If you haven’t had a chance to catch the first post in my series on CodeScience Values we hold near and dear, I suggest you take a minute and learn a little more about what makes our company culture so special.

A challenge every recruiter — and company — faces is knowing when a prospective hire is a good fit. So, how do we at CodeScience decide if someone will be successful here?

That is a tough question. There are many ways folks can show you how well they have worked in the past. But how do we know someone will be able to keep up with the needs of our clients and the demands of the projects we work on? Well, we look for lifelong learners.

We call that Focused Curiosity

Looking for Learners

I have spent my tenure here at CodeScience refining our interview process with our amazing teams and leaders. We take our time and spend several meetings trying to get to the heart of a candidate’s skills and experiences. When we ask for someone’s time, we take that seriously and work to get to know them technically and personally.

I had a chance to talk with Bobby Tamburrino, one of our Lead Salesforce Developers, about what Focused Curiosity means to him and why it is so important to CodeScience. Bobby has been with CodeScience for over 6 years and has worked on many of our most iconic products. Bobby embodies so many of the best things about being a CodeScientist, but I especially love the way he looks at learning.

Bobby and I talked about our mutual love of cats, told funny stories about our early days here at CS, and discussed how he applies this particular value to his daily life.

“Focused Curiosity means realizing that you don’t know everything and that you are going to need to take the time to become as close as you can to an expert in new and different industries,” says Bobby. “As Salesforce developers, we often have to ramp up on new technologies and gain certifications to give us the skills to be successful in a really short amount of time.”

When chatting with Bobby about how he applies his love of learning to his interviewing prospective teammates, he says that he likes to ask questions to see how people think! For this reason, the last step in the hiring process is a coding challenge.

“I want to know not only what they did to solve the problem, but what might they do differently as well,” adds Bobby. “Anyone can use Google. I prefer to ask questions to see if they really understand the challenge, even if they don’t have the specific experience yet.”

It goes to show that a well-placed question can give a candidate a chance to demonstrate our values and give us a better understanding of how they would contribute to CodeScience!

As a recruiter, how do I screen folks for Focused Curiosity?

I look for Geeks.

Let Your Geek Flag Fly

CodeScience is a fully remote company, and we always have been. While we do have a home office, most CodeScientists work around the US at large. We, therefore, rely heavily on networking software and online tools. So how do we do it? How do we keep a remote team connected and a culture growing? We Geek out!

I sometimes say that to be a good consultant, you need to be two things;

1. A good Storyteller

And

2. A bit of a Geek.

If you’ve invested the time and interest it takes to become a self-professed Geek on any subject, you are probably the type of person who would also love to share that knowledge. And that, my friends, is one of the secrets to our success in remote hiring.

Finding people who have a knack for Focused Curiosity, a love of the geek, and a willingness to share that knowledge. 

The chances are high here at CodeScience that you will find someone who either shares your passion or would love to hear more about what makes you geek out. Bobby geeks out about Virtual Reality technology. He has used that interest to learn how to not only use the tech but to create and write for it. He’s even created demos for clients here at CS!

We love to learn. We love to bring our whole selves to work. We love to work with teams and clients who find the pursuit of technical and personal passions as awesome as we do!

So I have to ask…What’s your Geek? 

Here at CodeScience, we are hiring! And we know we are lucky to be in that position. We are adding to our teams and making strides in a market that is still very tough for a lot of folks. While you are here, take a look at the openings we have on our site and feel free to add your name to our Talent Network if you don’t see quite the right fit!

Geeking Out About Our Values: Focused Curiosity