How we hire
What we look for, and how to prepare
Our interviews are built to show how you work, not how well you perform under pressure. A little preparation goes a long way.
See each step of hiring
We publish the criteria every interviewer uses. There are no hidden questions and no trick puzzles. If you know what we are looking for, you can show it, and if you do not have it yet, we would rather you knew that too.
The criteria
What every interviewer looks for
Care for the craft
You can explain why you made a choice, and what you would do differently with more time.
Clear thinking out loud
You talk us through a problem as you solve it. We are interested in the route, not just the answer.
Curiosity about people
You ask who will use the thing and who will run it, before you decide how to build it.
Honesty about limits
You say when you do not know. It is one of the strongest signals we see.
Working well with others
You build on a colleague's idea and disagree without making it personal.
Thinking about handover
You consider how someone else will understand, change and run what you made.
How to prepare for each conversation
Your application
Keep it short. Tell us about two or three pieces of work you are proud of and what your part was. Links to code, designs or writing help more than a long list of tools.
The first conversation
Read a little about the work we do in your area, and come with questions. We will ask what you want from your next role; a clear answer helps us both.
Career areasThe working session
You will get the brief a few days ahead. You do not need to prepare a solution. Do make sure your tools work, and practice explaining your thinking as you go.
For design and data roles, the session is a short critique and a problem to frame together, rather than code.
Meeting the partners
This is about values and ways of working. Think of a time you disagreed with a decision, and a time you changed your mind. Ask the partners anything about how KIASA is run.
If you need adjustments
Ask at any stage. We can share questions in advance, allow extra time or change the format. It will not affect our decision.
On the day
Small things that help
Use the tools you know. Look things up when you would at work; we do too. Take a minute to think before answering, and ask us to repeat or rephrase anything.
Leave time at the end for your own questions. The best ones are about how the work really happens: how a team decides, what went wrong on a recent project, what a partner's week looks like.
“The candidates who stand out are rarely the ones with the fastest answer. They are the ones who ask who will be running this in two years, and change their design when they hear the answer.”
Before you interview
Read what we think
A good way to see how we work is to read what we write.
Perspective
Why the second year of a cloud migration matters more than the first
Costs, habits and ownership settle in year two, and that is where most of the promised value is won or lost.
Research report
The maintenance dividend
We asked 140 engineering leaders where their budgets go. On average, 61% is spent keeping existing systems running.
Perspective
Green software is mostly just good software
The code that wastes the least energy is usually the code that is simplest to run.
Case study
How Halden Mutual settles claims in two days, not nine
A 90-year-old insurer replaced its claims core without a freeze, one product line at a time.
Prepared? Find your role
Every open role, in every studio.