Building Culture
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The Evolution of the Betterment Engineering Interview
Betterment’s engineering interview now includes a pair programming experience where candidates ...
The Evolution of the Betterment Engineering Interview Betterment’s engineering interview now includes a pair programming experience where candidates are tested on their collaboration and technical skills. Building and maintaining the world’s largest independent robo-advisor requires a talented team of human engineers. This means we must continuously iterate on our recruiting process to remain competitive in attracting and hiring top talent. As our team has grown impressively from five to more than 50 engineers (and this was just in the last three years), we’ve significantly improved our abilities to make clearer hiring decisions, as well as shortened our total hiring timeline. Back in the Day Here’s how our interview process once looked: Resumé review Initial phone screen Technical phone screen Onsite: Day 1 Technical interview (computer science fundamentals) Technical interview (modelling and app design) Hiring manager interview Onsite: Day 2 Product and design interview Company founder interview Company executive interview While this process helped in growing our engineering team, it began showing some cracks along the way. The main recurring issue was that hiring managers were left uncertain as to whether a candidate truly possessed the technical aptitude and skills to justify making them an employment offer. While we tried to construct computer science and data modelling problems that led to informative interviews, watching candidates solve these problems still wasn’t getting to the heart of whether they’d be successful engineers once at Betterment. In addition to problems arising from the types of questions asked, we saw that one of our primary interview tools, the whiteboard, was actually getting in the way; many candidates struggled to communicate their solutions using a whiteboard in an interview setting. The last straw for using whiteboards came from feedback provided by Betterment’s Women in Technology group. When I sat down with them to solicit feedback on our entire hiring process, they pointed to the whiteboard problem-solving dynamics (one to two engineers sitting, observing, and judging the candidate standing at a whiteboard) as unnatural and awkward. It was clear this part of the interviewing process needed to go. We decided to allow candidates the choice of using a whiteboard if they wished, but it would no longer be the default method for presenting one’s skills. If we did away with the whiteboard, then what would we use? The most obvious alternative was a computer, but then many of our engineers expressed concerns with this method, having had bad experiences with computer-based interviews in the past. After spirited internal discussions we landed on a simple principle: We should provide candidates the most natural setting possible to demonstrate their abilities. As such, our technical interviews switched from whiteboards to computers. Within the boundaries of that principle, we considered multiple interview formats, including take-home and online assessments, and several variations of pair programming interviews. In the end, we landed on our own flavor of a pair programming interview. Today: A Better Interview Here’s our revised interview process: Resumé review Initial phone screen Technical phone screen Onsite: Technical interview 1 Ask the candidate to describe a recent technical challenge in detail Set up the candidate’s laptop Introduce the pair programming problem and explore the problem Pair programming (optional, time permitting) Technical interview 2 Pair programming Technical interview 3 Pair programming Ask-Me-Anything session Product and design interview Hiring manager interview Company executive interview While an interview setting may not offer pair programming in its purest sense, our interviewers truly participate in the process of writing software with the candidates. Instead of simply instructing and watching candidates as they program, interviewers can now work with them on a real-world problem, and they take turns in control of the keyboard. This approach puts candidates at ease, and feels closer to typical pair programming than one might expect. As a result, in addition to learning how well a candidate can write code, we learn how well they collaborate. We also split the main programming portion of our original interview into separate sections with different interviewers. It’s nice to give candidates a short break in between interviews, but the main reason for the separation is to evaluate the handoff. We like to evaluate how well a candidate explains the design decisions and progress from one interviewer to the next. Other Improvements We also streamlined our question-asking process and hiring timeline, and added an opportunity for candidates to speak with non-interviewers. Questions Interviews are now more prescriptive regarding non-technical questions. Instead of multiple interviewers asking a candidate about the same questions based on their resumé, we prescribe topics based on the most important core competencies of successful (Betterment) engineers. Each interviewer knows which competencies (e.g., software craftsmanship) to evaluate. Sample questions, not scripts, are provided, and interviewers are encouraged to tailor the competency questions to the candidates based on their backgrounds. Timeline Another change is that the entire onsite interview is completed in a single day. This can make scheduling difficult, but in a city as competitive as New York is for engineering talent, we’ve found it valuable to get to the final offer stage as quickly as possible. Discussion Finally, we’ve added an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session—another idea provided by our Women in Technology group. While we encourage candidates to ask questions of everyone they meet, the AMA provides an opportunity to meet with a Betterment engineer who has zero input on whether or not to hire them. Those “interviewers” don’t fill out a scorecard, and our hiring managers are forbidden from discussing candidates with them. Ship It Our first run of this new process took place in November 2015. Since then, the team has met several times to gather feedback and implement tweaks, but the broad strokes have remained unchanged. As of July 2016, all full-stack, mobile, and site-reliability engineering roles have adopted this new approach. We’re continually evaluating whether to adopt this process for other roles, as well. Our hiring managers now report that they have a much clearer understanding of what each candidate brings to the table. In addition, we’ve consistently received high marks from candidates and interviewers alike, who prefer our revamped approach. While we didn’t run a scientifically valid split-test for the new process versus the old (it would’ve taken years to reach statistical significance), our hiring metrics have improved across the board. We’re happy with the changes to our process, and we feel that it does a great job of fully and honestly evaluating a candidate’s abilities, which helps Betterment to continue growing its talented team. For more information about working at Betterment, please visit our Careers page. More from Betterment: Server Javascript: A Single-Page App To…A Single-Page App Going to Work at Betterment Engineering at Betterment: Do You Have to Be a Financial Expert? -
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Building for Better: Gender Inclusion at Betterment
Betterment sits at the intersection of two industries with large, historical gender gaps. ...
Building for Better: Gender Inclusion at Betterment Betterment sits at the intersection of two industries with large, historical gender gaps. We’re working to change that—for ourselves and our industries. Since our founding, we’ve maintained a commitment to consistently build a better company and product for our customers and our customers-to-be. Part of that commitment includes reflecting the diversity of those customers. Betterment sits at the intersection of finance and technology—two industries with large, historical diversity gaps, including women and underrepresented populations. We’re far from perfect, but this is what we’re doing to embrace the International Women’s Day charge and work toward better gender balance at Betterment and in our world. Building Diversity And Inclusion At Betterment Change starts at the heart of the matter. For Betterment, this means working to build a company of passionate individuals who reflect our customers and bring new and different perspectives to our work. Our internal Diversity and Inclusion Committee holds regular meetings to discuss current events and topics, highlights recognition months (like Black History and Women’s History Months), and celebrates the many backgrounds and experiences of our employees. We’ve also developed a partnership with Peoplism. According to Caitlin Tudor-Savin, HR Business Partner, “This is more than a check-the-box activity, more than a one-off meeting with an attendance sheet. By partnering with Peoplism and building a long-term, action-oriented plan, we’re working to create real change in a sustainable fashion.” One next step we’re excited about is an examination of our mentorship program to make sure that everyone at Betterment has access to mentors. The big idea: By building empathy and connection among ourselves, we can create an inclusive environment that cultivates innovative ideas and a better product for our customers. Engaging The Tech Community At Large At Betterment, we’re working to creating change in the tech industry and bringing women into our space. By hosting meetups for Women Who Code, a non-profit organization that empowers women through technology, we’re working to engage this community directly. Rather than getting together to hear presentations, meetups are designed to have a group-led dynamic. Members break out and solve problems together, sharing and honing skills, while building community and support. This also fosters conversation, natural networking, and the chance for women to get their foot in the door. Jesse Harrelson, a Betterment Software Engineer, not only leads our hosting events, they found a path to Betterment through Women Who Code. “Consistency is key,” said Jesse. “Our Women Who Code meetups become a way to track your progression. It’s exciting to see how I’ve developed since I first started attending meetups, and how some of our long-time attendees have grown as engineers and as professionals.” Building A Community Of Our Own In 2018, our Women of Betterment group had an idea. They’d attended a number of networking and connection events, and the events never felt quite right. Too often, the events involved forced networking and stodgy PowerPoint presentations, with takeaways amounting to little more than a free glass of wine. Enter the SHARE (Support, Hire, Aspire, Relate, Empower) Series. Co-founder Emily Knutsen wanted “to build a network of diverse individuals and foster deeper connections among women in our community.” Through the SHARE Series, we hope to empower future leaders in our industry to reach their goals and develop important professional connections. While the series focuses on programming for women and those who identify as women, it is inclusive to everyone in our community who wish to be allies and support our mission. We developed the SHARE Series to create an authentic and conversational environment, one where attendees help guide the conversations and future event themes. Meetings thus far have included a panel discussion on breaking into tech from the corporate world and a small-group financial discussion led by financial experts from Betterment and beyond. “We’re excited that organizations are already reaching out to collaborate,” Emily said. “We’ve gotten such an enthusiastic response about designing future events around issues that women (and everyone!) face, such as salary negotiations.” Getting Involved Want to join us as we work to build a more inclusive and dynamic community? Our next SHARE Series event features CBS News Business Analyst and CFP® professional Jill Schlesinger, as we celebrate her new book, The Dumb Things Smart People Do with Their Money: Thirteen Ways to Right Your Financial Wrongs. You can also register to attend our Women Who Code meetups, and join engineers from all over New York as we grow, solve, and connect with one another. -
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Building Better Software Faster with Shared Principles
Betterment’s playbook for extending the golden hour of startup innovation at scale.
Building Better Software Faster with Shared Principles Betterment’s playbook for extending the golden hour of startup innovation at scale. Betterment’s promise to customers rests on our ability to execute. To fulfill that promise, we need to deliver the best product and tools available and then improve them indefinitely, which, when you think about it, sounds incredibly ambitious or even foolhardy. For a problem space as large as ours, we can’t fulfill that promise with a single two pizza team. But a scaled engineering org presents other challenges that could just as easily put the goal out of reach. Centralizing architectural decision-making would kill ownership and autonomy, and ensure your best people leave or never join in the first place. On the other hand, shared-nothing teams can lead to information silos, wheel-reinventing, and integration nightmares when an initiative is too big for a squad to deliver alone. To meet those challenges, we believe it’s essential to share more than languages, libraries, and context-free best practices. We can collectively build and share a body of interrelated principles driven by insights that our industry as a whole hasn’t yet realized or is just beginning to understand. Those principles can form chains of reasoning that allow us to run fearlessly, in parallel, and arrive at coherent solutions better than the sum of their parts. I gave a talk about Betterment’s engineering principles at a Rails at Scale meetup earlier last year and promised to share them after our diligent legal team finished reviewing. (Legal helpfully reviewed these principles months ago, but then I had my first child, and, as you can imagine, priorities shifted.) Without any further ado, here are Betterment’s Engineering Principles. You can also watch my Rails at Scale talk to learn why we developed them and how we maintain them. Parting Thoughts on Our Principles Our principles aren’t permanent as-written. Our principles are a living document in an actual git repository that we’ll continue to add to and revise as we learn and grow. Our principles derive from and are matched to Betterment’s collective experience and context. We don’t expect these principles to appeal to everybody. But we do believe strongly that there’s more to agree about than our industry has been able to establish so far. Consider these principles, along with our current and future open source work, part of our contribution to that conversation. What are the principles that your team share?
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Reflecting on Our Engineering Apprenticeship Program
Reflecting on Our Engineering Apprenticeship Program Betterment piloted an Apprentice Program to add junior talent to our engineering organization in 2017, and it couldn’t have been more successful or rewarding for all of us. One year later, we’ve asked them to reflect on their experiences. In Spring of 2017, Betterment’s Diversity & Inclusion Steering Committee partnered with our Engineering Team to bring on two developers with non-traditional backgrounds. We hired Jesse Harrelson (Betterment for Advisors Team) and Fidel Severino (Retail Team) for a 90 day Apprentice Program. Following their apprenticeship, they joined us as full-time Junior Engineers. I’m Jesse, a recruiter here at Betterment, and I had the immense pleasure of working closely with these two. It’s been an incredible journey, so I sat down with them to hear first hand about their experiences. Tell us a bit about your life before Betterment. Jesse Harrelson: I was born and raised in Wyoming and spent a lot of time exploring the outdoors. I moved to Nashville to study songwriting and music business, and started a small label through which I released my band’s album. I moved to New York after getting an opportunity at Sony and worked for a year producing video content. Fidel Severino: I’m originally from the Dominican Republic and moved to the United States at age 15. After graduation from Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics High School, I completed a semester at Lehman College before unfortunate family circumstances required me to go back to the Dominican Republic. When I returned to the United States, I worked in the retail sector for a few years. While working, I would take any available time for courses on websites like Codecademy and Team Treehouse. Can we talk about why you decided to become an Engineer? Jesse Harrelson: Coding became a hobby for me when I would make websites for my bands in Nashville, but after meeting up with more and more people in tech in the city, I knew it was something I wanted to do as a career. I found coding super similar from a composition and structure perspective, which allowed me to tap into the creative side of coding. I started applying to every bootcamp scholarship I could find and received a full scholarship to Flatiron School. I made the jump to start becoming an engineer. Fidel Severino: While working, I would take any available time for courses on websites like Codecademy and Team Treehouse. I have always been interested in technology. I was one of those kids who “broke” their toys in order to find out how they worked. I’ve always had a curious mind. My interactions with technology prior to learning about programming had always been as a consumer. I cherished the opportunity and the challenge that comes with building with code. The feeling of solving a bug you’ve been stuck on for a while is satisfaction at its best. Those bootcamps changed all of our lives! You learned how to be talented, dynamic engineers and we reap the benefit. Let’s talk about why you chose Betterment. Jesse Harrelson: I first heard of Betterment by attending the Women Who Code — Algorithms meetup hosted at HQ. Paddy, who hosts the meetups, let us know that Betterment was launching an apprenticeship program and after the meetup I asked how I could get involved and applied for the program. I was also applying for another different apprenticeship program but throughout the transparent, straightforward interview process, the Betterment apprenticeship quickly became my first choice. Fidel Severino: The opportunity to join Betterment’s Apprenticeship program came via the Flatiron School. One of the main reasons I was ecstatic to join Betterment was how I felt throughout the recruiting process. At no point did I feel the pressure that’s normally associated with landing a job. Keep in mind, this was an opportunity unlike any other I had up to this point in my life, but once I got to talking with the interviewers, the conversation just flowed. The way the final interview was setup made me rave about it to pretty much everyone I knew. Here was a company that wasn’t solely focused on the traditional Computer Science education when hiring an apprentice/junior engineer. The interview was centered around how well you communicate,work with others, and problem solve. I had a blast pair programming with 3 engineers, which I’m glad to say are now my co-workers! We are so lucky to have you! What would you say has been the most rewarding part of your experience so far? Jesse Harrelson: The direct mentorship during my apprenticeship and exposure to a large production codebase. Prior to Betterment, I only had experience with super small codebases that I built myself or with friends. Working with Betterment’s applications gave me a hands-on understanding of concepts that are hard to reproduce on a smaller, personal application level. Being surrounded by a bunch of smart, helpful people has also been super amazing and helped me grow as an engineer. Fidel Severino: Oh man! There’s so many things I would love to list here. However, you asked for the most rewarding, and I would have to say without a doubt — the mentorship. As someone with only self-taught and Bootcamp experience, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. I had two exceptional mentors who went above and beyond and removed any blocks preventing me from accomplishing tasks. On a related note, the entire company has a collaborative culture that is contagious. You want to help others whenever you can; and it has been the case that I’ve received plenty of help from others who aren’t even directly on my team. What’s kept you here? Fidel Severino: The people. The collaborative environment. The culture of learning. The unlimited supply of iced coffee. Great office dogs. All of the above! Jesse Harrelson: Seriously though, it was the combination of all that plus so many other things. Getting to work with talented, smart people who want to make a difference. This article is part of Engineering at Betterment. -
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Women Who Code: An Engineering Q&A with Venmo
Women Who Code: An Engineering Q&A with Venmo Betterment recently hosted a Women in Tech meetup with Venmo developer Cassidy Williams, who spoke about impostor syndrome. Growing up, I watched my dad work as an electrical engineer. Every time I went with him on Take Your Child to Work Day, it became more and more clear that I wanted to be an engineer, too. In 2012, I graduated from the University of Portland with a degree in computer science and promptly moved to the Bay Area. I got my first job at Intel, where I worked as a Scala developer. I stayed there for several years until last May, when I uprooted my life to New York for Betterment, and I haven’t looked back since. As an engineer, I not only love building products from the ground up, but I’m passionate about bringing awareness to diversity in tech, an important topic that has soared to the forefront of social justice issues. People nationwide have chimed in on the conversation. Most recently, Isis Wenger, a San Francisco-based platform engineer, sparked the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign, a Twitter initiative designed to combat gender inequality in tech. At Betterment, we’re working on our own set of initiatives to drive the conversation. We’ve started an internal roundtable to voice our concerns about gender inequality in the workplace, we’ve sponsored and hosted Women in Tech meetups, and we’re starting to collaborate with other companies to bring awareness to the issue. Cassidy Williams, a software engineer at mobile payments company Venmo, recently came in to speak. She gave a talk on impostor syndrome, a psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments. The phenomenon, Williams said, is something that she has seen particularly among high-achieving women—where self-doubt becomes an obstacle for professional development. For example, they think they’re ‘frauds,’ or unqualified for their jobs, regardless of their achievements. Williams’ goal is to help women recognize the characteristic and empower them to overcome it. Williams has been included as one of Glamour Magazine's 35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry and listed in the Innotribe Power Women in FinTech Index. As an engineer myself, I was excited to to speak with her after the event about coding, women in tech, and fintech trends. Cassidy Williams, Venmo engineer, said impostor syndrome tends to be more common in high-achieving women. Photo credit: Christine Meintjes Abi: Can you speak about a time in your life where ‘impostor syndrome’ was limiting in your own career? How did you overcome that feeling? Cassidy: For a while at work, I was very nervous that I was the least knowledgeable person in the room, and that I was going to get fired because of it. I avoided commenting on projects and making suggestions because I thought that my insight would just be dumb, and not necessary. But at one point (fairly recently, honestly), it just clicked that I knew what I was doing. Someone asked for my help on something, and then I discussed something with him, and suddenly I just felt so much more secure in my job. Can you speak to some techniques that have personally proven effective for you in overcoming impostor syndrome? Asking questions, definitely. It does make you feel vulnerable, but it keeps you moving forward. It's better to ask a question and move forward with your problem than it is to struggle over an answer. As a fellow software engineer, I can personally attest to experiencing this phenomenon in tech, but I’ve also heard from friends and colleagues that it can be present in non-technical backgrounds, as well. What are some ways we can all work together to empower each other in overcoming imposter syndrome? It's cliché, but just getting to know one another and sharing how you feel about certain situations at work is such a great way to empower yourself and empower others. It gets you both vulnerable, which helps you build a relationship that can lead to a stronger team overall. Whose Twitter feed do you religiously follow? InfoSec Taylor Swift. It's a joke feed, but they have some great tech and security points and articles shared there. In a few anecdotes throughout your talk, you mentioned the importance of having mentors and role models. Who are your biggest inspirations in the industry? Jennifer Arguello - I met Jennifer at the White House Tech Inclusion Summit back in 2013, where we hit it off talking about diversity in tech and her time with the Latino Startup Alliance. I made sure to keep in touch because I would be interning in the Bay Area, where she’s located, and we’ve been chatting ever since. Kelly Hoey - I met Kelly at a women in tech hackathon during my last summer as a student in 2013, and then she ended up being on my team on the British Airways UnGrounded Thinking hackathon. She and I both live in NYC now, and we see each other regularly at speaking engagements and chat over email about networking and inclusion. Rane Johnson - I met Rane at the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing in 2011, and then again when I interned at Microsoft in 2012. She and I started emailing and video chatting each other during my senior year of college, when I started working with her on the Big Dream Documentary and the International Women’s Hackathon at the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Ruthe Farmer - I first met Ruthe back in 2010 during my senior year of high school when I won the Illinois NCWIT Aspirations Award. She and I have been talking with each other at events and conferences and meetups (and even just online) almost weekly since then about getting more girls into tech, working, and everything in between. One of the things we chatted about after the talk was how empowering it is to have the resources and movements of our generation to bring more diversity to the tech industry. The solutions that come out of that awareness are game-changing. What are some specific ways in which companies can contribute to these movements and promote a healthier and more inclusive work culture? Work with nonprofits: Groups like NCWIT, the YWCA, the Anita Borg Institute, the Scientista Foundation, and several others are so great for community outreach and company morale. Educate everyone, not just women and minorities: When everyone is aware and discussing inclusion in the workplace, it builds and maintains a great company culture. Form small groups: People are more open to talking closely with smaller groups than a large discussion roundtable. Building those small, tight-knit groups promotes relationships that can help the company over time. It’s a really exciting time to be a software engineer, especially in fintech. What do you think are the biggest trends of our time in this space? Everyone's going mobile! What behavioral and market shifts can we expect to see from fintech in the next five to 10 years? I definitely think that even though cash is going nowhere fast, fewer and fewer people will ever need to make a trip to the bank again, and everything will be on our devices. What genre of music do you listen to when you’re coding? I switch between 80s music, Broadway show tunes, Christian music, and classical music. Depends on my feelings about the problem I'm working on. ;) IDE of choice? Vim! iOS or Android? Too tough to call.
