Back to BlogWhat to Expect As a Blumira Engineering Candidate
So, you just hit the ‘submit’ button on your Blumira application. What’s next? This post will tell you what to expect when you interview with Blumira’s engineering team.
As Blumira’s Director of Engineering, I’m responsible for the overall success of the Engineering team in solving customer problems from a technical perspective and I can’t wait to hire and work with talented individuals that are passionate about cybersecurity.
First, a Bit About Blumira
Blumira is a startup based in Ann Arbor, MI that provides threat detection and response. Our cloud SIEM platform helps smaller IT and security teams detect and respond to security threats within their environment. Our mission is to fill the need for simple, easy-to-deploy security platforms in a market that’s crowded with complex, noisy SIEM solutions. Although Blumira is headquartered in Michigan, we’re open to hiring remote employees across the United States.
It’s an exciting time to join Blumira. In 2020 alone, we doubled the number of Blumira employees and are continuing to hire at a rapid pace. As a Blumira employee, you’ll have autonomy to make a major impact in the company. We’re looking for candidates who are ready to take on new challenges, deal with lots of growth and change, and come in ready to learn and take ownership on day one.
What to Expect: A Two-Way Street
Earlier in my career, I received great advice from a senior leader I admire. He told me that when considering new opportunities, always have 1-2 conversations and then decide if you think it’s worth committing to a longer process of interviewing. If it’s not, then politely opt out before getting deeper into the process. I’ve used this same advice in my own transitions and model it in my own hiring.
At every step along the way, I want you to feel comfortable asking questions. We are not just interviewing you; you are interviewing us. We take a deliberate and repeatable approach for every future engineering team member. We think about each of these interactions as informing a decision of “Do we want to go to the next round?” and ask that you think the same way and get the information you need to make the best decision for the direction of your own career.
If we didn’t find evidence of a strong match, we will share that decision back with you as well as share insights to how that decision was made. The idea is that it may help you as you continue to grow and look for your best match. We’ll also encourage you to consider applying again in the future. We mean that; let’s not count each other out in the future just because this particular role wasn’t a match. Otherwise, we’ll reach out to schedule the next conversation and continue the process.
Blumira’s Interview Process for Engineers
Your application gets reviewed. After you submit your application, it is reviewed by our Recruiting Lead and the Hiring Manager. They are looking for technical qualifications and experience they can glean from your submission. Be sure to share anything you are proud of and want considered as it helps us get to know you better. As a hiring manager, I will share that I am looking for the impact you’ve had in your previous roles and projects. You’ll generally want to focus on that no matter where you apply.
Connect with Blumira’s recruiter. Your first conversation is with our recruiting lead, who will ask you some basic questions to verify that you’re eligible, still in the market, and still interested in Blumira. They’ll also ask you some early screening questions that the hiring manager has set up. This will be a casual conversation, and you should feel comfortable asking any questions you have.
Meet with the hiring manager. In the second conversation, you’ll meet the hiring manager and they will share with you their history at the company, details of their role and insights on the team’s culture and practices. They will paint a clear picture of what the opportunity is and ask you to tell them more about yourself, too.
After that, they will ask you a set of behavioral interview questions. You’ll encounter this type of questioning throughout the entire process. We believe that past behaviors are the predictor of future success. My advice when encountering this style of questioning is be open and transparent, share details, and don’t try to have the perfect answer.
Dig into our product. Our first interaction in this next stage will be a product demo from someone on our team to you. We want to show you first-hand how our product works and the kinds of things we are working on. We’ll give you a tour of the software that exists, the problems it solves, and also share some of the areas in development that you will immediately get to contribute to. We do this because we want to give you the clearest picture of what the product does so you can assess if our mission is something that excites you. You will leave this demo knowing if you are being invited to the next stage, which is a coding assessment.
Coding interview. For this 60-minute coding interview, you will use any language you want to solve a problem and write some software. It will not be directly related to our product and isn’t something you can really prepare for either. About 15 minutes before we start, the hiring manager will send you details about the exercise via email. I promise you that this exercise will be more engaging and enjoyable than others you may have done in the past. Come to it ready to have fun and work together. We do this exercise to attempt to mimic what it would be like to be teammates working on a problem together.
You’ll leave this coding interview with clear feedback, delivered face to face, focused on how you did and what we were looking for with examples from the code you wrote. You will know immediately if we are going to invite you to our final round and the reasoning behind that decision.
Meet the team. This is our last round and it’s the biggest time commitment on all sides. We’ll be flexible and find a time that works for you. This is a whole-day interview where you’ll meet members of the engineering team that you will work with every day. You’re going to have 5-6 interviews in total on this day, each one about an hour long. You will meet:
- At least two (2) other engineers in your pod, whom you will work closely with day to day
- The engineering manager of your pod who helps the team and its members
- The product manager who is responsible for helping the team focusing on customer needs and market fit
- The design lead who helps the team focus on finding technical solutions to human problems
- A member of our senior leadership team to give you more insight into the company beyond engineering
We structure this last round so that you complete the big picture of what it will be like to join the team. The day after our final interview, we debrief on our side to share our experiences and recommendations on how to proceed. The final decision falls to the Hiring Manager, informed deeply by everyone involved. We will reach out to you within 1 day, sharing our decision with details and feedback that informed it. Hopefully we are moving to making an offer and figuring out what day you can start.
Ready to apply?
At a Glance
Here’s a takeaway summary of all the steps, with decision points between each step.
- Application Review
- Recruiting Lead and Hiring Manager review your submission for qualifications
- Recruiting Lead Screen
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- 30-minute phone call assessing eligibility and interest
- Hiring Manager Screen
- 30-60 minute Zoom call assesses team fit and candidate goal alignment
- Product Demo Share
- 30-45 minute Zoom call demo and Q&A session
- Technical Assessment
- 60-minute coding exercise followed by scoring assessment and feedback
- Final Round Panel Interview
- 4-6 interviews, with a panel that represents cross-functional peer group
- Debrief & Decision Share
- Recruiting Lead and Hiring Manager facilitate a 30-minute roundtable debrief where panelists reveal their scoring and decisions
- Hiring Manager makes final decision on hire or no hire
- We reach out to you to share next steps and feedback