Q: What traits do you look for in candidates for a remote job?

We don’t look for any particular traits. We’re upfront with candidates to make sure they understand our culture so they can make their own decision. If an employee is willing to give it a try, even if they have not worked remote before, we are happy to work with them to ensure it is a good fit.

Question 1

What does your remote-friendly company do?

Accepted Answer

DataStax delivers Apache Cassandra™ in a database platform purpose-built for the performance and availability demands for IoT, Web and mobile applications. This gives enterprises a secure, always-on database technology that remains operationally simple when scaling in a single datacenter or across multiple datacenters and clouds. With more than 500 customers in over 50 countries, DataStax is the database technology of choice for the world’s most innovative companies, such as Netflix, Safeway, ING, Adobe, Intuit and eBay. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., DataStax is backed by industry-leading investors including Comcast Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Meritech Capital, Premji Invest and Scale Venture Partners.

Question 2

Did you switch to remote or start out that way?

Accepted Answer

Yes, we started out as a remote organization.

Question 3

What do you consider the biggest benefits of a remote workforce?

Accepted Answer

For engineering, the main benefit is being able to hire people who have the technical skills we need regardless of where they are located. That is our core culture. We derive secondary benefits like time zone coverage, but at the core it is to maintain a high technical bar.

Question 4

What were the main reasons to integrate remote work into your workforce?

Accepted Answer

DataStax provides products that are “wrapped around” open source software. The early employees were engineers who came from the open source world where there is no HQ and everyone already collaborated from around the world. We felt it was important to keep that culture as the company grew. Additionally, as the company matured and hired a worldwide sales team we found that much of sales was also remote.

Question 5

What traits do you look for in candidates for a remote job?

Accepted Answer

We don&#8217;t look for any particular traits. We&#8217;re upfront with candidates to make sure they understand our culture so they can make their own decision. If an employee is willing to give it a try, even if they have not worked remote before, we are happy to work with them to ensure it is a good fit.

Question 6

How do you conduct interviews for remote jobs?

Accepted Answer

Via Google Hangout or Skype.

Question 7

How do you convey your remote culture in the recruiting process?

Accepted Answer

The interview process mimics our day to day life and is all done remotely via phone, Google Hangout or Skype. As we speak to candidates, we explain to them that our CEO is a huge proponent of a remote culture and he schedules his all hands calls, company meetings, etc. at a convenient time for everyone worldwide.

Question 8

What is your hiring process for remote workers?

Accepted Answer

The process is the same and the bar is set just as high.

Question 9

Do you use third party testing or evaluation services when hiring remote workers?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

Question 10

Do you have remote communication protocols for your remote workers?

Accepted Answer

We’ve never had to set policies around communication as our employees are very self-motivated and if anything need to log off more often.

Question 11

Do your remote team members meet in person?

Accepted Answer

It is informal and unscheduled, but sometimes employees living near each other will get together for a lunch or dinner. We also have our yearly company Sales Kickoff Meeting and Cassandra Summit where most remote employees fly to our company headquarters in Silicon Valley.

Question 12

How do you measure the productivity of remote workers?

Accepted Answer

We measure productivity of remote employees the same way we measure for non-remote employees, by output and satisfaction of their downstream customers (internal or external). Seeing you in a seat isn’t something we measure.

Question 13

What elements are key to successful working relationships with remote teams?

Accepted Answer

Make sure there is not an “us vs. them” culture of HQ vs. remote workers. Treat everyone as remote, regardless of their location.

Question 14

What is your BYOD policy for remote workers?

Accepted Answer

We provide equipment to our remote employees.

Question 15

What is your time off policy for remote workers?

Accepted Answer

We prefer to trust employees to do the right thing with time off and provide a discretionary time off policy. To stay in compliance with local laws our policy is slightly different in different jurisdictions, but our overall culture is very time off friendly.

Question 16

What were your biggest fears in managing remote workers?

Accepted Answer

That it would be harder than it actually is. In fact, the management problems are the same regardless of location.

Question 17

How did you implement a remote work policy?

Accepted Answer

Remote work is a core part of our culture. It is not a policy.

Question 18

How do you nurture your company’s culture in a remote work environment?

Accepted Answer

We train our new employees on our company culture, which is based on Accountability, Visibility and Respect. We have weekly onboarding meetings for all new employees to learn about the company and where to access all important information. Also, each employee is emailed a coupon code to order DataStax branded items at our online New Hire Company Store. This allows our remote employees to feel connected, regardless of where they live.

Question 19

What advice would you give to a team considering to go remote?

Accepted Answer

Commit to it fully. For instance, our CEO gives monthly company updates from his office while the employees in HQ are in the conference room next door. This ensures he treats all employees around the world the same. Have you ever been on a conference call where you can barely hear what is going on and people are drawing pictures on a board that you can’t see? That is what we try to avoid. Additionally, make sure you have executive sponsorship (HR, Legal, Finance) across the board so the whole company is supportive.

Question 20

What challenges have you encountered building a remote team?

Accepted Answer

It’s not for everyone. We’ve had a few employees opt out because they really wanted to be in an office with their team, but this has been a very small percentage.

Question 21

What are the most effective tools for remote team communication?

Accepted Answer

We use technology such as group chat, video chat and shared documents.

Question 22

What has changed about how your remote team operates?

Accepted Answer

Adding more remote employees during this time of growth can create some challenges, but we try to get together in person twice a year to jump-start the relationships.

Question 23

How do you personally manage work-life balance?

Accepted Answer

Daytime is generally for work. Night time is generally for life. Sometimes I need to work at night. Sometimes I have to do personal things in the day, but it all works out. What is important is everyone around me understands my passion and dedication to our mission.

Question 24

What is your favorite business book?

Accepted Answer

The latest fad book that overly simplifies very hard problems 🙂

Question 25

Do you have a favorite quote or bit of business wisdom?

Accepted Answer

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether you&#8217;re the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you&#8217;d better be running.” I think that sums up the startup life!

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