV to highlight specific experiences that are more relevant to each company you apply to.
2) Technical skills
Usually there is some technical test as part of the selection process. Either a live test during an interview, or a take home test. You'll be tested on your technical skills for the jobs.
The test usually focuses on the core skills for the role, and this is the part you can better prepare for.
There are materials online that:
• Describe what technical tests are done at each company (eg: Glassdoor)
• Help you craft a preparation roadmap (multiple blogs, use Google)
• Help practise for those tests (eg: Leetcode)
It's common for candidate to put in hundreds of hours of preparation for this section of a selection process. Be prepared to do it too.
3) Culture fit
This part of the interview process tests if you'll do well as part of the company, from a cultural perspective.
Examples:
• If it's a startup company, you need to show great ownership and accountability, so the interviewer reckons you'll thrive in a small team during a fast growth period.
• If it's a big enterprise company, you need to showcase specialisation and collaboration with other teams in a more stable and hierarchical organization.
Some preparation you can do is:
• Research the company, what it does, how bug it is, etc.
• Lookup on Linkedin, Glassdoor, etc what the culture looks like.
• Craft your pitch during interviews around these requirements.
4) Remote work readiness
As part of an interview process for a remote company, you should expect to be asked about your past experience working in remote teams.
Some questions could be:
• What are the biggest challenges of working remote?
• How do you collaborate with colleagues 8 time zones away?
• What do you do when you're blocked?
The best for this is to have actual experience working as part of a remote team. But for anyone looking for the first remote job, odds are you don't have such first hand experience.
I created this course with the remote processes I implement in my teams, and you can look up my threads on twitter about the topic as well.
I wish these tips can help you get a high paying remote job. It's hard work, but it pays off big time!
In case you're actively looking, have a look at this list of 1000+ companies actively hiring remote roles. By applying directly you are usually at an advantage, over candidates using job boards. Good luck!
Thank you for reading this newsletter issue until the end, means a lot to me!
You can read all past editions of this newsletter here. Make sure to share the link with your friends and colleagues so they can read it too.
See you next Friday,
Sergio Pereira,
Startup CTO & Remote Work Lover
