GitLab Marketing, 3 Aug 2020

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From YouTube: A Q&A with Recruiting and the Digital Production and Brand Design Team at GitLab

Description

Get to know some members of our Digital Production and Brand Design team here at GitLab! We talk about their experiences at GitLab, why they joined the company, and get some insight into what they look for in candidates during interviews.

A

All right, hello, everyone and thank you so much for joining our chat. Today. uh I am here with our growth marketing team, uh I'm steph sarf. I am one of the recruiters who supports hiring for this group and I'm based in portland, oregon uh and I'll, be monitoring a q a to get to know all of these lovely folks a little bit better and so erica. You want to kick us off with just who you are. uh You know where you are and then what you do at gitlab.

B

Sure um so I'm erica flowers- and I am based out of chicago illinois- the windy city um sears tower not willis. um I manage the digital product team and so that's pretty much all things, video audio and multimedia- and I work very closely with a lot of folks on this call. The design team.

C

I'm monica goletto, I am a production designer on the brand design team, I'm located in raleigh north carolina and I design a variety of things that represent our brand or um including, like ebooks and like assets for conferences, digital ads, social swag items, all the fun stuff where we can stick our logo on it.

D

So I'm luke, I am based in colorado, springs colorado and I manage our brand design team, so monica pretty much covered everything that we do, but essentially designing collateral for conversion, help out generating leads for the product cool.

A

um And then just to get to know you all a little bit more like. I would just love to hear why you chose gitlab like what was it about gitlab that made you want to join the team and luke I'd love to start with you.

D

Sure awesome um yeah. So quite frankly, I didn't know a ton about gitlab. Before I joined um it's really just looking for a remote job um way back in 2016, I think um so yeah. So that was what really drew me to get lab in. The first place was not only the fact that I could work from home, but just the culture they've built around it and having a really young family at the time it was a perfect fit.

B

And uh for me I was looking for a way to kind of like marry. You know almost you know two decades of media experience with tech, so I was doing a six month, development boot camp to strengthen my skills in tech, because I had been just kind of learning and doing random things on my.

A

B

um And in that course we used gitlab, so I kind of got familiar with the product and like knew a little bit about what it was there and um upon completing the program I decided to check and see if gitlab might have, you know something that aligned with what I was looking to do and you know saw a content, marketing role and applied, and here I am now.

C

For me, it was a combination of the values and also the flexible, all remote culture.

C

So the values really allowed me to continue doing what I want to do, but in a more like streamlined fashion and the working all remotely, it has given me more flexibility to have a balanced lifestyle just more time with friends and family and doing my hobbies outside of work that I'm also passionate about.

A

Definitely I agree with all those things all those reasons uh same same and then I guess what advice would you want to give someone who was interested in joining the team and just gitlab in general? Monica you want to kick us off there.

C

Yeah, so going back to the values, I think it's important that those resonate with you as well, because they are constantly being incorporated in like channel discussions interactions with one another and in our project discussions.

C

um Everyone has this sense that we're constantly like asking ourselves like: how can we improve this or improve like these interactions, we're having so that they align better to our values? So I love that we're really like walking the talk on those.

B

I would agree with monica. Definitely like you know, going up on. You know our values, because that's a really big part of life get lab and then beyond that, I would say you know just be ready to work hard and work fast. You know.

C

B

The epitome of like a startup.

C

And startup culture, even now as.

B

We're blowing so you have to be pliable and ready to pivot when needed and produce quickly and then continue to iterate from there along the way.

A

Definitely, I think, that's one thing that I've noticed too about gitlab is like when you think that you've done something like it's, not it like, maybe isn't done. You know like there's multiple iterations. That can happen uh because we want the best results at the end of the day too, and going back to something that monica said too, when we're hiring, I think that we do hire for values fits and not culture fit, and I think that there's a big difference between those two things so um and then kind of going into hiring.

A

I guess for the hiring managers would love to hear just sorts of like what skills you look for when interviewing candidates, whether it's hard or soft skills. uh You know, when you're looking to fill roles on your teams.

D

Yeah, um so I think, on the design side, obviously resumes and portfolios can tell you a lot and they're pretty straightforward. So I think, aside from that, um really try to look for um in the video interview. You know how well they articulate their work and their work experience clearly and concisely. I think um you know the get lab culture and working asynchronously. I think it really comes into play um working here. Sorry, my kids are here now um and then yeah thinking about hard skills.

D

You know in a general sense, um without getting into a bunch of like design details, um just really the ability for them to take on the work autonomously, um for the role they're, applying for and just really take ownership and kind of you know with very little direction. Just kind of you know take off from the beginning, yeah.

B

Yeah- and I would you know, echo loop sentiments both on just obviously the hard skills right, that's kind of a basic, but then the ability to communicate well is definitely something I look for in considering for the digital production team. Since that is what we do right, we communicate what is git lib. Who are we? What are we doing? Our.

A

B

um Also in working async, you know folks need to be able to clearly communicate. You know what they're working on what their needs are. What are we trying to like get done here and what do you need from someone else?

B

So you know those strong communication skills are like tend to mount to success at gitlab, um and I would also say the ability to collaborate is something that I look for, not only because it's a value of gitlab, but also because collaboration is such a critical part of like producing great video and audio content, and because my team works with, you know pretty much every team um in the organization supporting messaging for everyone, so you definitely need to be able to like collaborate well.

A

Yep definitely and ask for help when you need it right and reach like yeah um and then last question is just. What personally is your favorite thing about working at get lab, or what do you think is unique about our work, style and environment monica I'll start with you.

C

Yeah, so we are seen as people first and employees second and like you can see that from your peers that you're working alongside with to your manager, all the way up to sid everyone's really great about acknowledging that you know you're human with a life and emotions outside of work or that can be brought to work. So um everyone really prioritizes, you know entrusting in you that you will do what's best for your well-being or the well-being of your loved ones. um So it just makes for like a really healthy work. Environment.

B

Yeah- and I would agree with what monica said and then also for me, you know moving into the tech industry. You know I wanted to make sure I didn't get forward now that I wasn't that daily news cycle where there's like things going on at non-stop, and that has never been an issue with get that because we are fast-paced and um if you come from that kind of environment, a fast-paced environment or even an industry and you're looking at get lab.

B

It's definitely you're not going to be bored you're not going to be like you know, what's going on here. um So for me that was like my biggest thing and what I love about gitlab, um I also they enjoy the autonomy to like do my work and without you know this, like hovercraft of someone doing so, just being able to get what I need to get done done um and the trust that, like my managers and the team, asked me to do that um and then also just being able.

B

You know I've been here for like two and a half years, the ability to contribute to shaping the course of the company. That's not like just you know, fluff talk, it's actually real, so you.

C

D

B

You can voice your opinions, so uh I think that's really cool.

D

Yeah, um I think, first of all, it's super hard to pick just one but um yeah. I think personally, I would second kind of monica's um sentiment and say kind of the value of family and friends. First, um I work from home with two kids most of the time, so um it really takes the pressure off.

D

You know to know that the company and every individual, you know, values each person and you know their personal lifestyle, so um takes pressure off for me and then allows me to you know be really good at what I do for gitlab, but also you know, as a parent, and you know make it work for me. So it's not there's no expectation to be sitting in a chair from nine to five. You know like eric mentioned somebody hovering over you. um You know you just figure out what works for you and get the work done.

A

Yep, definitely, I think, all those things and also like that we're going back to like the trust piece like we're all trusted to do our work and we live our lives and then we also work and those two things can go together right. um I think we were talking about this earlier too, but just like the piece of like not being so stressed out.

A

All the time like my friends and family have really commented on that too, like just seems so much like happier, so I think that that's one thing that, like gitlab, I'm thankful that it's given me that opportunity, but um so thank you all. I really appreciate your time and really appreciate you taking some some minutes to chat about just what you do here and your experiences with our audience, and uh you know whoever's watching.

A

We really appreciate your interest in gitlab feel free to connect with us on linkedin and thanks for watching have a good rest of your day. Bye.