Our recruitment process

This article aims to cover what awaits you as a candidate at each of these steps and guide you through what will be expected from you, as well as what you can expect from us. Let’s dive in.

Our recruitment process involves several steps, all dedicated to evaluate different skills or competencies as well as your fit with our work culture and methodologies. The process can stop at each of these steps, and we will come back to you systematically with relevant feedback.

Throughout each stage, we’ll pay particular attention to your soft skills as we are strong believers that one can always improve on their hard skills, and we’re looking to grow a team of optimistic, humble, and curious people keen on putting their expertise together to make an impact.

We are aiming to make your candidate experience as seamless and inclusive as possible, always feel free to let us know if you have specific needs that require an adjustment in our recruitment process.

The process

Before going into details, here’s a summary of what our recruitment process looks like:

1. Phone screen (30 to 45 minutes)
2. Case study (2 to 3 hours)
3. Video interviews (2 hours 30 minutes)
4. Reference check
5. Offer

The application

Outside of the usual information we’ll need from you (that is your phone number and email address, as well as your CV or LinkedIn profile), you’ll be asked to motivate your application in writing in our application form. No formal nor generic cover letter expected, you can be as creative as you wish to. We will be expecting you to put a bit of your personality into this text rather than commonly used formulas. Don’t disregard this initial step because we won’t, it is entirely part of our screening process. Your potential future colleagues will be reading it too, as access to your application isn’t limited to the Talent Acquisition Team alone (and we always read them).

Being a remote first company, we cultivate a strong writing culture, hence we put an emphasis on our candidates’ written communication skills from the very beginning of the recruitment process. When it comes to your CV (or LinkedIn profile), we’ll be checking your work experience and competencies only. The degree you’ve completed or the University you have attended aren’t a selection criteria for us. In other words, we’re much more interested in what you’ve been doing since you graduated than in your degree.

Here’s what the application review looks like:

• Who? A member of the Talent acquisition team will be reviewing your application, along with a member of the team you’d be joining.
• When? You can expect an outcome on your application within seven business days.
• Why? Your cover letter is the very first impression we’ll get from you. It will give us some indications on your motivation, communication skills, and general commitment to starting a recruitment process with us (and ultimately joining our company).
• How? All applications come through our Applicant Tracking System, no matter the job board or device you’ve chosen to apply from.

The phone screen

If your application is selected for the next stage, you’ll be contacted by a member of the Talent Acquisition team for a telephone interview. Its length can vary from 30 to 45 minutes depending on the role, but this information will be given to you beforehand so you can best organize your schedule. We won’t be calling unexpectedly either.

The point of this initial conversation isn’t to cover your work experience and competencies extensively (our Talent Acquisition Managers aren’t experts in your field), but rather to focus on your current situation and what you are looking for next in order to assess if your professional expectations match with our search and respectively.

We strongly believe a successful collaboration starts with transparency, and you can expect us to be as honest as possible about the role and our work culture. We’re not here to sell a dream, but rather to give you all the information you need to assess if the opportunity is right for you today, or if it is best to reconnect tomorrow.

Unsurprisingly, we’ll expect the same honesty from you. The goal of this step is also to assess your cultural fit with our company values and methodologies (remote and asynchronous culture, teamwork and collaboration, humility and capacity to vulgarize). During this phone conversation, we’ll also cover your availability, English level and if your salary expectations match with our grid.

Here’s what our phone screen stage looks like:

• Who? The Talent Acquisition Manager dedicated to the role you’ve applied for.
• When? Usually within one week after your application has been reviewed and selected for the phone screen stage, pending availability from both ends.
• Why? This step is designed to evaluate your fit with our work culture and methodologies as well as the match between the role and your professional project. It also covers key questions such as remuneration package, availability and English level.
• How? 30 to 45 minutes telephone conversation.

The case study

If the phone screen is conclusive from both ends, we will send you a case study via email. It will have been specifically put together for the role you’ve applied for, in order to assess specific criteria. We continuously try and improve them, and always appreciate our candidates’ feedback.

Here’s a summary of what the case study stage looks like:

• Who? Your potential future manager will review your case study, along with another team member in some cases.
• When? You’ll have one week (ideally) to send your case study back to your Talent Acquisition Manager, who remains your first point of contact. You can expect an outcome within 48 to 72 hours post reception of your email by the team.
• Why? This step allows us to get a first assessment of your technical competencies, but it also continues to give us inputs on your implication, your writing skills, your attention to details and your reasoning.
• How? In the comfort of your home, and at your own pace. No timeboxing, no format imposed either. But expect the exercise to take you around 2 hours (3 hours tops) and at least one question to have to be answered in English.

The video interviews

If your case study is successful, you’ll be invited for a series of video interviews. We’ve chosen to have video rather than onsite interviews even if you live right next door to our office, simply because your interviewers may not be. Depending on the role you’ve applied for, this stage will be divided into two sets of interviews (technical interview, then panel interviews) or will occur in one event (the panel interviews). Candidates for positions within our Engineering or Product and Design team will first go through a technical interview (45 minutes to 1 hour length), followed by the panel interviews (another 1h30 to 1h45 minutes) if the latter was successful. Candidates for other roles and teams (Risk, Finance, Marketing, Sales etc.) will not perform a technical interview per se but will also be assessed on their technical competencies during the panel interviews, and the total duration of their interviews will be the same as if they did. In other words, the video interview stage is of the same duration (2 hours 30 minutes) whether you applied for a Product Manager or a Banker role.

The technical interview

If the role you’ve applied for requires it, you’ll be invited for a technical interview prior to the panel interviews. This interview is an opportunity to dig deeper into your technical and operational skills. It is also the first (video) encounter between two potential future colleagues.

You’ll have the opportunity to find out more about the role and our work environment—the idea is for you to keep learning about us as much as we keep learning about you, and the last 10 minutes of your interview will be dedicated to your questions for us.

The technical interview stage at a glance:

• Who? One or two members of the team you’d be joining.
• When? We aim to be as reactive as possible. Basically the next coming availability that suits both yourself and your interviewer(s).
• Why? Assessing you meet the technical and operational competencies required for the role.
• How? A 45 minutes to 1 hour video interview (we use Google Meet).

The panel interview

If your technical interview (or case study, if your position doesn’t require a technical interview) was a success, congratulations—you’ve made it to the final stage of our interview process! Welcome to what we call the panel interview. It consists of a series of video interviews which allow you to meet with various team members during 30 or 45 minutes slots following one another.

Again, the last ten minutes of each slot will be dedicated to you and your questions for us. You’ll be meeting with your potential future team lead during the manager interview, but also one or several members from a team you’d be collaborating with on a regular basis and another potential future colleague who will be assessing your cultural fit with Memo Bank.

The goal is to make sure both parties are aligned on management, collaboration, values, and methodologies. From a candidate perspective, it will give you a rather good overview of who works at Memo Bank and how, and help you project yourself more concretely into the opportunity to join us (and make a rather safe and conscious decision if this step is conclusive).

Here’s what you can expect from the panel interview stage:

• Who? 3 to 5 video interviews : manager, cross-team members, cultural fit.
• When? Again, as soon as your schedule allows it.
• Why? Because our work values and methodologies are collaborative, it makes sense to meet with a variety of team members. If you were to join Memo Bank, you would be interacting regularly with people outside of your team - it is important for them as much as it is for you to get to meet and assess if you could picture yourself working together.
• How? A total length of 1h30 to 1h45 if you’ve previously passed the technical interview, and a total of 2h30 video interviews if your role didn’t require one.

Because our decision making is based on unanimity, the panel interviews can stop at any time. If one of your interviewers has a clear doubt about your cultural or technical fit, they can decide to end the recruitment process. It may seem harsh, but we think it is in everyone’s best interest to avoid both our teams and our candidates to lose time in their days. In case this happens to you, you will of course get a call from your Talent Acquisition Manager to give you feedback and gather yours.

The interview debrief

After each panel interview, all the team members you’ll have met with reunite for a debrief. It is an opportunity for us to harmonize feedback and collegially decide if we move forward or not with a candidate. We listen to each and everyone’s input, in order to give our candidates honest and constructive feedback whether it’s a yes or a no. All panel members have to unanimously agree to move forward, which means a panel interview can be unsuccessful for a candidate with just one no.

Here’s what our interview debrief looks like:

• Who? All team members involved in the candidate’s recruitment process, including the Talent Acquisition Manager.
• When? Anytime from 1 to 2 business days post panel interviews.
• Why? Gather everyone’s assessment in order to make a decision.
• How? 30 minutes internal video meeting.

The reference check

If you’ve enjoyed the conversations as much as we did and are happy to continue the process, you’ll be asked to send us references we can contact prior to making a formal offer. We need at least two references to be compliant with our process, and they can come from former or current colleagues, managers, and cross-team members. We’ll be contacting them on their email address and they’ll have the flexibility to give their reference in writing or over the phone.

Here’s what our reference checking stage looks like:

• Who? Your Talent Acquisition Manager will contact 2 to 3 references with your consent and after you’ll have communicated their email addresses.
• When? It mostly depends on your references availability and reactivity. The reference checking stage generally takes one week.
• Why? Reference checking gives us additional information and valuable insights from a third-party on their previous collaboration with you. Your future manager usually also gets valuable inputs from these references, in order to set you up for success straight from the beginning and during the onboarding phase.
• How? We need at least two written or verbal references.

The offer

As soon as we have at least two successful references, your Talent Acquisition Manager will call you to make a formal offer (which will be followed by an email so you have everything in writing). Your remuneration package will reflect your placement in our leveling matrix—each step of the recruitment process helps us position yourself in the grid at a level that is fair and adequate for you and calibrated with the team members’ levels.

No one negotiates their salary before joining Memo Bank, we’re quite firm on that. Some people can sell themselves better than others, and our remuneration policy is here to guarantee a fair and calibrated compensation for everyone, as well as equal growth opportunities. If you are happy to accept our offer, you’ll be sent a letter of offer via Yousign to seal our commitment as well as yours. Once the letter of offer is signed by both parties, we will organize your employment contract and prepare for your arrival and onboarding.

To sum up, here’s what the offer looks like:

• Who? Your Talent Acquisition Manager.
• When? As soon as we have two to three successful references for you.
• Why? Closing the recruitment process and formalizing your recruitment.
• How? A telephone call for the verbal offer, followed by a written offer via email and a letter of offer.

Check our open positions or send us a spontaneous application, we’re looking forward to hearing from you!