OtherApr 07, 2022

Hiring at m3ter

At m3ter, many of us are senior staff, so collectively we’ve had our share of interviews. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly both from the interviewee and the interviewer's point of view. We learned from all of our experiences and used them to design an interview process that works for us.

Alexandra Ardelean, m3ter
Alexandra ArdeleanPrincipal Engineer, m3ter

At m3ter, many of us are senior staff, so collectively we’ve had our share of interviews. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly both from the interviewee and the interviewer point of view.

We learned from all of our experiences and used them to design an interview process that works for us. It’s an ever-evolving process, driven by our need to make informed decisions and set expectations for candidates.

What to expect?

A while back, when I was interviewing for a new job, I talked to a company that was using old technologies. Moving towards something newer was not on their roadmap. I mentioned this to the recruiter, and he forwarded the feedback to the company. Later that day I received a call from someone in their HR department. She said: “I can assure you that you will not just be using old technologies.” I didn’t dig any deeper because I couldn’t get into a technical discussion with her, but needless to say, I was not assured nor persuaded by the call.

I didn’t want or need generic reassurance. What I wanted was a realistic discussion with concrete examples.

And that’s exactly what you’ll get at m3ter. When interviewing, “I can assure you” that you’ll talk directly to the people you’ll be working with, and you’ll meet at least one of the company’s founders.

In another interview I had, the discussion went like this:

Interviewer: Did you use technology X?

Me: Yes.

Interviewer: Ok (and moved on to ask about the next technology)

That is unlikely to happen at m3ter. We want to have a conversation. We want to know how you’ve used technology X and what you learned from it. So, you should be prepared to deep dive into the areas that are your speciality. We are looking for tangible examples of projects and situations.

The interview process is tailored for each department. We’re developers, so we appreciate the value of NOT having a meeting. At the same time, we are a small company so when someone joins it makes an impact. So, when designing this process, we tried to be pragmatic and use the minimum amount of meetings, but at the same time make sure every department gets to know the candidate.

Who we’re looking for

Our aim is to capture shooting stars: people who will grow as m3ter grows, develop their skills as m3ter becomes more complex. We are looking for someone with potential and m3ter will provide you with an opportunity to achieve influence, impact, and seniority faster than you could elsewhere. You get support and opportunities to make a difference, we get a dynamic culture, characterised by positivity, fresh perspectives and inventiveness.

About m3ter

m3ter is a remote first company. We want to work with the best talent, and we believe geography shouldn’t be a barrier to that. When the pandemic hit and forced everyone to switch to work from home, many companies struggled. But m3ter was designed from the beginning to be remote only. The reason this works is because we have a core of people who worked together before, at a company called GameSparks. We know, trust and like each other.

We’ve been working towards the same goal for so long and that forges a strong bond. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, enjoy having fun, we always keep things light and informal. But, at the same time, we always work hard. We are passionate about what we do and we take great pride in our achievements.

Maybe this situation – some of us working together in the past – makes you wonder if there's a place for you in this team. The answer is YES! At the beginning of 2021, we carried out an analysis to see how viable the company was and what risks we might face. One risk was that we are trying to build an innovative product with people that have been exposed to the same environment, problems, and solutions. We decided that we need fresh perspectives, so we made it a priority to hire from outside our circle of ex-colleagues.

To bridge the gap of a distributed team even further, we're organising quarterly meetups. The ones we had so far were in York, Belfast, Gran Canaria and Lisbon. The next one is scheduled to be in Cluj. These give us the opportunity to have important discussions about strategic decisions, but also to meet in person and have fun. That makes day-to-day collaboration easier.

Equal opportunities

There’s a famous Warren Buffet quote relating to women: “One of the reasons for my success was that I was only competing with half of the population.” At m3ter, we want to build the best product in the business. We believe that we can achieve this, but we need the best people to really get it right. So, the only thing we care about is your ability to do the job.

I’m a woman and I’ve worked in software for 14 years. But my career really took off when I joined GameSparks. I was offered a seat at the table and all I had to do was follow Sheryl Sandberg’s advice and “lean in.” I felt I was always encouraged and pushed to think big – even if that sometimes took me outside my comfort zone. When I doubted myself, someone would always remind me of the impact I had in the team and show appreciation for my work.

Coming back to m3ter, we are embracing the same principles (and with some of the same people). I’m now in a different position, and I’ve still got ‘think big’ implanted in my brain. But I’m applying the same principles that worked on me with everyone else. We are not in the hand holding business and we’re not looking for code monkeys. We believe in giving people independence and encouraging everyone to think for themselves. Our aim is to get people in a position where they have the technical skills and feel empowered to make decisions on their own. We are offering everyone the opportunity to lean in and challenge themselves. It’s not an easy journey, but if you are willing to put in the work, we will offer you the tools and a supportive environment, no matter your background, gender, race, religion.

Current Vacancies

So, if you’re interested in a company that will jumpstart your career, is open and has no red tape, please see the open positions here: m3ter jobs. If you don’t find anything there for you but still feel like you would be a great addition to our team, please email us at people@m3ter.com.

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