Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Vitalize’s interview process!
Here at Vitalize, we’re looking for full-stack engineers who enjoy talking to customers, iterating & shipping quickly, and exhibit a strong sense of ownership and autonomy. Our team of engineers largely define and drive their own roadmap, and use their product sense to define and ship an MVP.
Our interview process is designed to find these kinds of engineers. Moreover, we try to ask questions that are relevant to the types of products we build - mostly full-stack work, with a bit of database, analysis, and customer interaction.
Below is an outline of what to expect in our interview process. If you have questions, email us at [email protected].
This stage is a more informal call to get to know more about the role, and for you to evaluate whether Vitalize is a good fit for you. We are looking for people with a strong interest in startups and motivation to help them; this is usually exhibited by past experience working at a startup or starting one yourself.
We recognize and reward people who are inclined to be more product-minded, and have a good sense of what the Vitalize eng team should be building. In this chat, you’re welcome to ask lots of questions about whether working at Vitalize makes sense for you.
Lastly, the conversation will cover some light technical discussion about full-stack and your past projects. Mostly, we want to know that you can code and ship fairly involved systems, and speak to them with clarity on the details. This tends to be a good indication that an engineer had strong ownership and showed autonomy in making product or technical decisions.
Our first technical interview is your chance to demonstrate your technical skills! In this 1-hour session, you’ll work on a practical programming challenge by cloning a simplified version of our app (T3 stack), and implementing a small product feature. This exercise is designed to assess your full-stack capabilities, and the only requirement is proficiency in Typescript and React.
During the interview, you’re welcome to use Google or Stack Overflow—we want you to feel comfortable and avoid any unnecessary learning curve. However, we kindly ask that you don’t use AI tools during the process. We’ve noticed that relying too much on AI can make it harder for us to truly understand your individual skills and problem-solving approach.
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Please have 2FA setup on your Github account so you can access the interview repo and
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A lot of the work we do involves close collaboration with the cofounders of Vitalize. To this end, the next step in our process is to have a chat with a cofounder.
They’ll dive deep into your own background/interests in working at Vitalize. In particular, many of these discussions focus on your past experience in fast-paced environments, working in ambiguous environments and focusing on building impactful products and systems.
This is also a great opportunity to learn more about Vitalize and what we do here, as well as why it’s a pretty unique place to build software. As always, come prepared with great questions!
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NOTE: We recognize that on-sites are time consuming, and that your time is valuable. We compensate candidates who come into the office for an on-site with a $250 Amazon Gift Card regardless of how far you go in the process.
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As part of the interview process, we schedule an in-person round at our SF office, where you’ll have the opportunity to meet the engineering team. We’ll provide lunch so you can get to know us better, and it’s a great way to make sure you’re comfortable with the team and working environment. If needed, we’ll also cover the costs of travel and accommodations to ensure a smooth visit.
The interview process is a deeper dive into technical abilities, product thinking and overall fit. For the “fit” portion, we are again looking for ownership and autonomy, but we also dig deeper into communication. This is evaluated throughout the process - in how you communicate your approach, solutions and overall thinking.