The stages in our hiring process

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. In case of refusal from our side, we systematically inform the candidate with whom we have been in contact so far – we consider that a response, even negative, is better than silence.

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.

Our goal? Ensuring that our recruitment process runs smoothly, regardless of who you are or where you come from, is our priority. If you have specific needs that require adjustments on our part, you can let us know in your cover letter or during your first phone interview with us.

Before diving into the details, here’s what you can expect if we select your application after reading your cover letter — because we truly read them all.

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

The application

Here is what we hope to find in your application:

• Some usual information, such as your email address, phone number, your CV, or your LinkedIn profile;
• Some explanations about the reasons that drive you to write to us.

Let’s be clear: we don’t expect a formal letter from you with “Dear Sir/Madam” at the beginning, generalities in the middle, and kind regards at the end. Write a letter that reflects who you are, not one that resembles the templates you find on the web. Ideally, your letter should allow us to learn more about the person behind your application. We encourage you to take this first step seriously, as we will do the same if it’s the case. The letter is not a formality for us. 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).

As our organization is optimized for remote work, we place great importance on written communication. This inclination makes us particularly sensitive to applications that demonstrate a strong command of written communication.

The curriculum vitae (CV)

Your CV (or your LinkedIn profile) is the second thing we read after your cover letter. In your CV, we focus on your past experiences and your skills. The degree you obtained and the institution where you obtained it are not selection criteria in our eyes. We place more importance on what you have done since obtaining your degree than on the degree itself.

How we evaluate an application

Here’s what you need to know about the evaluation of your application:

• Who is involved? A member of the Talent acquisition team will be reviewing your application, along with a member of the team you’d be joining.
• When will you receive a response? We do our best to provide you with a response within 7 business days – a week including 5 days.
• Why does this step exist? Your cover letter is the very first impression we’ll get from you. It’s the first thing we read. 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 does it work? All applications we receive land in our Applicant Tracking System (ATS), regardless of the site from which you send us your application.

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. 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). It enables us to determine if what we could offer matches what you are looking for in return. During this initial phone conversation, we won’t quiz you on your skills — the person on the other end of the line may not necessarily be an expert in your field.

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. It allows us to provide you with all the information you need to decide whether Memo Bank is the right fit for you today, or if it is best to reconnect tomorrow.

Whoever speaks candidly in one sense, expects candor in return. Unsurprisingly, we expect you to be honest in your responses. The purpose of this stage is to assess whether you could see yourself in our way of working (remote work, asynchronous culture, cross-departmental collaboration) and our values (team spirit, humility, commitment to simplification). More pragmatically, the phone interview also allows us to discuss matters such as your availability, your level of spoken English, and whether your salary expectations align with our compensation structure.

Here’s what our phone screen stage looks like:

Here’s what you can expect if we call you:

• 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. This timeframe may vary depending on your availability and ours.
• 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? For 30 to 45 minutes, over the phone, after scheduling an appointment at a time that suits you.

If the call interview reinforces your interest in Memo Bank, and our interest in you, we will then send you a case study via email. The case study will have been prepared by a member of the team you could potentially join. Our aim is not to solicit free work, but to assess skills that could be useful to you on a daily basis. We treat our case studies as full-fledged ‘products,’ regularly evolving them, and your feedback will be welcomed.

The case study

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 stage allows us to gain an initial understanding of the breadth of your technical skills. Indirectly, the case study also allows us to continue forming an opinion on your motivation, communication skills, attention to detail, and logical thinking.
• How? At your own pace and in your own environment. We are generally quite open to the format of your submission. Completing a case takes 2 to 3 hours at most, and the case always includes a question in english — which requires an answer in english.

If your case study proves successful, you will receive an invitation to participate in a series of online interviews. Why don’t we organize interviews at our Parisian offices, at least for people who live in Paris? Because it’s possible that the individuals participating in your interviews may not live in Paris themselves.

Depending on the position you’re applying for, this stage may be divided into two parts (technical interview followed by regular interviews) or conducted in a single session (interview panel). If you’re targeting a role related to engineering, product, or design, you’ll first have a technical interview (45 minutes to 1 hour), which may be followed by regular interviews (1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes). For all other positions, you won’t have a technical interview per se, but you may have to answer some technical questions during your interview panel (2 hours 30 minutes). The total duration of the online interviews will be the same regardless of whether you have a technical interview or not.

The technical interview (4)

If the position you’re targeting is a technical one, we will invite you to undergo a technical interview before you proceed to your panel. This interview will allow you to demonstrate your technical and operational skills. This will also be an opportunity for you to have a first interaction with a member of your (potential) future team.

The technical interview should allow you to learn more about us, while we learn more about your talents. At the end of the interview, you will have about ten minutes to ask us any questions you may have about the position and the working environment at Memo Bank.

Process of the technical interview

What to expect at the technical interview stage:

• Who? One or two members of the team involved in your position.
• When? As soon as possible. As soon as we manage to find a time slot that suits everyone.
• Why? Determining if you have the technical and operational skills required for the position.
• How? For 45 minutes to 1 hour, via Google Meet (video conference).

The interview panel

If you pass your technical interview, or your case study (in the absence of a technical interview), then congratulations: you advance to the final stage of our recruitment process. This final stage is the interview panel. Our panel takes the form of a series of face-to-face meetings, each lasting 30 to 45 minutes, allowing you to meet (always via video conference) various members of our different teams.

At the end of each face-to-face, you have about ten minutes to ask your questions to your interlocutor. The panel will include the person who manages the team targeted by your position. You will also meet people with whom you may potentially work. All your one to one meetings will aim to determine if you could thrive at Memo Bank.

It is for us (as well as for you) to see if our vision of management, collaboration, and work aligns with ours. As for you, the panel allows you to form an opinion on our working methods and our team. If we do our job well at this crucial stage, the panel should allow you to dispel any remaining doubts you may have about us, leaving you with as few uncertainties as possible in the event of a positive outcome.

Process of the panel

In summary, here’s what you need to know about the panel:

• Who? 3 to 5 video interviews, including, among others: a manager and members of other teams than the one you could join;
• When? As soon as you are available.
• Why? To help you determine if you could see yourself here or not. You will meet people from several teams to put you in a situation close to what you might experience if you join us.
• How? If you had a technical interview, your panel will then last 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. And if you haven’t had a prior technical interview, we extend the duration of your panel to 2 hours 30 minutes, to allow you to meet more people.

A word about the right of veto

As we have a collective approach to recruitment, each member of the panel can decide to terminate the entire panel at any time. This method may seem cavalier, but we believe it helps to save both your time and ours. Whether or not you complete your panel, you will subsequently receive a call from our recruitment team to discuss your face-to-face meetings.

At the end of each panel, the individuals who participated in the various face-to-face meetings come together to deliberate. This is an opportunity for us to compare opinions on your application before deciding whether or not to make you an offer. During the deliberation, each member of the panel speaks, allowing our recruitment team to provide you with a comprehensive report afterward, whether our decision is positive or negative. And since our deliberation is also collective, it only takes one person to say no for the entire Memo Bank to say no — this approach allows us to avoid contested recruitments, which unfortunately too often lead to simmering conflicts.

Process of the deliberation

Here’s what our deliberation consists of:

• Who? All individuals involved in your recruitment.
• When? In the days following your panel of interviews.
• Why? Gathering everyone’s opinions to make a collective decision regarding your application.
• How? During a video conference attended by all individuals involved in the recruitment. The deliberation usually lasts 30 minutes.

If you still wish to join us at the end of your panel, and if we share your enthusiasm, we will then ask you for one final effort. You will need to provide us with the contact details of colleagues we could contact on your behalf before we make you a potential offer. We need at least two references, two people to contact, whom you can select from your past or current work relationships. We will send an email to the people of your choice, and they can provide us with their opinion on you, in writing or verbally.

Operation of reference checking

Here is a summary of our reference checking procedure:

• Who? The person in charge of your recruitment will send an email to the two or three people you have recommended to them.
• When? It all depends on the availability of the people you recommend we contact. Count on a week in the general case.
• Why? To have an external, relatively objective view of your past experiences. This step also allows the person who will be responsible for welcoming and training you at Memo Bank to better adapt their program.
• How? Over the phone, or in writing. We need at least two references.

If our reference checks confirm our desire to welcome you to Memo Bank, a member of our recruitment team will call you to make a job offer. You will receive an email shortly thereafter to have a written record of our offer. 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.

Our internal salary scale

The salary you can expect when joining us is indicated on our job offers — in the form of a range. If we provide a range, it’s not to leave room for negotiation, but rather to reflect the fact that your final salary will depend on your level of competence.

Our negotiating position

To put it bluntly: the answer is no. No one negotiates their salary before joining Memo Bank. We know that other companies operate differently in this respect, but we are committed to our pay scale. We have not found a better way to ensure equal pay for equal skills. 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. This promise commits us as much as it commits you. Once the letter of offer is signed by both parties, we will organize your employment contract and prepare for your arrival and onboarding.

Job offers process

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.

Now that you know we read all the letters we receive, check our open positions or send us a spontaneous application. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!