RecruitingTips

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How a MongoDB Internship Helped Sahi Muthyala Grow Her Skills

Sahi Muthyala Sahi Muthyala is a rising senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who is working as a Product Management intern at MongoDB’s New York City office. Sahi is currently interning with the Atlas Growth team, where she is not only helping the Product Management department but also learning about product research, product culture, and connection. In this interview, you’ll read about the learning experience and culture at MongoDB that has made this program the perfect internship for Sahi. Sezzy Rodriguez: Thanks so much for speaking with me today, Sahi. The first thing I’m curious about is how did you hear about MongoDB's internship? Sahi Muthyala: I first heard about MongoDB's internship through one of my college mentors during my freshman year at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She had just interned on the Node Driver team and had a lot of great things to say about the program. The amount of ownership, collaboration, and mentorship that she got during the course of her internship, and the way she spoke of MongoDB's culture really stood out to me. SR: That was such a great connection. Why, besides what you heard from your mentor, did you decide to intern at MongoDB? SM: I decided to intern at MongoDB for a few reasons: First, the impact that MongoDB has excites me. The beauty of our end users being developers is that our technology supports them in building applications that can impact billions of people. There is no limit to the impact that MongoDB can have, and that gets me really pumped about the problems that I'm going to be working on. Second, staying technical was top-of-mind, and I knew that I would definitely be able to do that at MongoDB, regardless of the team that I was going to be on because of how our end users are developers and how technical our products are. Third, I wanted to work at a mid-sized company, because I wanted to learn from what MongoDB does well but also have the room to contribute outside the scope of my projects/role and move quickly without too much process. SR: I’m so glad you noticed all of these things even before interning. Speaking of, tell me about the team you are interning on. SM: I am interning on the Atlas Growth team, which was formed in 2018 to focus on growing the self-serve usage of Atlas by helping users become successful to reach their full potential on Atlas. The team is very cross-functional in that product, design, research, marketing, analytics, and engineering are all working together to brainstorm the experiments that we can run and how to iterate based on results. We also work with other teams like Atlas Search and App Services (formerly Realm), which is exciting. The Atlas Growth team is currently split into three squads — Activation & Engagement, Monetization, and Product-led Acquisition. I am working on Activation & Engagement this summer to reduce the time for new users to experience value in the product and increase their engagement with the platform. My favorite parts of the team are how quantitative and qualitative we are, and how we think about the big picture. We do lots of A/B testing and iterating and are very data-driven, but also talk to customers to understand their needs and broader user/development journey. In terms of big-picture thinking, our team is thinking about how we can improve an existing product that has a lot of cross-over with other products and subproducts, so we have to zoom out and think more long-term. Even if we are running smaller A/B tests, they are often tied to validating a certain larger vision or figuring out how we should go about doing something. There is also no such thing as a failed experiment because we gain insight from every experiment that we run, which helps us inform future decisions. SR: What a great team to have. What is your favorite project you have worked on so far? SM: Definitely product research on local development. Initially, I was focused on product research for Atlas CLI, which we announced at MongoDB World, but the scope of the project expanded to local development. The focus of my user interviews leaned toward understanding users' app building and local development journey so we could understand how Atlas CLI can fit into that journey, and when and where we can surface it to users. Learning more about what different users are trying to accomplish and how they leverage our different tools was really insightful. Other major parts of this research project included a competitive analysis, user survey, and data analysis, which I used to gather findings, identify parallels, and come up with experiments that we can run. SR: That’s so interesting. What is the culture like at MongoDB? SM: The culture at MongoDB is incredible. People not only care deeply about what they are working on, but also want to know all about what you are working on and how they can support you. I care a lot about being somewhere where people are passionate about what we are building, and I see that at MongoDB. Furthermore, I love the product culture at MongoDB. We are user-obsessed. Developers will not start using our products just because of all of the cool things we say about what we have to offer. They care about whether our products and tools address their needs. It is pretty simple, but looking deeper, developers are challenging users: Not all developers are the same, and they tend to have pretty different use cases and even use different combinations of our products. These differences really push us to think about the whole developer journey and work cross-team to make sure that our users truly have the best experience. SR: What is your favorite part about interning at MongoDB? SM: The people. I am so glad that I have been around such incredible people who really care about what we do and who make sure that I am well-supported and have a fruitful experience. This internship has enabled me to learn so much from them and grow in ways that I did not even foresee before my internship started — from energy management to how to frame meetings/presentations with different audiences, and so much more. I am glad that I have found such a great fit in my final college internship. I feel like I have already grown so much as a young professional and have a strong idea of what I want to focus on next in my full-time role. SR: I’m so happy you’ve had a great internship experience at MongoDB. How has your team/mentors helped you as an intern this summer? SM: My mentor Richa has made me feel incredibly connected, valued, and supported as an intern. Even with her busy schedule, she made the time to meet with me for at least 30 minutes every day for the first few weeks of the internship to answer the many questions that I had, and she always encouraged me to explore whatever sparked my interest. Even though I have only been here for a few weeks, I have been pleasantly surprised to see how seriously my feedback is taken, whether it is around a product or process. The Atlas Growth team has made me feel just like another member of the team, and some PMs on other teams have taken it upon themselves to make me feel included and help me as much as they can. SR: Anything else you'd like to share? SM: Please feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn if you have any questions about my experience. You can also follow me on Medium , where I write about product management among other topics.

November 1, 2022

How to Land Your Next Customer Success Role at MongoDB

Katie Palmer As director of customer success at MongoDB, I am thrilled to participate in growing our organization. Personally, I had two primary reasons for joining MongoDB. The first was the incredible market opportunity. The second reason was the opportunity to work alongside world-class go-to-market and customer success leaders. When I spoke with various MongoDB leaders during the interview process, I was impressed by their servant leadership approach, their genuine passion for what they’d been building at MongoDB, and their vision for customer success at MongoDB. The biggest highlight of working at MongoDB so far has been the deeply ingrained commitment to talent development in the culture here. At every level, there’s a feeling that no success is more important than helping employees build meaningful skills to achieve their full potential. One leader shared with me that the way they’ll measure their success at MongoDB is not by the number of quarters in which they hit their goals, or the revenue growth their work helped to achieve, but rather, how they were able to impact the pursuit of their employees’ goals and career aspirations. That approach has pushed me to new places both as a leader and an employee. Read on to learn more about our recruiting process for customer success and what we look for in candidates. Our approach to resumes The job-related people skills I look for when reviewing resumes include relationship building, communication, and business acumen. In terms of character-related skills, I look for signs of resourcefulness, grit, determination, and teamwork. MongoDB’s approach to hiring is similar to how we run our business. We have a data-driven, methodical approach, but we apply a human touch and creativity to supplement the science. Overall, I look for potential. I’m looking for individuals with a high ceiling, people who are going to up-level the team and make a massive impact on the business. Part of that is ensuring we bring in people with proven skills, but it also involves identifying those intangibles often seen in high achievers. Three things I look for when scanning a resume are: Relevant SaaS and/or customer success experience at an organization with a B2B sales motion A combination of technical skills and business acumen Career progression within a company The most important aspect of this role is the ability to connect business challenges and desired outcomes with the products and solutions that MongoDB offers. When I review a candidate's experience, I look for evidence of high aptitude and business skills combined with a passion for technology. In the absence of proven experience, your ability to articulate why you’re so excited to develop those skills will get me excited about having you join the team. The recruiting process Once a candidate has passed the recruiter screen, they move to the next step in the process and meet with the hiring manager. When meeting with the hiring manager, the goal is to engage in a conversational interview, where we will provide more insight into the position while discussing motivators, people skills, and experience managing customer relationships, as well as gauging technical interest and general knowledge of our products. If all goes well, we’ll schedule a call with one of our customer success team members. This step is a great opportunity to learn more about the day-to-day expectations of the role, our team culture, and how we work with our customers from someone actively performing a similar position with MongoDB. This interview will involve a case study, which is intended to be discussion based, to understand your approach to a customer use case. If the peer interview goes well, the candidate is invited to our “challenge” interview. In our case, this means that the candidate will prepare a mock onboarding meeting with a new MongoDB Atlas customer. We provide the materials, ranging from presentation slides to a basic script with expectations and platform demo instructions. At any stage throughout the process, we strongly encourage you to engage with our team and recruiters as a resource for additional information and to answer any questions you may have throughout your preparation. We’re here to help set you up for success. The three main things I look for during the challenge presentation are: A passion for technology. A strategic mindset. Are you able to balance the big picture objectives alongside the tactical outcomes throughout the conversation? Adaptability, coachability, and the ability to accept feedback. Finally, my top three tips for succeeding in the challenge are: Let your personality shine. Show us why customers will love working with you. Be curious. Think about great questions you can ask during the onboarding call and demo that will uncover details, help the customer adopt MongoDB, and make your call conversational. Take advantage of the prep call with your interviewer. Ask for feedback and apply it ahead of the challenge presentation. Hear from senior customer success manager Christina Chao on why she joined MongoDB's customer success team Christina Chao When looking for my next workplace, I knew I wanted to find a place where I could continually challenge myself and grow my career year over year. This requires a combined focus on customer success and professional development. Many companies say that they see customer success as the future, but few actually have programs or policies in place that support that notion. MongoDB, on the other hand, has put significant investment into its customer success organization. They have invested heavily in promoting customer success both within and outside of MongoDB, providing growth opportunities for customer success managers (CSMs) and ensuring that they feel heard. Most importantly, MongoDB has created a culture that genuinely encourages growth. This culture is embodied at all levels of the organization, and we are continually challenged to be intentional about our growth, step out of our comfort zone, make mistakes (and learn from them), and own what we do. Interested in joining our customer success team? We have open roles across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

October 31, 2022

Five Tips for Creating Your Product Design Portfolio

The UX, Interaction, and Product Design professions have experienced a massive increase in demand as more and more companies embrace technology and recognize the importance of providing a positive user experience. A designer’s portfolio is needed for almost every job application or interview process, regardless of your level of experience, and it should be an accurate representation of your process and craft. If you’re working on your portfolio or starting to interview, here are a few tips to help make your portfolio stand out. Keep it updated with your recent work or projects you’re most proud of. About 2-4 projects is usually a good target (depending on detail and length), but don’t stretch to out-of-date projects that may not reflect your current skill set. Trust in your resume to speak to the extent of your experience and let your portfolio be a spotlight for more current work. As a rule of thumb, consider replacing work on your portfolio that’s older than 5 years. Having projects that are relevant to the space you’re applying/interviewing for is always a bonus, but at MongoDB, we hire design team members from all types of backgrounds and value different perspectives. Details and aesthetics count. Your portfolio is a representation of yourself, your work, organizational skills, and more. Even if you keep it simple, creating a portfolio is a time consuming process that requires a ton of energy and thought. We recommend including high resolution images, and exporting animations to gifs or videos, proofreading and utilizing spell check. This is a great chance to showcase your strengths, attention to detail, and an opportunity to share parts of your personality! Continuing to refine your visual design skills? Try using Dribbble and other communities as a resource. Drawing inspiration from other designers on the side is a great way to learn. Tell a compelling story and be consistent with your format. Once you choose a layout and format for your portfolio, be consistent across all your projects. Don’t just show screenshots, share the details that matter most in your process and tell a compelling narrative about the end-to-end journey. We love the messy sketches, whiteboarding, wireframes, and everything in between! It’s okay if things didn’t go as planned; we also want to hear about what you learned and how you grew from the experience. Focus on the user. We are all about the users at MongoDB, and our Product Design teams are user advocates across the organization. Hearing about how user problems are solved through collaboration, research, testing, design, and strategy is what we’re passionate about. Know your audience and the role you’re applying for. Making your portfolio easily readable and starting with projects most relevant to your career interests and goals will really make it stand out. For longer or more complex pieces, try to bold the most important parts to quickly grasp your audience’s attention. Pro tip: We recommend including your portfolio and password when applying to a role. We understand that it’s important to protect any sensitive work, however, providing quick access could give you the edge in this fast-paced job market! Each person that joins our team adds something unique and special, changing the team for the better. Learn more about our Product Design team in this two-part series . If you’re passionate about technology and our Design team sounds like one you’d like to be a part of, we’d love to hear from you! Interested in pursuing a career in design at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

November 30, 2021

Five Tips for Writing Your Marketing Resume

We are always looking for talented and passionate marketers to join our team at MongoDB, and we want to set you up for success starting at the first step in our recruiting process. No matter how many positions you’ve applied for in the past, it’s always a good idea to refresh your resume for each application. If you’re interested in applying to our Marketing team, take a look at my tips for writing an impactful resume. Length and formatting There are some resume formatting tips that you may already know, but I think it’s great to start with the basics. I recommend keeping your resume to two pages or less and breaking it into sub-sections. The top of your resume should have your name, contact details (phone number and email address), and a link to your LinkedIn profile. Next, I recommend including a short summary of you and your experience. For marketing roles, it’s always great to get some insight into the companies and teams you have worked with, projects you have taken part in or led, and some of the main skills you feel you could bring to MongoDB. Next should be your experience. I always advise candidates to break their experience section into three different parts: Company and role: Provide a brief description of the company you previously worked at and a high-level overview of your role there. Responsibilities: Utilize bullet points to provide more detail about the main responsibilities you held while working there. Highlights and achievements: I recommend showcasing some of the main achievements you have had while working in each role. This helps provide a clear picture of your skills and capabilities. At the bottom of your resume, list your highest level of education achieved and any degrees you hold. You may also consider including additional information such as charity or volunteer work you’ve done, other activities you participate in, or hobbies and interests. While we are interested in your professional experience, we’re also interested in learning about you as a person! Highlights and achievements During the recruiting process at MongoDB, we want to learn as much as we can about you. Your resume is your chance to highlight all the great things you’ve done in your career. To reiterate the above, I recommend adding a section under each role you’ve held to list some of your top achievements. This will help show us where your strengths are and how you could impact the Marketing organization at MongoDB. Achievements could be marketing events you held and the impact they had on the organization or campaigns you ran that had a great return on investment. Any internal awards or recognitions you received would be great to add here, too. Numbers, stats, tools, and links As you are listing your highlights and achievements, I’d like to mention that adding numbers and statistics can really go a long way in making your resume stand out. For example, maybe you ran a campaign that led to an uptick in sales leads and conversions. Consider providing the data to showcase this. Visual aids like charts and graphs are also a great addition. If you have some examples of campaigns, webpages, or events you’ve managed, consider adding links to them within your resume. Resumes that are both qualitative and quantitative have the greatest impact and are quickly noticed. Listing some of the marketing tools you have used is also helpful for the recruiter and hiring manager to understand your experience with marketing technology. Under each role, I’d recommend adding a list of the tools you used and your proficiency with them. At MongoDB we use tools such as Salesforce, Tableau, Eliqua, and Splash, so if you’ve had experience with any of those, be sure to highlight it! People management If you are applying for a people management role, I recommend highlighting the mentoring and coaching experience you gained through your management experience. It is also helpful for potential hiring managers to understand how many direct reports you had in previous roles and the seniority level of these direct reports. Attention to detail As a recruiter, I've seen spelling and grammar mistakes on resumes at all levels and from all sectors. We are only human at the end of the day, but when applying for roles in areas such as marketing where attention to detail is key to success, it’s best to give your resume a second (or even third) look. Ensuring that your resume is well-written, grammatically correct, and formatted in an easily readable way will really make it stand out. I hope to see your resume in our applicant tracking system soon! Interested in pursuing a career in marketing at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

November 18, 2021

Preparing for Your Consulting Engineer Interview at MongoDB

Are you a software professional who isn't always just about the software? Do you write code, but just as often get an equally strong sense of accomplishment by configuring a tricky but vital part of the operating system or DBMS? Do you enjoy working with a variety of computer professionals from SysAdmins to Devs to CTOs? Do you feel that special spark from knowing there's so much more to learn about the technology you eat, sleep, and breathe, and that you might never learn every last bit of it, but it'll be a heck of a ride trying to? Are data management and consulting two things you enjoy doing more than anything else? We are always on the lookout for such professionals. Those who seek the challenge. Those who can immerse themselves in every cubic millimeter of a particular stack in their quest to find “the answer”. Those who find fulfillment in helping MongoDB's customers realize every bit of potential that our products can give them. MongoDB Professional Services provides best-of-breed expertise and experience for all of our products to help our customers and community users get the most out of them. This can involve one or more of: Application Lifecycle Expertise, providing both strategic and tactical consulting from the conception to delivery to post-delivery phases of your application lifecycle Dedicated time with a dedicated MongoDB technical expert, with all of the resources of the company and the community at their disposal Public and Private Training for DBAs, DevOps Engineers, Developers, and Data Scientists Migrating customer workloads to MongoDB in Public Clouds And on the front lines is the Consulting Engineer (CE). The Jack-of-all-trades of all things MongoDB who works directly with our customers on a daily basis. What follows is a guide for those looking to join MongoDB Professional Services. We have Consulting Engineer positions available at a variety of levels, and this guidance should help make for the best possible interview experience! Do you have what we're looking for? Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to know how to use MongoDB. Trust me, that was my situation when I interviewed with MongoDB. Don't get us wrong, it is a definite “plus” to have some experience or be an expert, but no experience with MongoDB isn't a deal-breaker. It also isn't an absolute requirement to have been a Consulting Engineer before (I hadn't been), but you do need the skills and qualities that can be made into a successful CE. We look for bright, motivated people who can learn quickly, pivot effortlessly, and adapt relentlessly to a myriad of challenges and situations. People who rise up to technical challenges in pursuit of our customers' needs. We are mostly focused on customers after the sale, although we do work in tandem at times with our Account Teams. A MongoDB Consulting Engineer is well-versed in modern software stacks, database technologies, software development, deployment, and day-to-day operations. They utilize MongoDB Best Practices, deliver MongoDB Technical Training, and work with both customer Dev and Ops teams to ensure successful deployments of MongoDB-based software solutions. They are resourceful, adaptable, always willing to learn, and (if and when we get back to it) comfortable travelling a majority of the time. They enjoy interacting with software professionals on a daily basis. They enjoy representing MongoDB and its products and technologies. They enjoy real-world technical challenges. Do we have what you're looking for? The very first step in your journey is to check the Customer Engineering careers page for open Consulting Engineer positions. If one or more look like a potential fit, we encourage you to apply! As an organization, MongoDB Professional Services strives to be one of the best in the industry. We adhere to very high standards, which translates to maximum benefit to our customers. We are always learning from each other and learning about our new products and technologies as they come down the pipeline. We work hard, we have a lot of fun, and we make a difference. Because a Consulting Engineer must possess a broad skill set, there is significant potential for career growth within the organization. People management is one route, or you might decide you'll always prefer to 'stay technical' - in the latter case, consider a development path that could land you a coveted MongoDB Distinguished Engineer position some day. Alternatively, you might at some point determine that you wish to move into other Professional Services roles with other emphases, such as: Tool and Framework Development for our customers, as well as your fellow Consulting Engineers Curriculum Development, for internal or external Training offerings Engagement Management, where you working more closely with Account Teams to present Professional Services' value proposition to potential and current customers Project Management You are given extensive freedom as a MongoDB Consulting Engineer. We give you the freedom to explore, the freedom to create, the freedom to learn, and the freedom to contribute to the organization and our customers in your unique way. Do you aspire to give a presentation at a MongoDB.local or at MongoDB World? Perhaps the written word is your thing, and you'd like to try your hand at blogging for MongoDB and Professional Services (like I'm doing right here!). Or maybe you just like to develop new and interesting tools for other MongoDB users through the MongoDB Community. All of those and more are possible. Is that what you're looking for? As a company, MongoDB aims to be recognized as a leader in how we value and look after our employees, as well as our customers. Want to learn more? Check out our Life At MongoDB blog posts. Interview step one: speaking with a recruiter Once you've applied for a Consulting Engineer position, a Recruiter will review your resume and determine if they think your skills and experience could be a good fit for the role. If so, they’ll reach out to you to get to know you better and to discuss your qualifications for the particular position, your experience in the industry to date, and what you are looking for in a position with MongoDB. The more you can reflect on your experience and expertise and then show its applicability to what we're looking for, the better. Think about what you are wanting in a career at MongoDB as a Consulting Engineer and how we may be able to make that happen together. A good job fit is, after all, a two-way street. Interview step two: speaking with the hiring manager If the Recruiter confirms that you are a potential fit for Professional Services, you will be scheduled for some time with the Hiring Manager. Give some thought to the following: What do you want out of your next job? What are you looking for in a company and a manager? Why do you feel, at this point, that you are an excellent fit for this position? Pick some example experiences/situations from your past that may be relevant to this position, and be prepared to discuss them. The manager will likely share more about the overall and day-to-day expectations of the job. They will also ask if you have additional questions that they can answer to give you a fuller picture. Our goal is to give you a proper overview of the team (and its culture), Professional Services, and what it's like working at MongoDB. Interview step three: speaking with MongoDB Consulting Engineers In this phase, you will have a handful of one-hour interviews with established MongoDB Consulting Engineers. Each interview covers one or more of the following: Database expertise (Relational and non-Relational) Software development experience and familiarity Problem solving expertise and approach(es) Consulting experience/expertise Rigors of and requirements for daily customer interaction Now: Working with customers remotely (Potentially) In the future: Business travel a majority of the time (note: on hold at present due to COVID) "Soft skills" needed to be a successful MongoDB Consulting Engineer Report writing skills Verbal communication skills (1-on-1 and to groups) Dealing with various customer personalities and situations Comfort talking to customer individual contributors, management, and business stakeholders No, we do not expect you to code an O(n) sorting algorithm on a whiteboard while we wait. Nor do we expect you to install and configure a database server on the fly from a terminal window. That being said, if those sorts of things intrigue you, well…. points for that. What we will do is dig into how you attack problems, how you work with individuals and groups to find solutions, and how you make use of available resources and think outside the box when required. We also ask questions to see how quickly you can absorb new information and how quickly you can adapt to rapidly changing situations. Interview step four: speaking with the PS Director The last stage in the interview process is a chat (usually via video conference) with the Professional Services (PS) Director for that region. This can give you a slightly different perspective of the organization and the role itself, as well as added visibility into our business and company culture. The good news is that this will not be as technical as the interviews above. Before this discussion, consider what you've discussed so far in the interview process, and what other aspects of the role you have further questions about. I will say that when I interviewed back in the day, I sat down with our newly-hired head of Professional Services and asked him "where do you see the organization in two to three years?". His answer was a significant piece of why I accepted MongoDB's offer, so don't be afraid to ask what's really on your mind! Questions? I love to make connections between outstanding individual contributors and MongoDB Professional Services, so if you have any questions about this process or the jobs, feel free to drop me a line. If you’d like to hear more about my experience as a Principal Consulting Engineer, listen to this episode of The MongoDB Podcast. You can find me on LinkedIn, or by writing to me at eric.reid@mongodb.com . Good luck! Interested in pursuing a career as a Consulting Engineer at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

November 16, 2021

How to Prepare for Your Engineering Interview at MongoDB

MongoDB’s Engineering team is full of creative individuals who play an impactful role in building our industry-leading technology. Our interview process is designed to ensure that you and MongoDB are a great match, and, no matter how many interviews you have done in the past, being prepared is the key to being successful. At MongoDB, we do our best to make sure you have a great interview experience and an opportunity to learn about our company, culture, and the people you will be working with. To help you prepare for your technical interviews, we want to share some tips. Research is key Candidates who do research and come prepared for interviews at MongoDB are able to make the most of their interview process. People sometimes think they do not need to do research because they are already familiar with our products, but that will set you up for unexpected surprises. Before beginning your interviews, you should have high-level knowledge of our company’s mission, values, and goals . The in-depth technical information you can learn about MongoDB and the role and team you are interviewing for may also help set you apart from other candidates. MongoDB has a variety of products and Engineering teams, and this information will give you a chance to learn more about what we are working on, technical stacks we use, and what you’d be contributing to if you joined. Take a look at some of the resources below, and use them to your advantage. MongoDB Blog : Our blog is updated regularly with new posts about life at MongoDB, news, products, and events. MongoDB University : This platform was created to empower developers through education. We offer completely free online courses led by Curriculum Engineers for any learner, whether you’re just getting started or already familiar with MongoDB. MongoDB Documentation : The documentation page has detailed information about our products and tools that will give you an idea of what you will be working on as an engineer. MongoDB Developer Hub : The developer hub provides articles on and resources for how to get started with MongoDB. Learn from our Developer Advocates and the MongoDB community! Types of interviews After doing some initial research, it is important to prepare for the actual interviews. Our interview process usually includes one or two virtual interviews and then an onsite interview, which we are currently conducting via Zoom. This may change in accordance with company and COVID-19 guidelines. These interviews and what they cover will vary by team, so it is important to speak with your recruiter and ask for any additional tips or insight into what to expect. Our recruiting process is primarily team-based, which means you’ll interview for a role on a specific team, and many of your interviewers will be team members, as well as your manager. In general, you can expect to receive questions about your background, interest in MongoDB, and why you are interviewing to work with that team. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask your interviewers questions about all things MongoDB. Technical Interviews Technical interviews have a variety of areas that may be covered, including concurrency, distributed systems, algorithms, system design, and language-specific coding. An important part of the technical interview that often goes under the radar is the need for effective communication when talking through your thought process or discussing the problems that are presented. Below are some of the things our engineers look for in a good technical performance. Writing code: strong understanding of the language being used, code is concurrency-safe, works in edge cases, good object-oriented design Software engineering: understanding of data structures and algorithms, considering trade-offs (e.g., run time vs. memory), testing your code Collaboration: clear and concise code that is readable and organized, responding well to suggestions or hints, effective communication about difficulties faced Systems design: design a solution to scale to high levels of concurrency, throughput, and reliability. Does it avoid common bottlenecks, how do we prove its correctness, and what are the trade-offs or alternative solutions? Behavioral Interviews Behavioral interviews focus on how you may add to the culture we continue to build at MongoDB. Reviewing our code of conduct and core values will show you how we operate as a company and what we expect from our employees. Other topics of discussion you should expect in these interviews are successes and failures, what you have learned from these experiences, and what you are looking for in your next role. We will also ask you about your experience with mentoring and learning from other engineers and leaders, your goals and aspirations for the future, and your experience with owning or leading projects. What we offer There are a few things we can promise if you decide to interview for an Engineering role at MongoDB. First, you’ll have a speedy and transparent process with a single, dedicated recruiter. We tailor each of our interview processes to fit the role’s responsibilities and seniority level, and you won’t be asked any riddle questions that aren’t related to the work you’d be doing. Our interview questions are typically sourced from real problems we have had to solve. You’ll also have the opportunity to interact with your future manager and some future teammates, and we hope you find that your interviewers are genuinely interested in you as a person and seeing you succeed at MongoDB. We believe different experiences, identities, and perspectives build a unique culture that helps us create and innovate the next generation of MongoDB. In short, following this guide will help prepare you for a successful interview at MongoDB. Ensure you have gained some knowledge about our company, mission, and goals; the role you’re interviewing for and the team you’d be working on; and the types of interview questions you may be asked. And be prepared with questions for us! We’re so glad you’re interested in joining our team, and we look forward to seeing you in the interview process. Interested in pursuing a career in engineering at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

October 21, 2021

Three Tips for Writing Your Customer Success Resume

So you’re interested in joining our Customer Success team. We’re thrilled you’ve identified MongoDB as a potential next step in your career! Before applying to one of our many open positions globally, take some time to read through these top three tips for what our Customer Success recruiters look for when reviewing applications. Less is more I’m a big fan of keeping resumes simple. Fun graphics, fonts, colors, and styles may be eye-catching, but at times they can also be distracting. Resumes that are easy to follow get noticed the most and showcase your expertise the best. If a resume’s format is hard to follow or in a hard-to-read font, a recruiter or hiring manager may miss some key points related to your experience that you wanted to highlight. Consider how you will organize the information you are presenting and which accomplishments you will highlight. This can often be an indicator of how you would present information to a customer! It’s a good idea to stick to a format where company names are highlighted in a larger font with short bullet points summarizing your day-to-day responsibilities and accomplishments underneath. Focus on your most recent role or experience that is the closest fit for the role you are applying to. Identify keywords and details in the job description Resumes that highlight key responsibilities and skills listed in the job description really stand out! We do not expect candidates to have all the skills required for our positions since Customer Success can vary across industries and organizations, but be sure to highlight the relevant skills you have that you can bring to MongoDB. It’s great to also showcase that you have a willingness to learn our technology, are coachable, and have progressed in your career. Try to tell a story with your resume and show the Recruiting team the skills you have gained through your past experiences. If you’ve spent any spare time upskilling, I recommend highlighting it to show your enthusiasm for learning and self-development. If you have been involved in any projects outside your core role that you think may be of interest to the team, you can add those too! Highlight details that showcase your experiences My final tip for applying to a role in Customer Success is to share the right details on your resume. Day-to-day responsibilities are great to list, but also make sure to share important details such as what type of customers you work with (SMB vs. Enterprise, for example), how many customers you manage in your portfolio, the region or industry you support, your current KPIs, and any significant achievements you have made in your current or previous roles. We have several teams within Customer Success at MongoDB focusing on different types of customers and regions, so this will help us to identify quickly which team your experience is more aligned with. These are just a few useful tips from my experience hiring for our Customer Success teams here at MongoDB. Be sure to check out our website to learn more about our Global Customer Success program and view our open roles . We hope to see you in the interview process soon! Interested in pursuing a career at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

September 30, 2021

How to Prepare for Your Sales Interview at MongoDB

At MongoDB, our Sales team is growing rapidly as we strive to build a salesforce with a legendary reputation of excellence and integrity. Although we are eager to add new reps to our team, we are focused on ensuring we hire the right people for the job and that we’re the right company for you, too! Because of this, our interview process may not be as quick or look the same as other companies’. We feel confident that we’ve designed our interviews to uncover a mutually beneficial opportunity that will allow anyone who joins the team to look back on their time at MongoDB as a career-defining point in their lives. Our typical interview process includes three interviews, a sales profile assessment, and a final interview that we call “The Challenge”. Throughout these interviews we want you to meet as many people on our team as possible. Your interview panelists may include the Regional Director (RD) you’d directly report to along with RDs from other regions. You’ll also typically meet with a Regional Vice President or SVP depending on your location. We ultimately want you to be introduced and exposed to teams across the company so that you receive insight into our broader culture and can decide if MongoDB is the right fit for you. We recommend treating the recruitment process similar to a sales cycle including preparation, qualification, and closing. No matter the interview, you should be aware that all MongoDB Account Executive interviews are around the three Whys: Why MongoDB? Why you? Why now? Why MongoDB We want to ensure that we can support your career growth at MongoDB. At each stage of the interview process, leaders will want to dig in on the three P’s: 1. People Our executive leadership team is made up of some of the best in the industry. To understand who is behind the success of the company and how they got here, we recommend looking into some notable MongoDB figures such as our Executive team and Board Members. Prior to each interview, you will receive a guide with the names of the managers you’ll be interviewing with. We recommend doing some research on these individuals and their team members, along with other Account Executives at MongoDB. It’s likely that you’ll be asked about this research during your interview, so be prepared to discuss what you found. 2. Product The MongoDB data platform is complex which can make our sales process rather technical in certain use cases. While we don't expect you to come with database expertise, we do want to know why you have an interest and see the value in selling it! We recommend taking a look at our customer testimonials online to learn how MongoDB technology is applied. We also recommend researching our differentiators, which should help you understand why a C-Suite executive should buy MongoDB. Below are some resources to help you get started. MongoDB Technology Overview Why MongoDB Atlas 3. Process Come prepared to talk about your week, where you spend your time, and how you plan and prioritize your accounts. While our AEs do handle some existing business, the main focus is on new pipeline generation as we continue to disrupt a huge market. Our Sales team follows the MEDDIC sales qualification methodology as well as our own internal sales process. This provides the team with a proven roadmap on how the most successful sellers have closed deals and promotes a common language within our teams across the globe. We recommend you speak to the sales and qualification process you follow currently and understand how they compare. Why you We’ve spent a lot of time defining our sales process and how our Account Executives can be successful. Because of this, we’ve been able to determine what top-performing reps at MongoDB have done differently and what characteristics help them quickly develop and achieve great records of closed deals. Coachability: There’s a ton of enablement at MongoDB, and we want you to make use of it! If you enjoy coaching and development, this is a good environment for you. Drive: The database market is massive, and MongoDB owns less than 1% of it. To be successful, you’ll need grit, a competitive nature, and a drive to disrupt one of the largest addressable markets in the software industry. Street smarts: Although the MongoDB product is technical, there is still a very human element to the sales process. We look for people who have emotional intelligence, the ability to “read the room”, and are empathetic. Ability to build pipeline: It may seem obvious, but our top performers are great at generating business meetings that impact their number of deals closed. You’ll need to excel at and enjoy hunting new business! Champion building: We strongly believe in making long-lasting connections and look for individuals who can identify and build a MongoDB Champion within their customers. Why now We believe that timing is important and want you to feel confident in your decision to join MongoDB. We encourage you to think about the following: Do you feel ready to leave your current role? If so, why do you believe now is the right time for you to do so? What are you not receiving in your current role that you’re looking for in a new role? Do you feel confident in your decision to interview with MongoDB at this time? These are things that will be discussed during your interview process, and we hope that you can happily articulate why you believe MongoDB is the next step for your development and career. Learn more about the Sales team from some of our team members Interested in pursuing a career at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

September 10, 2021

Preparing for Your Customer Success Interview at MongoDB

We’re thrilled that you’re interested in interviewing for a Customer Success role at MongoDB! Preparing for an interview can often feel overwhelming, but there are several steps you can take to prepare yourself for a successful interview with our Customer Success team. As with any job interview, you should take time to consider your goals and qualifications relative to the Customer Success role you are interviewing for and MongoDB. It is good practice to review the job description and research our company to get an understanding of our products, services, mission, history, and overall culture to help you decide if MongoDB seems like the right fit for you, your goals, and your interests. At each interview step, you’ll have time to ask your interviewer(s) questions, so come prepared with anything and everything that you are interested in knowing more about! This is an opportunity for you to interview us too, and your questions will help us learn more about you and what is important to you. Take a look at the Customer Success interview steps below to learn more about how you can best prepare yourself for success. Recruiter interview The first step in our process is an interview with one of our Recruiters. Going into this conversation, be prepared to discuss your experience, qualifications, and interest in the opportunity. I recommend reviewing the job description and aligning your experience with the qualifications of the role. You should also be prepared to answer questions around why you are considering new job opportunities and why you are interested in MongoDB. Lastly, think through common interview questions and be ready to describe the day-to-day responsibilities you held in previous roles, along with your goals for the future. Some common questions you might hear are “What are you looking for in your next move, and why?” and “What comes after Customer Success?” At MongoDB, we invest in our team members and strive to support your passions and interests. Knowing what your goals for the future are will help us better support your career progression! Prior to each interview, I recommend doing some more research. This research will only help as you progress in the process. Here are some resources to get you started: Familiarize yourself with noSQL Read about some of our customer use cases to get a feel for how MongoDB is being used in the field Familiarize yourself with our current product offerings These white papers (especially the ones under Business Strategy and Architecture) will help take your understanding much further Experience our managed service offering for yourself - spin up an Atlas cluster and read the Atlas FAQ Listen to Sahir Azam talking about Atlas and our ability to support customer’s multi-cloud strategies Customer Success Specialist Hiring manager interview Before your Hiring Manager interview, think through your experiences in the following areas to prepare yourself for interview questions relating to: Stakeholder relationships Interest in technology / technical situations you’ve encountered Interest in MongoDB’s products Ability to prioritize Adaptability I recommend preparing specific examples that you can share with your interviewer. Peer role play interview The goal of the peer interview is to assess your technical aptitude, ability to understand MongoDB technology, and your teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, as well as what you’re hoping to contribute to the team. Your recruiter will schedule a prep call prior to this interview to provide you with some time to plan for success. You should dig into the materials provided, have a plan for how you are going to approach the role play, and use the prep call to ask clarifying questions. No question is off limits, so use the time to gain as much value as you can! We want to ensure you feel confident about this interview step. Data assignment challenge In your final interview, you’ll be given a list of mock accounts with mock data. The team will be assessing your ability to prioritize these accounts based off of the account data provided. To prepare for this, I recommend determining your approach and being able to clearly explain the logic behind your thought process and how you will put it into action. Customer Success Manager Hiring manager interview Before your Hiring Manager interview, think through your experiences in the following areas to prepare yourself for interview questions relating to: Customer facing experience Interest in technology / technical situations you’ve encountered Day to day responsibilities Enterprise software experience Business/Sales experience I recommend preparing specific examples that you can share with your interviewer. Peer and proof point interview This is an opportunity for you to meet with a peer on the team to learn about the team culture and what a day in the life looks like from someone in the role. The peer will also ask questions to learn more about you and your experiences. The goal of the peer interview is to assess your teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, as well as what you’re hoping to contribute to the team. The proof point is a use case we provide to you prior to the interview. It will be discussed for about 20 minutes, with the goal of assessing your technical aptitude and ability to understand and articulate the value of MongoDB technology. While it is important to have an understanding of the technology, we don’t expect anyone to be a MongoDB expert. You should think through how you would handle this account and the areas you would focus on with the customer if you had just inherited the account. Why did they choose MongoDB and what else can you learn from the customer? Mock onboarding challenge Your recruiter will schedule a prep call prior to this interview to provide you with some time to plan for success. You should dig into the materials provided, have a plan of how you are going to structure the meeting, and use the prep call to ask clarifying questions about the product or for guidance related to overall meeting management. Interested in pursuing a career at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

September 9, 2021

Four Tips for Writing and Applying with Your Engineering Resume

At MongoDB, we’re always looking for creative and passionate engineers who want to make an impact on the world. If you’re interested in a role on our Engineering team, we encourage you to apply! Before doing so, here are a few things you can do to make your engineering resume stand out at MongoDB. 1. Keep it concise It can be very tempting to want to detail out every project you’ve worked on and courses you’ve taken. However, I suggest highlighting the most important aspects of your background. Keeping your resume succinct demonstrates that you have a good understanding of your key accomplishments and that you can communicate effectively. I would recommend keeping your resume to one page with the exception of candidates who are 15+ years into their career. In that case, two pages is appropriate. I would also note that listing numerous programming languages, frameworks, and tools can often be confusing and distracting. Focus on what you have the most experience with. I’d recommend listing out core technologies and tools that you have concrete examples of working with, whether it was a recent work initiative or something you use for personal projects, and using those to provide context as to the work you were doing. 2. Keep it clear Ensuring that you choose a clear font and format for your resume is very important. Consider using standard fonts like Times New Roman or Arial and keeping the layout clean and easy on the eyes. Formatting your resume in a way that is intuitive is also key. I’d recommend highlighting your most relevant experience closer to the top. For example, if you’re a recent college graduate, I’d note your education towards the top of your resume. If you’re further into your career, I’d ensure your experience is listed chronologically and that your accomplishments are sorted by relevance to the role you’re interested in. Unless you’re interviewing for a more creative job such as UX or Product Design, I’d focus on clarity and a standard layout rather than too many customizations. For a software engineering role, clarity and legibility are most salient. 3. Be intentional Be intentional about the roles that you apply to. If a job description is looking for a certain skill set that you have, make a point to tailor your resume and highlight that skill set. This intentionality doesn’t just apply to how you build your resume. I’d also recommend taking the time to look over all roles on the career page and only apply to the ones that best suit your background and interests. Being intentional about the roles you apply to is a great way to also demonstrate that you understand your strengths. That being said, we don’t expect candidates to have all of the skills listed in our job descriptions. If you are interested in the role and feel that it could be a good fit for your experience, we are happy to look at your resume. 4. Think about what makes you unique Adding an interests section or a summary to your resume can add some color as to who you are as a person. Frequently, the first few minutes of a MongoDB interview before diving into coding will involve some form of the question “Tell me about yourself”. Although we are certainly interested in your work experience and accomplishments, we are also interested in what makes you, you! For the summary section, I’d keep it related to your engineering background, the type of role or environment you thrive in, and your interest in MongoDB specifically. For interests, you could mention something exciting in the engineering space you’re passionate about or something completely unrelated, such as hobbies, genres of books you enjoy, and places you’ve traveled. Ultimately, your resume is your opportunity to be true to yourself and show a potential next employer what makes you special. Highlighting your skills, keeping things clear and concise, and being intentional are the best ways to start your recruiting journey with MongoDB. We hope to see you in our interview process soon! Interested in pursuing a career at MongoDB? We have several open roles on our teams across the globe and would love for you to transform your career with us!

September 3, 2021