 All right, well welcome everyone. I know many people have said it already, but thanks so much for joining us today at our first ever GitLab Open House. I'm super excited to be here today with my colleague, Katarina. My name is Ryan Demmer. I work in our talent acquisition team for GitLab. I'm a recruiter here. I recruit on a lot of different technical positions across lots of different teams here at GitLab. I'm based here in San Antonio, Texas. So if there's anyone in Texas out there, feel free to give me a thumbs up or a plus one in the chat. We'll be watching for you all out there. I've been with GitLab about seven months now, going on eight months. Some people call me a veteran. Some people call me a newbie, but I'm still learning and we're iterating a lot. But again, welcome to us. I said I'm here in San Antonio. This is my home office. Like Darren said, if any of you saw Darren's presentation, sometimes you'll find me on my back porch or my dining room table. Sometimes one of my dogs comes in and says hello. That's just kind of the GitLab way of doing things. So welcome to our presentation about learning about how to conduct and how to be efficient and do well on a remote interview. So before we get started though, I'd like to push it over to Katarina and let her introduce herself. Thank you, Ryan. So I'm Katarina. I'm not based in the US. I'm based in Portugal, a little bit far away. I don't know if we have anyone from Portugal, probably not, but if yes, please put a plus one on the chat, we'd love to know. I'm based out of Lisbon specifically. I've been with GitLab for a year and a half, a little bit more than that. So if Ryan is a veteran, I have no idea what I am. Haven't thought about that, should probably. So as he said, we're here today to explore a little bit around some tips and tricks about remote interviewing. So, Ryan, let's kick off. All right, sounds good. And during the conversation, if you have questions, by all means, add them in the chat or you can add them to the Google doc as well, and we'll be answering those at the end. So we are gonna try to have some questions and answer time at the end. So a little bit about GitLab. So we're over 1,300 team members globally distributed in over 65 countries around the world. So just think about that. I worked in an organization previously that was like 60,000 employees and we were all US based. So it's really cool to be able to work on such a diverse team with team members from everywhere around the world. I feel like Catery and I are really good friends, even though we're a long ways apart around the world. We have over 100,000 organizations that co-create with us, as well as we've had over 3,000 code contributors to GitLab. So if you don't know, we are an open source project and anyone can contribute. So that's a little bit about GitLab. So before we get started, let me give you a little bit kind of rundown of what we'd like to talk about today. So we're gonna talk about how to prepare for the interview. So before you get online, everything that you need to do to get ready, we're gonna talk about during the interview, which is super important, how to conduct yourself. And then kind of after you get off or during your research, how do you assess a remote company and understanding if that's gonna be the right fit for you and what you're looking for in an organization. So here we go. So before the interview, you've gotta prepare. If you look at GitLab, we have, I think Darren said over 7,000 pages in our handbook now. There's lots and lots of resources to go take a look. We have our values out there. We have documentation about the team you're interviewing. Do all of that research, spend the time ahead of time to understand the company that you're gonna be interviewing with. It will go a long ways. That might be one of the first questions that's asked when you get on an interview. So what do you know about the company? I start a lot of my conversations with that as well. But if it's not GitLab, many companies have different resources that you can tap into prior to the interview. So some highlights, talking about the values of the company, like I mentioned, the team, anything that you can get your hands on, do that. We have lots of, there's lots of YouTube channels there. Lots of companies have those. Go take a look at the YouTube channel to see what the company's all about. But in addition to that, after you've kind of done your research about the company, check your technology. This is something that we're all getting used to around the world, GitLab. We've been doing this since almost our inception, but it's new to many people. We use a suite of technology, mainly Zoom for synchronous communication, but there's lots of other technology that companies are using out there. My wife, she uses Microsoft Teams for her company. G Suite, so Google Meets, Skype. There's lots of options. So make sure that before you get to the interview, you've downloaded whatever software that you need. You've tested it maybe with a friend. You can even have somebody log in from your own household just to make sure everything's working ahead of time before you click to get onto that interview so that you can be prepared and you're not scrambling and might throw you off or anything like that. But in addition to the software, make sure that your hardware is ready to go. So I always recommend some sort of headphone device. So I use these, these are just like, these are the Apple AirPods, Catarina. You can see she has like just the plug-in type. There's lots of other options though, as you can see, you can use your like big ear headphones. There's lots of earbud type. But what that does is that you get a good connection in your ear as well as most of those things have some sort of microphone to help with the sound. That's gonna be a lot better. It's funny I'm actually saying that because right before we went on stage, I tested, we were testing our technology and everybody was telling me I sounded horrible. So we had to like disconnect and reconnect and guess what? It worked fine. And this was like three minutes before we came on stage today. So it's really important to get this stuff right. In addition to some sort of headphones, I'd recommend some sort of camera that you are going to be on video. So whether it's an external webcam pictured here, if you use the webcam that's on your laptop, that's fine. I've had tons of people do it on their cell phones or iPads, other mobile devices. But the most important thing is just to make sure it's all working properly before you get to the interview. So everything's good and it's not a distraction and you can just spend your time talking to the person you're interviewing with and working with them. So you got, you prepared about the company you got your technology and now you got to think about the environment that you're in. So it's important that you're going to optimize your lighting. So this isn't something that you would normally think about but in a all remote interview or a virtual interview, this is something that's extremely important. So you could see a couple of things here that kind of maybe not the best lighting. So maybe having the laptop on the table where you're looking down at it. So it's kind of a weird angle. If you have some backlighting, you can see in the photo there that your face is gonna be really dark. If you have lighting on the side, it's gonna have quite a few shadows. The best way to do it is to have the lighting in front of you. So if you're sitting at the window, you want the window in front of you so that the light casts onto your face so that you can have a nice clear picture if you're able to elevate the laptop or elevate the camera so it's looking straight on with you. That's something that's really important too. Me personally, I'd never worked remote before so we actually put some extra lighting in this room because I knew I was gonna be on camera all day, every day but just for an interview, don't go put in lighting in your house. Maybe you can just use a lamp or a window, something like that to optimize that. And then once you got everything ready, just be relaxed, create an environment where you are ready to be yourself and where you can just relax and just be just almost like it's in a face-to-face interview except that you're using a computer screen. It's gonna be a little bit awkward if you haven't done it before but once you get used to it, it's gonna feel a lot better. No one knows you better than you. You might have to give yourself a little pep talk ahead of time but look yourself in the mirror, be yourself. We want you to perform your best so that we can evaluate you and your skills. And then lastly, when it comes to preparation prior to the interview, make a plan and pace yourself. So be cognizant of time. Many times on virtual interviews, there is a limited time. So you might have 30 or 45 minutes maximum to get everything in that that recruiter or that hiring manager needs to talk to you about. So be mindful of how you're talking, be concise, making sure you're not going too far off tangent to bring the conversation back to relevant information. Also prioritize what you want to highlight. So be prepared when a recruiter or someone asks you to tell me a little bit about yourself. Be prepared to maybe like a two minute elevator speech, if you will, to be ready for that. And then also block some time a little ahead of time, a little bit afterwards in your personal schedule so that if time does go over, you have that time and you don't have to rush out. Or if you are taking a break from work at home or there's a commute back to work or whatever the case, make sure you have the time ample so that you can focus and be ready for the interviewer and just being able to be yourself. So that's how you get ready for the interview. Next, I'm gonna let Katarina talk about what you actually do during the interview. Thank you, Ryan. So now that Ryan touched a little bit on how to prepare before an actual interview, I will share some tricks to have in mind during an actual remote interview. So bear with us, Ryan is gonna be literally my right hand passing on the slides. So bear with us if we are not able to do it perfectly but we'll do our best. You will probably realize that many of the advices and tips that we will give you throughout the presentation can easily apply to the traditional face-to-face interview. So you're probably already thumblerized with this tip so it's gonna make things way easier. So some of the key tips in our opinion are maintaining eye contact with the interviewer by, for example, not forgetting to look into the camera. Keep your intonation and body language positive. You can see that throughout a video call as if you were in a room physically. You also need to keep calm if things go wrong. Sometimes technology is not in our sight, can play some tricks and you can encounter problems in a remote interview. If you keep calm, this will demonstrate that you know how to deal with challenging situations. So that you are adaptable as well. Be on time even though your remote is just as unprofessional to keep an interviewer waiting in a remote interview. And put a plus one in the chat if you're like me. I don't know about you, Ryan, but I have always. 1000 tabs open. Actually I did really well today. I closed them all was a challenge for me. But when you're in a remote interview, just have your notes there or some kind of document that you would need to go to. And even though it's better to be 100% focused on the window that you're gonna do the video call. Next one, another important aspect is having talking points to your interview. Because one, it shows that you are prepared for the interview and we talk about a lot during Ryan's presentation about preparation. Relates your experience and knowledge to the job description and the team you're aiming to join. And if you're nervous, it can be easy to talk over the interview. So this actually makes you slow down to have things prepared beforehand. Next one. So although forget lab and we heard on Darren's presentation and throughout Ryan's as well. Remote was always and has always been a part of our culture. We are all aware that this setup is new for many people and for many organizations. It was kind of forced by the pandemic we're living at the moment. But the truth is companies and people are kind of in a need to adapt to remote. For that reason, it's very important for you as a candidate to be able to assess a remote company. So first question you can ask is about onboarding as it is crucial for joining a new organization. So you can ask how it's the onboarding process, the timeline, if you're gonna have someone to help you throughout the process, like an onboarding buddy, like we call it here at GitLab. Will you also have access to any training and any learning materials? So for example, here at GitLab, the onboarding, it's very complete in my opinion. We have tasks for the managers. We have tasks for IT, for the body, for the people operations team, even before the person starts, that way they'll have access to all the tools, all the systems and all the information they would need to get started. Then it's roughly divided through the week by different tasks to complete. You'll have like a checkbox and you'll also have an onboarding specific to the team you're joining. So roughly the whole onboarding process is about three, four weeks and we highly encourage people to take time to do it. So this can be very different in another company. I wanted to share a little bit what we do here at GitLab, but it's very important in our opinion to ask about this. Next one. So the second question you should ask is how will I communicate fully remote? So be sure to ask what kind of tools will be provided for you to work in that fully remote company. At GitLab, for example, we heavily rely in async versus sync communication. So we use tools like Google Locks to type what is discussed in every meeting and we actually are doing this live in the Google Lock that we shared with everyone to add the questions that they have regarding the sessions, regarding the presentations and so on. We also use Slack for any major announcements, any major shareings we want to do with the company because we keep in mind that we have people that are based in different time zones. So that way they can see those announcements, those shareings asynchronously. And we rely heavily in our handbook for any updates that we do in our processes and in our procedures. So the third question should also be around the benefits provided. So will I be able to expensify my office equipment, for example, since I'm not going to a traditional in-person office, will I be able to expensify if I want to buy a desk, if I want to buy an ergonomic chair, for example? How does it work, the time off? Since, for example, I'm in Portugal and I know that it's normally mandatory to have 25 days per year. So it's gonna be different if I'm based in a different country. What about the salary? Will I be paid accordingly with the country that I'm based? Will the cost of living be taking into consideration? Other benefits. I know these days, technical companies use a lot stock option as a benefit. Do I understand how stock options work? It's better to ask. Working hours, I'll probably have team members that are based in a different time zone than I am. So will I be able to communicate with them? Will I need to cover those times zones as well? You need to ask these questions. Since I'm remote, can I work from whatever I want? And what about if I want to move? Can I move easily without any consequences? These are all important questions for you to do and it can differ from company to company. Finally, in our opinion, it's also key to ask about your employment type. Am I going to be a full-time employee or have a contractor agreement? So since remote companies hire people all over the world, maybe they need to have a few different setups to hire them, right? That would be my thought. So it's important to understand the specifics of being a full-time. Employee or being a contractor, for example, in each location because it's different from what it's like to be a contractor in Portugal than what it's to be a contractor in the US, for example. Will I be hired by the company I'm being hired for or are they using a third party to be able to employ me? As companies can have different ways of employment, full-time contractor agreements, another way could be being hired through a third-party company. So a professional employment organization as we occur here at Github as well. And will my benefits change according with my type of countries of contracts? Any country or many countries may have specific benefits that are mandatory by law, for example. So it's important to kind of understand if that will make any kind of implication in the contract. So next one and final one, after me and Ryan been rambling around here, we wanted to mainly share with you these four words that kind of resume the whole presentation. So communication is key during all the process. It's important to any interview process to be honest, but 100% it's important for a remote interview process. Adaptation is vital as well as many of you are not used to interview remotely. It's basically the same as a face-to-face interview. You just need to adjust a little bit to the differences. It's very important to show engagement. If you're prepared correctly and we talked a lot about preparation, you can easily show that you're engaged in the process. And it's just basically a change of mindset. It will seem awkward in the beginning, but after a while, it's not gonna seem awkward at all. So that's a wrap. I hope you all have enjoyed and took something positive out of this presentation. We will kick off for any Q&As, but if you feel more comfortable, you can always send me or Ryan an email. We shared our emails in the slide deck and we will do our best to answer. So I will go into our shared Google Doc to see if there's any questions. Bear with me one second. We have a lot of questions in the doc, which is great. So I find it. So we have a question from Phoebe that I will verbalize it. How can someone make their resume stand out? Oh, I lost a question. Someone was typing probably, yeah. So how can someone make their resume stand out so that they can land an interview with Github? Ryan, do you want to take this one? Yeah, I can go ahead and talk about that. Thanks for the question, Phoebe. And it's interesting enough that many of the things that you would do for just an in-person resume are gonna be the same for a resume for a remote company. So the only thing that I would recommend, I was trying to think about this because I did see the question ahead of time is if you want to highlight maybe that you have worked in a remote environment before, that is definitely something that's attractive to a company like GitLab where we already work in a fully remote environment. And so the transition to our style of work is much easier and much quicker. Just some general tips about resume writing and how to format it. From a technical perspective, I would highly recommend some sort of just kind of text box that has the technical stack that you've worked in. Many of us look for those keywords that are very specific to the roles that we're recruiting for. So for example, I recruit for backend engineers in Ruby on Rails and Go language, right? So if you're a Ruby developer, I want that at the very top or like if you're a Go lang developer, I wanna see that highlighted in your resume. In addition to that, try to keep things chronological so that we can understand the work history that you've had, try to keep it short and concise so that we are able to kind of quickly assess if you have the experience that we're looking for. You have to remember that recruiters, we review a lot, a lot of resumes. I don't even know how many, we at GitLab, we do not have some like search engine that's doing it for us. We actually go and read the resumes. So it's important to see some of those key highlights at the top of your resume so that we can see them fairly quickly. So that's a little bit about the just kind of resume. Next question also from Phoebe is, what advice do you have for someone looking to make? Oh, sorry. We are actually at the time and we need to prep for one all. So thank you so much, both. If you don't mind jumping in and answering those questions asynchronously, we'll get Phoebe her answer via the dock. Thank you, Emily. Thanks all. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Have a good day. Bye.