At Cro Metrics, everyone we hire goes through our Paid Interview (or “PI” for short) process. Hiring for, and accepting a position is a major decision for both sides. It’s a terrible feeling to accept a job only to discover the work or the company is not what you expected. It’s also challenging and unfair to our clients, team, and the person being hired if it ends up not being a good fit. We decided by having folks climb aboard our ship and sail the high seas with us, they’ll get a better feel for how we work with our clients and one another, along with learning about our culture.
How does it work?
As the name implies, we value your time and therefore believe you should be compensated. We would never expect our clients to ask us to work for free, so why expect others to? Our PI is a 1099 position paid at a fair rate for your time. While you typically won’t be doing much client-specific work during the PI, it’s important for you to feel the time spent is worthwhile.
The process begins by giving you access to our environment: Slack, email, calendars, etc., and assigning you what we lovingly refer to as a “Cromrade.” Cromrades are members of our team who serve as guides throughout your time with us and are available to answer questions and help you along.
The Phases
Each position has its own process and cadence. Some positions are contract-to-hire, whereas other PIs take about 6 hours per week over 2 weeks. (It’s designed to “go at your own pace” so nights and weekends are okay!) We set the bar high for our team, so not everyone who begins a PI will complete the entire process. Much like the experiments we run for clients, we appreciate velocity and will disqualify people if it’s clear they lack the skills required for the position they are interviewing for. This may feel a bit brusque, and we acknowledge that. However, it’s not in either party’s interest to continue on the false hope there’s an offer waiting on the other side. We employ rigorous, balanced evaluation criteria and strive to be as objective and fair as possible. We’ve also optimized the process over many, many iterations to make expectations clear and concise, but always encourage feedback in an effort to improve!
Phase 1 for most positions is generally completed in the first week of the PI. We ask you to complete a series of deliverables that provide insight into how you approach situations that may occur during the day-to-day at Cro Metrics for the position you’ve applied for. We also want to get to know you, so we hope you’ll participate in Slack and join in the fun culture we’ve built! Lastly, we encourage everyone to attend our bi-weekly team call to see firsthand how we interact and the topics we discuss.
Phase 2 is typically a series of short meetings with various team members. You’ll then review your final assignment with a manager along with conducting a dry-run of a presentation to be delivered in a group call.
The Homestretch
Depending on the position you’re interviewing for, the final call might be a blend of a presentation and group interview, or even a simulated client call where our hiring team will don their best client personas while you run a status meeting. The objective is to gauge your command of the materials, critical thinking skills, and situational awareness. The presentation or status call is followed by 15 minutes of Q&A where the team will ask follow-up questions to help drive home a decision. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions of us.
Because the process takes two weeks, we try to not belabor our decision after the final group call. Typically we’ll provide a decision quickly unless there are extenuating circumstances we need to consider.
Ready to get started? Take a look at our open positions.