How to interview at Casa

by Vanessa Kiley 2 years ago 6 min read

We are thrilled you’re curious about a career at Casa! Our recruitment team and hiring managers work incredibly hard to create a candidate-focused interview process that respects your talents and time. Here is some additional information about what we do:

Our interview process

While our interview process can change depending on how technical the role is and the seniority level, here is an overview of our standard interview process along with some tips.

#1: Application review

Our recruiting team and hiring managers review your resume, LinkedIn, cover letter, and answers to any questions we ask in the application. We look at every single application and are dedicated to giving all candidates a fair assessment. We have an internal goal of assessing resumes and responding to applicants within 2 business days.

Tips for the application review stage:

We highly value responses to our posed questions in the application. We know ChatGPT and other LLMs are incredible, but we can usually tell if you have used them. If you decide to use them, remember to remove your prompt and quotation marks…laugh all you want. It happens more than you think.
Double-check your cover letter to make sure you have included the right one. We understand that you may be applying to multiple companies, but we want to know why you’re right for us.
Include examples of your work and what team members you partnered closely with. We want to understand the impact you have had.
We steer clear of resumes that are messy, have significant errors, or don’t account for work gaps.

#2: Recruiter interview:

Depending on the amount of applicants, approximately 20-30 move to the recruiter interview.

The first interview at Casa is always a 30-minute recruiter screening. Our recruiting team works closely with hiring managers and the leadership team to understand team dynamics, the strategy behind hiring, and the needs and wants for each role. The interview will likely look like this:

5 minutes to tell you more about the role (there is only so much we can include in a job description).
15-20 minutes to ask questions about your experience, your interests, your understanding of our product and mission, and what you are looking for in a company
5-10 minutes for you to ask any questions you may have for us. The recruiter may not know the answers to deep technical questions, but they can speak at length about why we are hiring for the role, the team structure and dynamics, the company culture and values, our product, and our mission.

Tips for the recruiter interview:

Be prepared to give a brief overview of your relevant experience. We promise we have looked at your application, but this is the time to speak about your journey in a more informal manner. Sometimes your experience is greater than can fit on a piece of paper, we get it and we want to hear it!
Come with questions! Even if you deeply understand our product, we want to see that you are interested in our culture and are eager to learn more.
Do some research about our product, mission and values. We have included recommended reading below.
If this is an industry you are personally experienced in or passionate about, tell us! On the other hand, if you’re not experienced or personally interested in crypto, please don’t try and fake it. Our recruiting team has significant experience in the industry and can tell pretty quickly. There is no shame in saying you have more to learn, we all do!

#3: Hiring manager interview:

Approximately 10 candidates are moved forward to the hiring manager.

We firmly believe in you meeting the hiring manager as soon as possible. The hiring manager is usually who you will report to, so they have significant knowledge about the goals for this role and how it will work with the wider team. You can expect them to ask questions about your experience, your interest in our industry, how you resonate with our mission and values, and a couple of “situational” questions (example: how do you deal with…, tell me about a time you…). The hiring manager will answer any questions you may have, and they have a deep understanding of the team dynamics and our tech.

Tips for the hiring manager interview:

Think about mistakes made and lessons learned. We aren’t too worried about what the mistake was, but we want to know how you handled it and what you learned in the process.
Once again, come with questions. This is a great time to dig a bit deeper into the role.
Let the hiring manager know why you are excited about the role and our company.

#4: Team interview

Approximately 5 candidates move from the hiring manager interview to the team interview.

You will meet 2 team members from your team and 1-2 team members from a cross-functional team you will work closely with. These interviews are 40 minutes each and are back-to-back, so you will get a 10-minute break in between. Our company is small in number and highly collaborative, so we think it’s important to meet as many people as possible. The teams will ask about your experiences working cross-functionally, your chosen method of communication and collaboration, your favorite tech to work with, and your interests.

Tips for the team interview(s):

This is the time to ask about specific experiences at Casa- you can ask the team about their day-to-day responsibilities.
If you have questions about what technology we use and how we use it, the team is a great resource.
This interview is a combination of experience and fit with the team, so take a deep breath and bring your true self. We want to get to know you (and we want you to get to know us) in the most authentic way possible.

#5: Presentation or assessment (not for all roles)

Approximately 3 candidates move from the team interview to the presentation.

Presentation route: To assess your problem-solving skills and strategic thinking, we ask candidates to complete a take-home assessment and present to a small panel, often including the hiring manager, a team member and a representative from leadership. You can expect to present for 30 minutes and have 10-15 minutes of questions from the panel. We will send you the assessment 3 working days before your presentation, and the hiring manager is happy to answer any and all questions you may have prior to your presentation.

Assessment: Technical roles will have a similar experience to the presentation, but instead of a presentation they will meet with engineering leadership and a senior software engineer to discuss how they completed their assessment. You can anticipate a 1.5-2 hour commitment for the assessment and a 30-minute walk-through with engineering representatives.

Tips for the presentation/assessment:

Be prepared for questions from the team.
Create a presentation that not only answers the question(s), but clearly shows how you solved the problem. We want to see your train of thought just as much as we want to see your conclusion.

#6: CEO check-in:

Approximately 1-2 candidates are moved to a CEO check-in.

Given our size and the close nature of our team, everyone meets Casa co-founder and CEO Nick Neuman before they join. Nick has been at Casa since 2018 and knows the ins and outs better than anyone. You can expect questions about your work history, your familiarity with our product, your favorite ways to work and what you are looking for in a company. We want to make sure that you aren’t only a great fit for our team, but that we are the right place for you and can provide what you need from a company.

Tips for the CEO check-in:

We don’t have a ton of tips at this stage! If you have made it this far, we have a lot of faith in your candidacy and are feeling excited. Just bring yourself and your excitement.

#7: References

Approximately 1 candidate is moved to the reference stage.

We check references for every future Casa employee. We ask for two from most candidates (a colleague and manager) and three for leadership roles (a direct report, a colleague, and a manager).

#8: Offer

This is the final stage and when we put our heads together to make a decision. Hiring is the most important decision we make, so we put a lot of thought into our choice. If any interviewer doesn’t support the hire, we will have a thoughtful conversation with them to better understand their concerns and see if there was miscommunication or misunderstanding. The hiring manager, recruiter and head of people work together to decide which candidate will receive an offer. The hiring manager works closely with our CEO, head of people, and VP of finance to take in seniority, relevant experience, fit, and growth to create a competitive offer.

Final thoughts

Empowering individuals is important to our mission at Casa, and that goes for our employees. We are grateful to have you considering Casa for the next stage in your career. If you receive an offer from us, we look forward to working together.

If you are not selected for a particular role, you’re more than welcome to apply for a different role at Casa that matches your skills. Very often, we have candidates interview for more than one role before finding the perfect fit on our team. Good luck!