Hiring

Values and practices

  1. We want our hiring process to access all potential qualified candidates.
    • We proactively promote our open positions to many different groups, communities, and networks.
    • If we believe there is a talented set of individuals who are not applying to our team, we will initiate outbound efforts to reach them. We believe there is value in reaching out to candidates who are not directly connected to the social graph of our team today.
  2. We want our hiring process to be fair to all candidates.
    • We recognize that the way a job description is written can plan a key role in promoting positive Diversity & Inclusion efforts. In fact, countless studies have shown that certain demographics are less likely than others to apply if they don’t meet 100% of the outlined qualifications. Because of this, our job descriptions focus on the impact a candidate will make in the role versus a long list of requirements that have historically impeded underrepresented candidates from applying, resulting in a larger and more diverse candidate pool.
    • We ask a consistent set of questions to each candidate so that we can objectively measure performance across candidates.
    • We leverage BrightHire to record our interviews, ensuring there is an objective record of the interview that can be referenced when making a hiring decision.
    • All interviewers submit written feedback independently before being able to see feedback from other interviewers. Feedback may not be edited after submission.
    • We maintain a consistent hiring decision process for all candidates.
  3. Hiring managers own the hiring process for their team.
    • Hiring managers are encouraged to partner with their assigned recruiter to experiment to learn how to improve their hiring process.
    • The handbook is kept up-to-date with our learnings and current norms. If something is missing from the Handbook, please Slack @hiring.

How recruiting interfaces with hiring managers

For any members of a hiring team, please see this page for a breakdown of each step in the hiring process.

Recruiting tools

  • We use Greenhouse as our applicant tracking system. Please see this guide to using Greenhouse. (in progress)
  • We utilize LinkedIn Recruiter and TopFunnel as our sourcing platforms. Hiring managers will be a assigned a hiring manager seat on the platform. For details on hiring manager seat capabilities, click here.
  • We use BrightHire to record our interviews. Learn more about BrightHire here.
  • We use Ashby as a metrics tool.
  • We use Talentwall for candidate pipeline management.

Using external recruiting agencies

  • Q: Who is allowed to engage with external recruiting agencies?
    • A: Any hiring managers that need additional support to fullfill hiring needs can leverage an external agency. Please contact @hiring or recruiting@sourcegraph.com to make a request.
  • Q: Is it not allowed if we have an internal recruiter for the team?
    • A: This should be reviewed on a case by case basis to see what is the required candidate pipeline to meet the team’s hiring goals. If internal recruiter(s) are not enough to meet the needs of the team then hiring manager can seek external help.
  • Q: How do we engage with a new agency?
    • A: To engage with a new agency, please Slack @hiring with your request, including 1) the agency name/contact information and 2) the roles that you would like the agency to work on.
    • As a next step, the VP of Talent will send and sign all agency agreemnts.
    • All agencies sign our standard agreement.
    • Our standard agency fee is 20%.
  • Q: How do agencies submit candidates?
    • A: The talent team will set each agency up with a Greenhouse account. All agencies must submit candidates via Greenhouse. Please contact @hiring or recruiting@sourcegraph.com to get an agency added to Greenhouse.

The folder to store agency contracts can be found here

Open positions

The source-of-truth for our open positions is our careers page. For job boards that we post to and are considering, click here

Job descriptions

Each job description focuses on the impact a candidate will make vs. a list of requirements. Our team contains highly motivated and productive members who’ve joined immediately after high school/university or after 10+ years of working at some of the best companies. You can read more about our job description philosophy here.

We want a diverse, global team, with a broad range of experience and perspectives. If a job sounds great, but you’re not sure if you qualify, apply anyway! We carefully consider every application, and will either move forward with you, find another team that might be a better fit, keep in touch for future opportunities, or thank you for your time.

To create a job description, please leverage this template.

Making a referral

Current employees can refer a candidate in Greenhouse here. There is no need for your referral to apply through our careers page once you have referred them in Greenhouse.

Sharing interview feedback

We don’t share specific reasons or feedback if we decide not to move forward in our hiring process with a candidate. It would be nice if we could give feedback like this, but we don’t do this today. Why?

  • The written feedback that we collect during our interview process is intended for an internal audience. We don’t ask our interviewers to spend time and effort packaging their feedback in a way that can be delivered directly to candidates.
  • Adequately summarizing all interview feedback for a candidate is challenging and time consuming. We choose to spend our time focusing on delivering developmental feedback to our existing teammates.

If any interviewer is asked by a candidate for interview feedback, they may respond with the following message:

I understand the desire to receive feedback from our interview process, but unfortunately we are not in a position to give it. Here is some public documentation to that effect: ./index.md#sharing-interview-feedback.

Respecting time

Interviewing requires time and effort, both for us and for candidates. The hiring manager is responsible for monitoring feedback during the interview phase, and if it becomes obvious that we won’t be moving forward with a candidate, then the hiring manager should cancel any remaining interviews to be respectful of both the candidate’s and interviewers’ time.

Sharing company financials

Choosing to join a company is a significant commitment. We want people to have an accurate view of Sourcegraph’s financial and business position before they join. (Every Sourcegraph team member after they join has regular access to this information on our Google Drive, and they can ask the CEO directly if they have any other questions.)

Hiring managers: If you’re asked a question like this and you aren’t 100% confident about the answer, please pass the question to the VP Talent and VP Operations.

  1. What is the company’s latest valuation? (We share this when we give you the offer.)
  2. What percentage of the company does my option grant represent? (We share this when we give you the offer.)
  3. What is the total number of fully diluted shares? (You can calculate this from the number of options in your grant and the percentage that represents, but we’re also happy to share this number.)
  4. Other details about options. (These are covered in the employment paperwork you will receive.)

Here are some other questions that candidates have asked (e.g., in the CEO interview):

  1. What is the current runway and the monthly burn rate?
  2. How much cash does the company have in the bank?
  3. Other questions about Sourcegraph’s internal financial metrics.

Reference checks

Reference checks.

Making an offer

Once the decision is made to extend an offer to a candidate, the following process is followed:

  1. The recruiter confirms the offer details with the hiring manager (compensation, equity, level) and submits the offer for approval in Greenhouse.
    • Offer approval chain: VP, Talent > Hiring Manager > Department Head > VP, Operations.
  2. Once the offer is approved in Greenhouse, the recruiter schedules an offer summary call (attendees: a member of the Talent team, the hiring manager, and the candidate) to walk through the offer details.
  3. Immediately following the offer summary call, the recruiter sends the offer summary via email for the candidate to review.
  4. In addition, the VP, Talent generates and sends the official offer via DocuSign to the candidate for signature.
  5. Once the candidate signs the offer letter, the talent team sends a welcome email and Cc’s HR (for onboarding) and the hiring manager.
  6. HR then begins the onboarding process and provides details to set the candidate up for success on their first day!

Policy on outreaching to prospective candidates that work at a Sourcegraph customer

It is okay to reach out to these prospective candidates. Do not mention their current employer or team being a customer of ours in the outreach. We should always be targeted in the people we outreach to because of their skills and experience. We should not be using our customer vendor relationship as a way to outreach to our customer’s employees.

Policy for candidates re-applying to roles

Candidates are able to re-apply for roles at any time. The hiring team will review all relevant information, including past interviews, when considering a person’s candidacy.