Insights: FAQ about our recruiting process
People often ask us about our interview process for hiring new employees: Whether they are considering applying or are simply curious about how we do it. We have invested a lot of time and effort into providing a valuable experience for our candidates, so we’re always happy to talk about what works for us. To shed light on a process that we think is an important part of our company’s culture, we’ve created this blog post about interviewing at OpenProject.
Remarque
About the author: Hi, I’m Giuseppe Leone, and together with Dorothee Steiner, we are the People and Organization Managers at OpenProject, leading the hiring process for our team.
Adding new people to the team
During initial conversations, candidates often want to learn more about our interview process. Our goal is to be fully transparent about the individual steps, what they look like in detail, and how much time they will take. Our company is founded on shared values, and we look for people who adhere to these basic tenets. To ensure that candidates fit in with our company’s general mindset, we let our values inform every step of the interviewing process.
Job interviews at OpenProject: An overview
The interview cycle at OpenProject consists of two preliminary interviews and three consecutive steps.
Initial interviews
The initial conversation serves as a preliminary step. Over the course of 45 minutes, the candidate talks to a member of the HR team. This first interview is a chance for both parties to learn more about each other. The candidate can ask questions about the position and the general conditions. From our side, we try to get a feel for the candidate’s qualifications and motivations.
In the second preliminary interview, the candidate talks to the hiring manager, typically the lead of the team that the candidate would join. During this interview, we’ll ask more detailed questions about the candidate’s experience. This is also an opportunity for the candidate to ask specific questions about the role and the team. If both sides agree to move forward, the official process starts.
Step 1: Practical challenge
For the practical challenge, the candidate works on a real-world task close to their prospective position. Usually, this will be a coding challenge, or, for non-technical positions like HR or Finance, a case study. It’s both an opportunity for the candidate to understand more about the work at OpenProject, and for our team to have a more concrete demonstration of their hard skills. The candidate is usually expected to spend 3–4 hours on the task. We prefer this setup to a live-coding challenge, because those tend to be too nerve-racking for most people. The deadlines and pace of the process are usually set mutually, respecting the candidate’s availability and individual schedules.
Step 2: In-depth interview
After the candidate has completed the challenge, we meet again to talk about their approach and their solution. The purpose of the interview is to see how the applicant can solve a problem. We’ll encourage them to talk us through the process and will ask lots of questions. This reflects our day-to-day work, where communication is key.
Step 3: Cultural fit interview
To conclude the hiring process, we conduct a cultural fit interview. The idea here is to understand if the candidate’s ideas and working preferences fit in with the environment and values at OpenProject.
Deep Dive: What are the cultural fit interviews all about?
Anyone from our team can volunteer to conduct a cultural fit interview — in fact, we try to introduce the candidates to members of as many different teams as possible. That’s because at OpenProject, communication is important not just within one team, but also across different teams. We’re also more than happy to answer all the candidate’s questions. While we encourage and appreciate questions at every step of the process, the cultural fit interviews are where we expect the candidate to ask us about anything they like — so that they too can feel confident that they’re making the right decision.
Why are there so many steps in the hiring process?
Every company is different and reflects the personalities and thinking styles of its employees. At OpenProject, our company culture is strongly shaped by our enthusiasm for open-source project management. It reflects our deep commitment to teamwork, communication, and seeing the bigger picture. But there are also practical considerations: We’re remote-first and our interview process serves to find employees who don’t just match our vision, but also share our mindset. That’s why we try to include as many people as possible in the interviewing process.
We are constantly aiming to improve our interview process and make it a better experience for candidates, so we welcome constructive feedback. We value the time and effort candidates invest in the process, which is why we don’t make it any longer than necessary. For some roles, we are able to make exceptions and skip or adapt the initial steps. We’re also flexible — we offer the take-home task to lower the pressure, but if you prefer to do a live coding session instead, or to talk about your own GitHub repository, we’re open to that. After all, it’s not necessarily the code itself that interests us (if you are applying for a developer position), but rather how you approach a problem.
How can I prepare for a job interview at OpenProject?
Suppose you’ve applied to OpenProject, and we’ve invited you for your first interview. What can you do to feel fully prepared?
It may sound obvious, but as the company behind the open-source project management software, we expect applicants for technical roles to familiarize themselves with it before interviewing. If you’re applying for a non-technical position, getting acquainted with a project management framework can seem a bit more challenging. However, we encourage you to try to get a broad understanding of the role of modern project management software in general and the OpenProject framework in particular — and why we are so excited about it. A great place to start is our website, where we offer lots of high-level explanations of the concepts that are central to OpenProject.
For the practical challenge, we expect you to be able to talk about your solution. Be confident in what you’ve made and guide us through it — we’re excited to see your solutions and want to know all about the thought process behind them. Finally, for the cultural fit interviews, our main advice is to be yourself and think beforehand about what you want to know about us.
What happens after the job interview?
After the final round of interviews, we make sure to contact candidates after a few days, to let them know whether we want them to join our team. If the candidate is approved, we will schedule a call to explain the job offer and discuss next steps. After the offer is accepted and documents are signed, the onboarding process starts.
Join OpenProject!
If what you’ve read so far sounds good to you, and you feel like joining our crew of project management enthusiasts and team players, take a look at our open positions. Want to learn more about OpenProject first? Check out our GitHub repository or join our Community.
