11–20 of 82 posts
I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…
Their handbook is better documentation than what they offer for the product.
1. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtZ0sc1HHNtGGWZFDRTh5A/
I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…
I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do Interesting, there was a moment maybe a year and a half ago where I wanted to work for Gitlab, but upon learning precisely this I changed my mind. Not necessarily just that pay was location based, but reading through the Global Compensation page…
Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do Interesting, there was a moment maybe a year and a half ago where I wanted to work for Gitlab, but upon learning precisely this I changed my mind. Not necessarily just that pay was location based, but reading through the Global Compensation page…
I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.
-- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT --
Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided.
And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn't represented, it's not an option on the list. Neither was the city one county over, a city with a much more productive local economy. In fact, they don't even list the state Capitol, home to a pretty good business school and several engineering schools in the state. The nearest metro area that I could select to even calculate a potential salary is three hours away, separated by a state line with a completely different state tax rate than where I plan to reside.
It gets more complicated. The cost of living where I'd like to buy a house is objectively less than this city three hours away, separated by a state line. I know Gitlabbers love to comment and clarify things, so if one of you are reading this I'm curious to know how your salary sabermetrics adjust for this.
Then there's the fact that my significant other plan to start a family. If I buy a house in hometown, and I'm paid a lower salary than city three hours away, what's the discussion like if I get hired and two years later I have a child? That's not covered in the Compensation Handbook (if this is mentioned elsewhere in the handbook and I merely missed it, my apologies, I'll redact this complaint). Relocating requires involving a "written agreement" from my manager, and a recalculation of my salary.
On the one hand, it's VERY helpful I think to have all this laid out before applying, it's a level of transparency that more companies could stand to emulate, even while I'd say maybe don't emulate every practice employed by Gitlab...but the implementation of various policies just feel robotic, impersonal and quite rigid.
Again, I'll take full ownership of my words here if I've missed, or completely misread and misinterpreted aspects of this all, and I completely understand it's within Gitlab's prerogative to structure their company in a way that attracts the types of people for whom these things aren't considerations for their next job. It's just a shame for me personally, because I really like the product and really wanted to be part of solving some of the technical challenges their tools solve, having been a pretty vocal proponent of them in my current dev team.
I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…
I am very early in my career, so I’d bet whoever handles the leftmost phase of the hiring pipeline saw that and basically immediately binned my resume.
But I was still pretty bummed. Since Gitlab’s development is out in the open I could see the tickets in the team’s backlog and knew that I would be able to work them. In my cover letter, I said that I wanted to help them architect and scale global code search for the gitlab.com instance.
Anyway, that’s a reality of applying for a job without a referral and so I’m not bitter about it. But man, I was so impressed with the notions espoused in Gitlab’s handbook. Principles like being a global optimizer and prioritizing unblocking others fit my natural working style very well. In fact, I’d used that exact terminology (global optimizer) to describe myself to my manager at my previous job.
Anyway, it would have been a great opportunity. And the position I’d applied for had been open for so long that I’d hoped they really wanted to fill the position. Since I didn’t even make it to the screen, I didn’t expect any feedback, and naturally didn’t receive any.
I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…
To me offering feedback is an unnecessary attack vector for lawsuits.
I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I question…
I applied for a position (Backend Engineer in Search) that I felt I was a great fit for. I was rejected without even a phone screen. I am very early in my career, so I’d bet whoever handles the leftmost phase of the hiring pipeline saw that and basically immediately binned my resume. But I was still pretty bummed. Since Gitlab’s development is out in the open I could see the tickets in the team’s backlog and knew tha…