Alan Hiring Process - Step by step

• 👋 Screening Interview
• ✍️ Written Questions
• 👀 Technical Skills Interview(s) 
• 🏁 Checkpoint 
• 📞 Reference Calls
• 💪 Alan Day 
• 🎉 Decision and Offer

Welcome to our hiring journey!

We designed our hiring process to be comprehensive and holistic. While at first glance it might seem daunting, the process provides our candidates with a real opportunity to experience what it’s like to work at Alan, while helping us to hire people we believe will thrive. In this guide we provide more detail on how to prepare for each stage. 

The Screening interview is designed so that we get to know you and you get to know Alan, so there are no wrong answers. 

On our end, we’ll introduce Alan and the specific role you are in process for. And we’ll ask about your current role, your job history and what you are looking for as a next step.

How can I set myself up for success? 

During this interview, showing curiosity and interest towards our mission can go a long way: do you know what we really do, what our company culture is like? 

While getting prepared and reading about Alan, think about what really motivates you to join the company - and take the opportunity to prepare questions! 

Written communication is instrumental in Alan’s Culture. For most roles we send 4 questions in this step of the process. Out of these 4, 2 are about Alan and 2 are related to the role you’re in the process for.

👉 This is why this step is so important. Reading your answers, we test for:

• Clarity: Are you able to clearly phrase why you want to join, what you’re good at, and what you want to learn?

• Structure: How well are your thoughts organized in writing?

• English Level: Is it proficient enough to work efficiently at Alan?

• Level of Depth: Are you at ease with taking a step back, sharing assumptions, and backing them up with data?

How can I set myself up for success? 

• Length: We recommend the size of your written answers to be between 2 and 5 pages.

Take the time to proofread your answers carefully. Remove any unnecessary sentence to show that you can be brief and clear while exploring complex ideas.

This hour-long interview is a deep dive into the technical skills required to succeed in the job you are applying for, and a way for us to assess if you could bring new knowledge to the team. To do so, you will be presented with a case study and/or situational questions that you will have to solve or answer

How can I set myself up for success? 

• During the interview, don’t hesitate to ask a lot of questions to understand what is really being asked by your interviewer.

• If you don't have the technical expertise to answer a question, you can be transparent about it - and it's time to show your potential to learn fast: ask questions, foster collaboration with your interviewer(s), make suggestions, be creative, trust your intuition. 

• Strive to be clear and precise when answering questions, and always back your answers with data.

The checkpoint happens before the last step of the hiring process - the Alan Day.

It is the moment for you to take a step back on the hiring process, share some feedback with us and ask all the remaining questions you might have!

Why do we run reference calls?

At Alan, we think we can learn a lot about you by talking with people who actually worked with you. For this reason and in order to make a more informed decision, we will invite you to share references with us to move forward. You can of course let them know we will contact them.

We want you to be immersed in Alan’s culture. You will be spending either a half or full day with us, which could be in one of Alan’s offices or remote. During this day, you’ll meet Alaners, discover our working method while solving real life problems. Each Alan Community has its own Alan Day schedule to reflect a day in the life of your future role at Alan. When you reach this stage, our Talent Team will provide a detailed schedule of the day.  As an example, this is what an Alan Day could look like:

Briefing

Welcome! We'll give you the planning of the day and will share with you our last tips. You’ll be able to ask all the questions at this point or in the dedicated Slack channel we’ll open just for you.

Autonomous Work Sessions or Feature Design interview 

Depending on which role you are interviewing for, you may  have time to work on your case studies which you will present at the end of the day. Alternatively, for roles such as Software Engineer, you will have a feature design interview, where we explore how you would implement a new feature. 

Alaner Fit interview

In a 45 minute interview centered around your past experiences you will meet one of our Founders or one of our Senior Alaners who are strong ambassadors of our mission. Through a defined interview script, we’ll assess traits that are important to thrive at Alan. Specifically, we will explore your motivation, mission-driven mindset, your approach to work, your communication skills, your ability to take a step back as well as your growth mindset.

Note: If interviewer(s) and candidate do not speak the same native language, this interview will be run in English.

For some roles, the Alaner Fit Interview can take place as an additional step prior to the Alan Day.

Lunch break

If you’re at the office, you will eat with the team and take some time to meet Alaners. If you come to our Paris office and the weather is nice, don't forget to check the rooftop! 

Presentation (for some roles)

At the end of the day, if you’ve had case studies to work on, you will present your work to 2 or 3 Alaners.

Debrief session

Finally, a short debrief session will allow you to share feedback on the day and the overall hiring process. 

🤓 How can I set myself up for success?

• Communicate a lot (we like to understand why & how you do things) 

• Ask questions (use your Slack channel and interview sessions. 

• Back-up your solutions with data

• Use what you’ve read about the company culture

• Try to keep the energy in your presentation high, make it simple and focused on solving problems.  

How do we make the decision to hire or not? And how do we decide on the level?

Throughout the hiring process, all interviewers take notes and share precise feedback on the signals they gathered during your interviews. They also indicate which level on our salary grid they believe you should be hired at. 

After the Alan Day, we have a “decision meeting” during which we align on the decision to make an offer or not and, if so, on the level we’ll be making the offer at.

How long before I get an answer? 

You should receive an answer from us maximum 48 business hours after the Alan Day.

Can I negotiate the salary/package? 

During this decision meeting, we have decided the level at which we will be making an offer. Once the level has been decided, it is non-negotiable.

And now... the floor is yours!

Hopefully, this guide has answered many of the questions you have about our hiring process. With the support we give you throughout your interviewing journey, we feel confident that our hiring process enables you and Alan to make an informed decision.