grayfox

... And this 'news release' from Compose.io is the business equivalent of a vulture feasting on the carcass of its own mother.

That is brutal, for conjecture.

A fledgling open-source DB winding up on an as-a-service provider can provide mutual benefit; the database gets users running their product on a stable, consistent platform and the provider can profit from the margins on the value-added deployments they provision.

Hardly 'a vulture feasting on the carcass of its own mother'...

Neat stuff.

Hopefully they can get neat API integrations going to tie into all the machine learning being applied to shop/chat interfaces.

Our Support Engineers and Technical Content Creators do real intensive technical work.

The role is not important at Compose. The system is built to best groom out 'core competencies'. A Support Engineer is a strong Ops/Systems Administrator with great communication and customer skills. A Technical Content Creator is a strong developer with excellent written communication skill.

Our Analytics is maintained, built, and improved by a 'Content Creator'. Our hiring, too, is ran by a 'Content Creator'. Similar folk contribute across the app, and apply skills in various areas.

It is a mature way to work. To get the best people, you need to offer competitive wages.

Oof, bummer. Your experience is slower than average. We ran into a grading crunch when we launched our Enterprise product. When you submit your work to us, your submission is anonymous. Three engineers grade each submission.

Platform Engineers will experience the greatest wait periods. The other roles tend to be quicker.

Expected time-frame:

* Proceed from application to work sample: 24 hours.

* Complete work sample: Up to the candidate. We build them to take 2-6 hours.

* Grade work sample: 1-4 weeks.

* Schedule work day: 1 week.

* Receive decision: 2-5 days.

Thanks for taking our time to try the process out, it is appreciated. The method is constantly under improvement.

EQ has proven to be of vital importance in growing healthy teams. There was that Google study: http://www.inc.com/robin-camarote/google-study-reveals-emoti...

The work-day would be where we assess EQ. It is difficult to stay objective and consistent when assessing soft-skills. It provides the risk that biases and could-be-wrong impressions dictate your hiring decisions.

Two things, in my eyes, have helped us find bright and 'good' people:

First, by using consistent criteria that are as specific (binary) as possible, we have been able to find people who are not just talented, but conscientious contributors.

Secondly, the way we write/pitch/communicate during the process sets the tone for both the people we want and the environment we want to create. If you go through an uncomfortable, even aggressive, hiring process, what would you expect from the environment and the people within that environment? We try for good-ness from word one.

Ah! Out of space in the main post. We are only able to hire those that can legally work within Canada, the US, or the UK.

Once hired, fully remote from anywhere.

Compose | Remote (Canada, US, UK)

What: Databases-as-a-service. We offer production grade, auto-scaling, automatically backed-up, add-on compatible MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, and more.

$: All roles start at 100k and scale up based on experience. MacBook Pro, pension match, health.

Hiring Process: Blind hiring! First, a light application. Second, all candidates who complete the application receive a work-sample resembling the work one would do in the role. No deadline. Final step is a paid work day ($500).

Compose has grown into a vibrant group where folks can feel comfortable being themselves, living a balanced life. We welcome you to enjoy comfort when taking risks, collaborate with spirited peers, and to unleash your creative and talented personality.

* Work from anywhere!

* Many neat conundrums to solve.

* Self-managing, distributed decision making. Choose your projects. We're deadline averse and quality focused.

* Hardly any meetings.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fizz: https://www.compose.io/articles/the-tool-we-built-to-help-us...

Roles:

* Platform Engineer / Application Developer

* Support Engineer

* Technical Content Creator ('Developer Advocacy' type of role)

To begin: https://compose.interviewed.com

That image from Julia Claven is excellent.

Compose (IBM) | REMOTE (US, UK, CA)

If you are looking to join a forward-thinking industry with a stable outlook (databases-as-a-service), we have a tremendous challenge for you and a terrific team willing and able to support you through it. Compose hosts production grade MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, etcd, RethinkDB and more to come.

The Compose family has grown into a vibrant group where folks can feel comfortable being themselves, living a balanced life. We welcome you to enjoy comfort when taking risks, collaborate with spirited peers, and to unleash your creative personality. Some great things about Compose:

* Work from anywhere! (As long as you're legally able to work in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom).

* Many neat conundrums to solve.

* Self-managing, distributed decision making. Choose your projects. We're deadline averse and quality focused.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fantastic salary and benefits - MacBook Pro.

* Join a thriving and respectful international team.

* Fizz: https://www.compose.io/articles/the-tool-we-built-to-help-us...

* Fair and objective 'blind-hiring'.

Our hiring process is nifty. We request a work-sample upfront that closely resembles the work you'd be doing within your role.

Once you submit, your answers are anonymized then graded by 3 different people following pre-defined criteria. We want to know, objectively, who is going to both enjoy and crush the work. We have several positions open for candidates:

* Now hiring Team Anchors: If you have deep knowledge within MongoDB, Elasticsearch, RethinkDB, or RabbitMQ, we would like you to be the nucleus of one of our DB teams. We want you to help ensure our individual DB offerings stay excellent.

For the full postings checkout https://compose.io/jobs or email jobs+hn@compose.io if you'd like to have a chat with us to see what we're all about.

Compose (IBM) | REMOTE (US, UK, CA)

If you're looking to join a forward-thinking industry with a stable outlook (databases-as-a-service), we have a tremendous challenge for you and a terrific team willing and able to support you through it.

The Compose family has grown into a vibrant group where folks can feel comfortable being themselves, living a balanced life. We welcome you to enjoy comfort when taking risks, collaborate with spirited peers, and to unleash your creative personality.

Some great things about Compose:

* Work from anywhere! (As long as you're legally able to work in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom).

* Many neat conundrums to solve.

* Self-managing, distributed decision making. Choose your projects. We're deadline averse and quality focused.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fantastic salary and benefits - MacBook Pro.

* Join a thriving, respectful and family-like international team.

* Fizz: https://www.compose.io/articles/the-tool-we-built-to-help-us...

* Fair and objective 'blind-hiring'.

Our hiring process is nifty. We request a work-sample upfront that closely resembles the work you'd be doing within your role. Once you submit, your answers are anonymized then graded by 3 different people following pre-defined criteria.

We want to know, objectively, who is going to both enjoy and crush the work. We have several positions open for candidates:

* Platform Engineer

* Support Engineer

* Technical Content Creator ('Developer Advocacy' type of role)

* More!

For the full postings checkout https://compose.io/jobs or email jobs+hn@compose.io if you'd like to have a chat with us to see what we're all about.

Currently residing within Vancouver.

We love it here, but we have accepted that it is not where we will be able to put roots down.

My partner and I work remotely, we'll enjoy our time here then buy a home elsewhere...

Like maybe Hawaii. :)

Compose (IBM) | REMOTE (US, UK, CA)

Developing software appeals to those who love to solve puzzles and apply their brain power -- and also to those, in our experience, who like working from home in their pyjamas. If you're looking to join a forward-thinking industry with a stable outlook (databases-as-a-service), we have a tremendous challenge for you and a terrific team willing and able to support you through it.

Here are a few things that's great about our team:

* Work from anywhere! As long as you're legally able to work in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom.

* Self-managing, open culture. Choose your projects. We're deadline averse and quality focused.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fantastic salary and benefits - MacBook Pro.

* Join a thriving, respectful and family-like international team.

* Fair and objective hiring. Participate in 'blind-hiring'.

Our hiring process is nifty. We request a work-sample upfront that closely resembles the work you'd be doing within your role. Once you submit, your answers are anonymized then graded by 3 different people following pre-defined criteria.

We want to know, objectively, who is going to both enjoy and crush the work. We have three positions open for candidates:

* Platform Engineer (More back-end)

* Application Developer (More front-end)

* Technical Content Creator ('Developer Advocacy' type of role)

For the full postings checkout https://compose.io/jobs or email jobs+hn@compose.io with a quick tale about a database you loved, or didn't love and which role intrigues you.

If you have any questions, we'll gladly answer whatever you'd like. Everyone gets a personal response and a fair, respectful 'go' at the process.

Fighting was the only thing... the only thing I was good at.

(That made my day, stranger, thank you).

It's a an experiment, and like all experiments we're still waiting for the data to come back.

That, my friend, is the long and short of it.

Lookin' for a job? Got a work-sample you could try out... :)

We've had no issues attracting excellent and talented people. Most of them would be considered "senior".

You might be interested to hear that Juniors are the group most likely to be deterred by the sample. The (great) majority of candidates have backgrounds and capabilities up to or exceeding what we're asking them to do. We actually get very few under-qualified applicants.

The process appeals to people who appreciate a fair and objective approach to hiring as it demonstrates how we value those traits. We "set the tone" early by giving everyone an open and honest shake at proving their abilities, without the awkwardness of dealing with a biased human filter.

I don't agree with the premise of your salary comparison.

The process is willing to pass on candidates and wish them well if they aren't willing to take a test -- again, if it would be so "beneath" their skill and experience, that's a spooky indicator of attitude.

I'm glad you brought up the other side of things.

If you were an applicant of such impressive, world renowned stature the answer would be: yes, (sir), you still need to go through the regular hiring process.

It isn't an arbitrary request, like building a JavaScript calculator. The samples we ask that you complete closely resemble the type of work you'd do in the role.

When hiring engineers for example, we take a piece of our application, take a chunk out, then ask you to complete it.

If you're a major talent, it's maybe 2-3 hours of work.

If you were to circumvent this, or feel you "shouldn't have to do this", what message does that send to the rest of the team?

We're a remote, self-managing, and loosely structured group - would it be wise to suggest that you are to be treated differently than the rest of us?

It sends a poor message and reflects on the (entitled) attitude of the candidate.

Team work makes the dream work.

We were acquired by IBM last year. As we adjust to their HR systems, we have to limit our hiring range.

Each region needs to have a "proxy" manager to take care of the employees within that region. As we had Canadians and folks from London with us at the time of the acquisition, we were set-up respectively.

We hired an excellent engineer out of Germany before we were clear on the processes, and it's added a significant amount of time to getting him into the the swing of things.

To avoid this discomfort, we're narrowing the region.

Hopefully, this is something that will ease in the future - it stings every time we have to turn away someone potentially brilliant from places like Brazil or Israel.

For your edit: The former is correct. Anyone with the right to work in/through the UK. You can work _from_ anywhere you'd like! I prefer at home in my jammies.

Indeed!

Also, I believe I've been ousted as a Canadian.

... Fixed this... :)

You're correct! We recently moved out of the San Mateo office (sad) but still have space within San Fransisco.

We need to update the map...

Thanks for pointing that out.

A dude from Compose here, I'm currently helping out with hiring.

If you'd like to know more about the process described in the article, we've recently blogged about it:

https://www.compose.io/articles/compose-hiring-scaling-to-10...

We have a bunch of postings up right now for those of you who are looking to give something like this a try (you may have seen us looking in the latest Who's Hiring):

https://compose.io/jobs

If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer.

Oddly, if you Google the article name, then click the first link, you can (temporarily) circumvent that pay wall.

Compose (IBM) | REMOTE (US, UK, CA)

Developing software appeals to those who love to solve puzzles and apply their brain power -- and also to those, in our experience, who like working from home in their pyjamas.

If you're looking to join an exciting industry (databases-as-a-service), we have a tremendous challenge for you and a terrific team willing and able to support you through it.

For those that have coding experience but might be looking to try something new, we have a "Technical Content Creator" position - blog about, speak about, and mentor our community about different databases and programming languages.

Here are a few things that's great about our team:

* Work from anywhere! As long as you're legally able to work in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom.

* Self-managing, open culture.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fantastic salary and benefits.

* Join a thriving, respectful and family-like team.

* Fair and objective hiring.

Our hiring process is nifty. We request a work-sample upfront that closely resembles the work you'd be doing within your role. Once you submit, your answers are anonymized then graded by 3 different people following pre-defined criteria. We want to know, objectively, who is going to both enjoy and crush the work. We have three positions open for candidates:

* Platform Engineer (More back-end)

* Application Developer (More front-end)

* Technical Content Creator ('Developer Advocacy' type of role)

For the full postings checkout https://compose.io/jobs or email jobs+hn@compose.io with a quick tale about a database you loved, or didn't love.

If you have any questions, we'll gladly answer whatever you'd like. Everyone gets a personal response and a fair, respectful 'go' at the process.

Compose (IBM) | REMOTE (US, UK, CA)

Developing software appeals to those who love to solve puzzles and apply their brain power -- and also to those, in our experience, who like working from home in their pyjamas. It is often said that one of the trickiest accomplishments in the development world is imagining, building and maintaining a complex and interconnected mental model of your entire infrastructure within your working memory. If you have experience applying this mental feat within some type of Software-as-a-Service, we have a tremendous challenge for you and a terrific team willing and able to support you through it.

* Work from anywhere! As long as you're legally able to work in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom.

* Completely flat, open culture.

* Ruby/Go.

* Fantastic salary and benefits.

Our hiring process is nifty. We request a work-sample upfront that closely resembles the work you'd be doing within your role. Once you submit, your answers are anonymized then graded using criteria by 3 different people.

We have two engineering positions open for candidates:

* Platform Engineer

* Business Systems Developer

For the full postings checkout https://compose.io/jobs or email jobs@compose.io with a quick tale about time with a database you loved, or didn't love.

This is ludacris. Where is this currently being applied, if anywhere in the general wild?

Ah, phew. Let's start polluting again and de-vest in clean energies.

As someone who recently jumped from Lastpass to 1Password... I wish them the best, but I feel I'm working with the far superior product. Especially on iOS + OS x.

Hey, _prometheus!

What's an email I can reach you at? I'd like to pick your brain about some of this stuff and how it relates to databases.

Cheers!

Which University dropped out of Coursera, out of curiosity?

Neat!

She just signed up.

Thank you friend, she is a winner.

If you meet Alicia, say hello!

Hey guys!

Cool idea.

Sounds like a great fit for my partner.

Do you work with remote workers, non-US citizens?