How we Hire: A Discussion about Xledger’s R&D recruiting process

Xledger has accelerated during and after the pandemic. With an office in a new nation, new hires, and a dizzying variety of new customers, Xledger has picked up the pace. Yet Xledger R&D has never stopped refining our solution. Thanks to our programmers, Xledger continues to occupy the leading edge of automation and real-time business intelligence.

As October draws to an end, so does a multi-stage R&D hiring process. Xledger has welcomed new programmers from across the country. We spoke with President Nathan McCann about the project and what Xledger looked for among its applicants.

X: Where did most of the applicants come from?

NM: Some applicants came from professional recruiting networks and some from university job boards. When we had identified the best applicants, we invited them in for an interview with R&D.

X: What was that interview like?

NM: Each candidate got a take-home coding problem that could be solved on multiple levels. This is a central part of our process: a puzzle that we design to be fun and fair. Of course, most of the applicants who tried couldn’t complete the task. Once we had some successes, we brought candidates back for another technical interview. They had to explain their solution, and then they had to solve what-if scenarios on the fly.

X: What came next?

NM: After the coding problem and the scenarios, candidates went to an interview with HR. We wanted more than top-of-their class candidates, more than an innate drive or a passion for problem solving. We didn’t want people who know programming languages and theory; we wanted innovators willing to be taught. We also sought candidates who would fit into Xledger’s start-up culture and adhere to our core values and development philosophy.

X: How would you describe our development philosophy?

NM: At Xledger, we care about the product and the code. We want our new software engineers to write clean and maintainable code–not something that ‘just’ works for now. We plan to nurture our new programmers, to treat them like artisans rather than factory workers.

X: So how did the hiring process end?

NM: We welcomed a variety of new candidates, nearly all of which have begun working with R&D. candidates.

In this round of hiring, we ended up with university graduates because we needed junior software engineers. But we have and need experienced programmers. Our search process takes some time, though: we want experienced software engineers who are willing to learn new tricks, able to mentor others, and ready to engage in an entirely new system.

With locations in five countries and customers in 60+, Xledger serves 10,000+ businesses with the market’s most automated finance management solution. For more information about how Xledger can partner with your organization, please get in touch.