Why We Designed Our Engineering Hiring Process The Way We Did – Teleport
Hiring engineers isn’t just about filling seats. It’s a process we’ve spent a great deal of time working through and, while not perfect, we’ve found that it works quite well for hiring engineers that call Teleport home for the long-term.
Hiring for us is about finding teammates who will thrive in our culture, contribute to solving hard problems and feel excited about building alongside us. We’ve created our hiring process to reflect the way we work here. It’s collaborative, transparent and intentional.
As you read through our process you’ll see that we do things differently here, on purpose. We’ve replaced traditional behavioral style interviews with a challenge exercise that we’ll have you go through.
The “interviews” with your recruiter and hiring manager are designed to walk you through our process and help you understand the challenge exercise that you’ll complete if you choose to move forward.
Each step along our interview process is there for a reason, and we’d like to walk you through what happens when you apply for an engineering role with us.
More importantly, we want to give you a glimpse into why we interview this way.
Step 1: The Recruiter Call
The interview process starts with a 30-minute Zoom conversation with one of our recruiters. Rather than being a typical interview we’ll spend our time together walking you through the interview process and challenge, sharing with you what makes Teleport different and answering your questions.
You’ll leave this call with the GitHub repo link to the exact challenge you will complete later. Whether or not you move to step two in the process is entirely up to you. Our job is to give you as much information as possible to help you decide whether Teleport is the right next best step for you.
Why we do it: We believe that you should never have to walk into an interview process blind. This call is about alignment: making sure what you’re looking for matches what we’re building.
Step 2: The Hiring Manager Walkthrough
Next, you’ll hop on a 30-minute Zoom call with the hiring manager. The purpose of this call is to answer your questions about the challenge and anything you want to know about Teleport and our engineering teams. You’ll walk through the upcoming technical challenge together and help show you what to expect, what we’re evaluating and how it mirrors real problems we solve every day.
The purpose of this call is for you to walk away with complete clarity on the challenge and you’re ready to start working on it. We’re here to help you and we value curiosity and clarity so please bring your questions.
Why we do it: Most technical interviews feel like a pop quiz. We’d rather treat you like a future teammate. We want to see how you approach challenges with context, because that’s how engineering actually works in the real world.
Step 3: The Private Slack Channel
Within 24 hours of your hiring manager walkthrough, we’ll send you a link to get into a private Slack channel for you and our team. This becomes your communication hub: a place to ask questions, share progress and get to know how we collaborate.
You will have 14 days to complete your challenge and it starts once we send you the link to our private Slack channel.
Why we do it: At Teleport, asynchronous communication and clear documentation are part of our DNA. Setting up a Slack channel lets you experience that firsthand. It also ensures you’re never stuck wondering who to reach out to or how.
Step 4: The Challenge Exercise
Now comes the fun part: the challenge! We’ve designed it to simulate real Teleport work. Instead of coding puzzles or live coding, you’ll dive into something that feels like a true project you might tackle here.
Why we do it: We believe the best way to evaluate engineering skill isn’t by asking “gotcha” questions. Or putting you on the spot with surprise challenges.
We work best when we’re working together on something meaningful and we hope you feel the same way. Our approach helps us understand your problem-solving style, your communication habits and how you think about trade-offs.
Step 5: The Job Offer
Once you’ve completed your challenge, you’ll get detailed feedback from one of our team members rather than just a yes or no answer. If things line up, you’ll receive an offer to join our team.
Why we do it: Transparency matters. Even if it’s not the right fit this time, you’ll walk away with clear, constructive feedback you can use in your career. And if it is the right fit, welcome aboard!
Why This Matters to Us
Our careers page talks about how we value trust, autonomy and ownership. Our engineering interview process is built to reflect those same values. We want you to feel respected, informed and excited about joining our team!
We also know hiring is a two-way street. While we’re evaluating your skills and communication style, we also want you to evaluate us. Do you like the way we work together? Do you feel energized by the challenges we’re working on? Do our behaviors resonate with you?
Because at the end of the day, hiring at Teleport isn’t about jumping over hurdles. It’s about starting a partnership and working together to continue building something great.
Join Us
If the way we work sounds like the kind of process and team you’d like to be part of, check out our open roles and learn more about our culture. We’d love to meet you!
