How to Level Up and Get That Engineering Job at Alignable

You’re here! It’s great to have you. I assume you’re interested in pursuing a job at Alignable, which is even better. Let’s begin by providing some information about our product and why we do what we do, as it will provide context for what follows. Alignable’s vision is to become the global small business network where business owners connect and access the resources they need to succeed. Our platform serves as the product through which business owners interact and generate value for each other. Simply put, businesses join, create profiles, connect with others, and engage in meaningful interactions. This online platform amplifies the traditional word-of-mouth marketing used by small businesses, adding scale and speed to the networking process.

Now, let’s walk through a simple example. Suppose I run a Real Estate Staging company that specializes in preparing houses for sale. As a former realtor in the same town, I have established connections within the local real estate community. Upon joining Alignable, I create a profile that highlights my expertise and showcases the transformational impact of my staging work through before-and-after photos. Additionally, I contribute by sharing an article on Alignable, outlining the top five effective staging strategies for quick and lucrative house sales. Using Alignable’s search feature, I connect with local realtors and even expand my network beyond my immediate community. Within a few weeks, I start receiving referrals from realtors in neighboring towns, resulting in a doubling of my business. As you can see, the process is straightforward.

Now that you understand the essence of our product, let’s discuss how you can secure a position at Alignable. First, let’s address the question: Why would you want to work here? Here are four reasons shared by our engineers:

“Growth - I started as a co-op at Alignable and knew I wanted to join the team after graduating. Alignable provided me with an immediately welcoming, collaborative, and driven space to challenge and explore my interests in data and development. The team fosters a culture that prioritizes both member experience and personal career growth. I’m also grateful to be supported so wholeheartedly in my world travels while working remotely. At Alignable, I can pursue my personal and professional goals with ease.” -Shraeya S.

Our Engineering team maintains a Skills Heatmap, which identifies how familiar each person is with specific skills or areas of the app. This tool helps identify “hot spots” -> knowledge gaps within the app. By leveraging this heatmap, we assign engineers to projects that encourage diversification of skills, fostering personal and team growth. We also maintain career development plans for each person on the team and drive toward completing quarterly goals that drive personal and business growth.

“Team - We get to work with a team that is both smart and fun.” -Ryan K.

Smart, fun, and interesting. Our team enjoys a diverse range of backgrounds and interests from travel and exercise enthusiasts, board games, baking bread and cooking, or simply eating. We have fun slack channels that span the range and meetups and activities that encourage building lasting relationships that make work fun. We also get to work very closely with the cofounders who’s combined vision, entrepreneurship, and expertise have been instrumental in shaping Alignable’s growth and success.

“Remote - The team at Alignable strikes the right balance between supportive, dedicated, and flexible. My supportive engineering teammates help me build the skills necessary to take on new challenges at work. Our collective dedication to our members drives me to be more thoughtful in my work to uplift their businesses and the communities they serve. The flexible remote culture allows me to do all that while pursuing my personal goals of traveling the world!” -Fiona G.

Since July 2020, we have embraced remote work, opening all our roles to fully remote hires. We have intentionally worked on our company culture, ensuring that remote team members feel included and engaged. Our international team spans across the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, creating a vibrant and diverse work environment. We have been so succcessful at this that several of our US team members have even tested out living abroad and working as they travel the world.

“Impact - I have been able to contribute to the success of small businesses by developing tools and features that help them connect with each other and grow their networks.” -Steven V.

At Alignable, mission and impact are paramount. Testimonials from our members highlight the value they find in our platform, such as making connections, receiving referrals, and experiencing business growth. Small businesses play a crucial role in communities and the economy, and Alignable empowers them to thrive.

• “I use Alignable every day to make connections and send referrals. I haven’t found a better way to network online and highly recommend Alignable!”
• “Alignable has significantly helped us to double our Homeschool Program and Enrichment Day from 50 students to over 100 in less than two years! We have had many excellent referrals and have connected with many excellent businesses. I especially love the new partnerships and connections I have made. Alignable is truly an excellent networking tool and offers some of the very best local marketing that we could do!”
• “Alignable helped me connect with people in my community; and with people across the county who hold similar passions and dreams. It’s like the hotspot for networking.”

Ok, so you get the product, you’ve heard why this is a great place to start or expand your career as a professional software engineering jockey guru hacker person. Now how do you ace our interview? Let’s talk about the steps.

First, you’ll have a thirty minute phone screen with our recruiter. You will be asked about your background, why you want to join Alignable, what you’re looking for next, and we will dig a bit into your background. Pro tips for passing this stage: Be prepared! Educate yourself and think about why you want to work here. Do some research (you already are ;)) and think about what you like about us and why it revs your engine. Don’t ask what we do (!!) rather figure it out by doing your homework and come prepared and informed. Think about the absolute best things you can highlight from prior accomplishments. Start with “we” and end with “I.” In other words, talk about your team’s accomplishments but make sure you highlight what you did. What did you bring? What value did you add? We care more about this than about what your larger team accomplished.

Once you pass the phone screen then you’ll be asked to complete a coding challenge. Depending on the role, this is either an remote-in-person or an offline exercise you complete on your own time, typically two hours long. The questions are meant to be straightforward and can be solved with simple code. Pro tips on the takehome tests: Take some practice tests in the language you intend to interview with. All of our coding interviews are meant to be a practical work simulation. You will work on either a greenfield project or an existing mock codebase written in Ruby on Rails with a React frontend. You’ll collaborate with a fellow engineer to identify and prioritize requirements, fix bugs, add features, and refactor existing code.

How to prepare:

1. GitHub: We use GitHub Codespaces to run the mock codebase and will invite you to our repo during the interview and ask you to screenshare. Please make sure you’re able to access your GitHub account and are set up to screenshare.
2. Web Fundamentals: Since we’ll be working on a web app, make sure you understand how servers, databases, and clients interact.
3. Basic Syntax: Familiarity with basic Ruby and JavaScript syntax will help move the interview along, but don’t worry about memorizing specific React or Rails constructs - this interview is meant to model a realistic work environment and googling during the interview is encouraged.

You are almost there. You’ve passed the first two gates and are on to the interview. Our interviews are typically four hours. Half the time is coding and design, a quarter is situational discussions, and a quarter is your time for Q&A. Additional tips for this stage:

We will send you our Core Values in advance of the interview. Think of specific examples that highlight each and be able to talk about them in detail, again highlighting your contributions, not just what your team did. Prepare questions. The interview is as much about you deciding if we’re a fit as it is us deciding if we want to hire you. You won’t be happy or successful if you don’t like working here. While all of us do it’s not a perfect match for everyone. Your Q&A session will be super awkward if you don’t have any questions. Be yourself. Our goal is to build an organization where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work every day, so bring your authentic self into the interview. We love hearing about varied backgrounds, experiences, and people, and can’t wait to get to know you.

That’s it! Easy! Now hit us up and apply here to start the journey towards becoming a Software Engineer and helping millions of small businesses be successful.