How A Cloud Guru is Keeping Remote Hiring Awesome
Designed by Ryan Lewis, Designer & Illustrator at A Cloud Guru

How A Cloud Guru is Keeping Remote Hiring Awesome

A Cloud Guru has adapted quickly to support virtual interviewing and on-boarding for new gurus. We’re committed to building an awesome team and we’re looking forward to getting to know you. - Lauren Wright, Talent Acquisition Manager

A Cloud Guru’s hiring isn’t stopping. I repeat. We are still teaching the world to cloud, and we need more awesome Gurus to help us do that. The only difference is that we want to keep our germs to ourselves, so all interviewing and onboarding is being done virtually.

We want you to succeed, and we know it’s a lot easier to let your true self shine when you’re relaxed and confident. It’s our goal to provide you a fair, efficient interviewing experience that respects you and your time — and to do it all with a touch of delight. If that means wearing your PJ bottoms under the Zoom call, go for it. To ease up the unknowns and give you a sneak peek at what’s to come, we’ve compiled an in-depth overview of how this virtual hiring thing will work.

All that really matters...
There are many places you can explore for a career and we’re humbled you have your eyes on ACG. We’re here to get to know you. The real you. So, don’t let the virtual nature get in the way, because we’re here to hear what makes you awesome.
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First up, virtual Interviewing

aka interviewing from your guest bedroom, while your kids are screaming, and your roommate is snoring

Our Hiring Philosophy 🧠 We value our values. They keep us honest and help us foster an awesome work environment. That’s why we’ve built our hiring process to look for values-aligned people good at their work and awesome to work with.

Your Point of Contact 👋 You will partner with the same recruiter throughout the hiring process. Our recruiters are your champion and are available by email and phone to answer your questions and make the process more comfortable for you. We’re an understanding bunch, so if you have any accessibility needs, please share them with your recruiter.

Technical Troubles 🔧 If you run into any technical issues like WiFi being slow, or Zoom being wonky, you have your dedicated recruiter to help troubleshoot. Just give them a call.

No Ghosting Rule 👻 We have a no ghosting rule, meaning you will hear back from a recruiter on our decision no matter what.

Urban Dictionary definition of Ghosting: When a person cuts off all communication with their friends or the person they're dating, with zero warning or notice beforehand.

I haven't seen Tom in 3 months. I think he may be ghosting me.

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Stage 1: A quick call with a recruiter

Aww yeah! You made it to a call with a recruiter! Congrats. We receive thousands of applications a month for a small number of open roles and sometimes timing can be tough, so be proud you entered stage 1.

This first call is all about better understanding your experience and how it relates to the role. Beforehand, we will share several resources to help you prepare, including videos about our early days, what it’s like to work in our office, and an overview of our product. We also leave time to answer questions about the company, the team, and what it would be like to take on the role remotely.

Stage 2: Let’s start Zooming

The second part of the process changes up a bit depending on the role you’re applying for. You may be asked to do a presentation which is your chance to get creative and spotlight your skills. For most roles, you’ll virtually interview with your hiring manager. They will ask you a range of questions so that we can better understand your ability and how you align with the values of ACG. This is the time to get a better understanding of what it would be like to have a career at ACG, so think about what questions you’d like to know.

Remember, we want you to succeed! So have fun with it, and get creative!

Stage 3: Virtual “On-site”

This is the part where you get into the “nitty gritty” of the role. Be prepared to chat through your experience, how you do things in your role, and the projects that you’ve worked on. When answering questions, try to answer using the S.T.A.R. method. Describe the Situation you were in, the Task you had to accomplish, the Actions you took, and the Result of your work. The more you focus on the facts - the more we can align your skills to the role! Joining ACG is just as much your decision as ours, so this is the perfect time for you to ask questions to see if the role aligns to your career ambitions.

Sales Applicants

During stage 3, you’ll be asked to give a presentation. We will give you a topic to build a proposal for. This is your chance to sell us on you, on your skills, and to have a little fun doing what you do best. #SellingIsATeamSport

That's it! Once all interviews are done, we huddle up to make a final decision. For the purpose of this, let’s assume we extended an offer, and you accepted. YAY 🍾

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Onboarding in a virtual world

All New-rus (get it new gurus) start on a Monday, so that you are coming in with more humans experiencing the same thing as you. You won’t be alone - we have you covered. This is an exciting time, and we want you to feel as prepared as possible!

A Brand New Laptop 💻 You will receive your computer by the Thursday before your Monday start date. The reason it’s not earlier is because we don’t want anyone to feel subconsciously pressured to log on. You get to choose between a Mac and a PC, because we’re still a small company and don’t reissue computers. Yours is brand new for you! Your computer will come to you already provisioned with the software you need to hit the ground running. Your login and password will come in the box.

Set up your space 💰 To make WFH a little more awesome, you'll get $500 USD to build out your home office setup, plus a monthly allowance to help cover internet costs.

Welcome goodies 🧦 We want you starting in style, so watch your doorstep for some A Cloud Guru branded goodies.

30/60/90 Plan 📅 Before you start, we’re already thinking about you. Every new hire has a 30, 60, and 90-day plan already created by their manager.

Your First Week at ACG

Morning Tea or Taco 🌮 Knock knock. Keep an eye on your door, because a special delivery is coming your way, to get your first day started with a dash of delight. If you’re one of our Austin Nu-Rus we like to kick things off with breakfast tacos. Our Melbourne and Twickenham bunch prefer to ease in with a nice morning tea. Either way, we’re excited to meet you, and this is your official welcome to the wonderful world of ACG.

Meet your buddy 🦸‍♀️ Everyone is assigned a buddy that is not within their direct team to help learn the ropes. You can go to your buddy for one-off questions, and when we’re back in the office, your buddy will show you where to find the loo and how to use the coffee machines. Very important things.

Slack 💬 You’ll be introduced to the right Slack rooms to join. We have rooms for work, rooms for hobbies, and rooms for nothing more than keeping it fun.

Keeping It Fun 🤸On your calendar you’ll see a whole host of weekly virtual events we run just to keep the sanity while we’re quarantining. We have daily meditation, the water cooler where you can just talk, and weekly trivia. It’s a fun way to meet other people in the company.

Month 1 Working From Home

We put our employees first and don’t want to pressure anyone to go back to an environment where they don’t feel safe. So, we’re ready to hunker in for the long haul. After your first week, you’ll be running with plenty of people and resources to support you along the way.

Guru Onboarding 👥 Guru Onboarding aka “GO” is your chance to get to know the leaders of A Cloud Guru, learn how each department brings our values to life, and meet other gurus.

Manager 1:1s 📈 A Cloud Guru uses manager 1:1s to help our employees stay on track. Your manager catch-ups will already be on your calendar.

Weekly CEO Updates 🎥 Each week our CEO Sam Kroonenburg sends out an equal parts funny, equal parts informative overview of what’s important to the business that week. This is how we keep 3 continents running in parallel, and celebrate individual’s wins!

Idea Hours 💡We dedicate 2 hours of your choosing every week to put aside our normal work to focus on learning something new. Most new gurus use this time to get cloud certified, because getting certified helps us empathize with our learners’ experience. To encourage that, we give Gurus who pick up a certification a day off on us.

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These are just some of the highlights of what life is like virtually working at A Cloud Guru. If you’d like to learn more check out this article by our Employee Experience Lead, Tina Hamburger, about all the fun things we’re doing to keep our culture strong while we work from home.

Join an awesome team working toward an awesome mission: to teach the world to cloud. Explore a career at A Cloud Guru.

Joe Giglio

Engineering Director | Helping Companies Build Great Remote Cultures

3y

Nicely written article. A Cloud Guru sounds like a cool place. I might have to apply. 😎

Isaac Ejeh

Founder & CEO at Doow | Building the all-in-one finance OS for startups & large corporates

3y

Being on the "A Cloud Guru" team must be so much fun.

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