Come build the tools that power the campaign to elect the first female President. Our internal apps give unprecedented levels of insight to our organizers, volunteers and analysts, helping them make better, faster decisions. Our voter apps will set the bar for mobile in future campaigns.
There is a critical moment—between the news events, viral videos, speeches, and debate performances that captivate America—when a college student decides to phone bank, a veteran decides to canvas, or a grandfather decides to support the future we all want for the next generation. These people turn to Hillary For America's website, apps, and volunteers to learn more about how they can get involved.
Our tech team needs to produce reliable tools that empower our organizers, volunteers and analysts to work efficiently, while supporting the campaign's spirit of exploration as we search for new ways to engage every voter.
As a mobile engineer, you'll be part of a small agile team that will build a suite of apps that will raise the bar for mobile on presidential campaigns. You won't just be building single-purpose brick-and-mortar apps, you'll be crafting experiences like no campaign has seen before, that will be talked about for years to come.
- Work closely with product and design to help us build a suite of apps, both internal and public facing, for Android/iOS
- Strong programming and engineering abilities and experience with Swift and the iOS SDK/Java and the Android SDK
- Communicating effectively with your team, both by using natural language and by writing clear and concise code
- Being ruthlessly pragmatic about what gets built and how it gets built, without compromising on quality
- Take ownership and being responsible for some of the many projects we'll be building in the coming year
- Formal Computer Science education (B.S. or M.S.) or proven experience in the field
- (2+ years of) Experience building world class apps
- Proficiency with client-server architectures, efficient local data storage, caching mechanisms, GCD (iOS)/Services (Android) and background tasks
- Contributions to Open Source software
- Public technical writing of any kind (personal blog, articles, etc)
- Understanding how to build and consume APIs meant for scale (i.e. not your average RESTful rails app)
- Experience building simple games and managing complex image assets
-
Pre-sale call
A 15-30 minute call where we casually talk, answer their questions, gauge the fit (on both ends). Key points:
- Ask them if they have questions and answer their questions — if they don't, they're in it for the shits and lols, haven't really thought about it
- When answering, explain why things are done, not just how
- Ask them why they want to join — if they don't know, it's a no-hire
- Explain this only lasts for a year, so we need them to come and jump right in
- Before moving on, ask them if they want to be interviewed
- If they want to be interviewed, book them right away
-
Screening
If they have GitHub or a public profile, ask them if they're okay with me reviewing that instead. Don't insult people that have shown they can get stuff done with simple exercises.
If they have nothing we can take to gauge, hit them with the take-home exercise in a limited time frame.
Not yet sure if I want to give them 3/4 hours or a day, but it definitely needs to be time framed from the moment I send it out. Missing the deadline is a signal.
Exercise is defined below.
-
On-site
Final round, just show her around and have non-technical interview conversations, described in the next section.
- Get their vision of product and iteration
- Dealing with pooly defined and/or changing requirements
- Culture fit
- Explain this is not a tech-oriented company, we're here to help people on the ground win this thing
Refer to Engineer/Hiring manager final interview guidelines
- Understand past interactions w/ designers
- Try to understand if they have autonomy to be able to work with Design without supervision (i.e. coordinating asset requests, design guidelines, etc)
- Guage their perception of the importance of design. Ideally we want people that are design-aware, but defer to the last word to the designers.
- Culture fit
Refer to Engineer/Hiring manager final interview guidelines
- Talk about past experiences, gauge depth of experience
- Ask what they can bring to the table to help the campaign
- Gauge openness to mobility within the team ("I'll only do iOS" vs "I'll do what it takes")
- Clear any remaining questions they might have
- Culture fit
- If they're remote and on the fence about relocation, convince them
Have a less-structured, more conversational interview with the candidate in order to:
- Meet the candidate to review them yourself
- Go over any remaining issues with the candidate
- Give the candidate a chance to meet their potential boss
- Sell the candidate a bit more on the job, the company, and yourself as their manager
- If you're moving the candidate forward, tell them what to expect next
- Before the candidate arrives, go over their profile one more time and take notes for any topics left to clear up
- Once the candidate arrives, introduce ourself, tell them the purpose of the interview, and see if they have any questions or need anything before you get started
- Once you're both settled in, ask the candidate a few open-ended questions to get to know them a bit better and see if they might be a good fit for your team
- Example questions:
- Why do you want to work here?
- Tell me the story of you in about five to ten minutes
- What excites you? What are you passionate about?
- Tell me why you're the absolute best person for this job
- If you or your team have any remaining reservations about the candidate, now's the time to dig into those issues
- Sell the candidate on the position, the company, and yourself as their manager. What interesting work has your company done recently? Get them excited about becoming part of your team
- See if the candidate has any questions or needs anything clarified before the meeting is over
- Wrap up with a short explanation of what the candidate should expect next
- As always—be friendly, polite, and treat every candidate with respect
- Does the candidate seem like a good fit for your team?
- Do they come across as genuinely excited about the position?
- Look for any signs that the candidate is stretching the truth. Don't be afraid to ask candidates to elaborate or explain something in more detail
- Are there any personality red flags? For example, if the candidate has a prickly personality, but the position involves interacting with clients, you should probably find someone more amiable
- Watch out for rambling about unrelated topics, unresponsiveness, or other communication issues
Build a simple app to hit the The NY Times Most Popular Articles API and show a list of articles, that shows details when items on the list are tapped (a typical master/detail app).
We'll be using the mostviewed section of this API.
http://api.nytimes.com/svc/mostpopular/v2/mostviewed/{section}/{period}.json?api-key=sample-key
To test this API, you can use all-sections for the section path component in the URL above and 7 for period (available period values are 1, 7 and 30, which represents how far back, in days, the API returns results for).
http://api.nytimes.com/svc/mostpopular/v2/mostviewed/all-sections/7.json?api-key=sample-key
You can create your own API keys (it's an automated process, you'll get the keys immediately) or you can use the following API key that we've set up for you, for this exercise: 896558ac243a867968c80e069833ad69:4:73884796
- The app should have a tab per news category — you're free to choose between 3 and 5 of the following:
politics,business,arts,sports,health,u.s.,world,blogandmagazine - We recommend using
7for the period parameter but feel free to use1or30 - Each tab should show a list of the items for that category and give the user the ability to refresh on demand.
- On the list, you need to show the article title and the publish date but you have free reign to show more if you wish to do so (e.g. the article's thumbnail).
- When tapping an article on the list, you need to display the details for that article.
- On the detail view, you need to show (at least) the article's title, publish date, and one of the larger images. Again, feel free to display any other information you feel might be relevant — keep in mind the response from the API will not contain the body of the article so you're not required to show it.
- Don't worry too much about how it looks... But don't worry too little!
- App should preserve data between launches. When you launch the app it should decide whether to pull data (up to you to decide how) but should immediately display any data it has available from the prior launch.
- Everything else is up to you — show us what you can do!
The only thing we ask is that you try to keep as much of the layout as possible in code. We will be building complex UI's and reviewing each other's code pretty often. Merge conflicts in Storyboards are not fun.
Once you're done, you can either upload it to a private repo and share it (if on GitHub, I'm biasedbit there) or zip it and send it to {{MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS}}.
Feel free to ping me at any point if you have questions.
Good luck!
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
The description and requirements are intentionally lax so that we can understand:
- How they'll get creative and choose to spend their time
- If they have any sense of design and/or critical UX thinking
- If they'll go beyond what they need to improve the app (add polish)
- How they structure the project (organization is a very good indicator of experience and teamwork)
The breakdown of how long this project should take is:
- Exploring the API: 10-30m
- Integrate a networking library and have it hit the newswire API: 15-30m
- Define model classes: 5-15m
- Parse API responses and convert to models: 10-30m
- Set up a table view controller and hook it to the API call: 30m-1h
- Article details view controller/activity: 1h
- Cache images: 10m-1h
- Reload-on-launch logic: 10-20m
- Store/load articles: 30m-1h
- Total
- Best-case scenario: ~3h
- Worst-case scenario: ~6h
- Bonus points for meaningful layout, i.e. order by domain-of-concern as opposed to types of files
- Bonus points for proper use of packages and sub-packages (domain-of-concern)
- Convert JSON to Models, work with models
- No direct network request code on the view controllers
- No caching code on the view controllers
- No "intelligent" code on view controllers
- All blocking calls be asynchronous, block or delegate based doesn't really matter
- Bonus points for usage of Interfaces (Android) and Protocols (iOS) to decouple components
- Anything works (CoreData, sqlite, whatever), we just want to see understand she builds it and how she isolates the underlying technology from the higher level parts of the application, i.e. don't let the storage technology leak into view controllers and/or components responsible for managing the retrieval/caching of said data.
- We expect to see some code to automatically refresh the feed when you open the app or come from background if more than X minutes have elapsed since the last refresh
- Details endpoint should only be hit once, not every time you tap that row
- Should be done using a navigation stack but I'm fine with modal for details as it also makes sense
- Not too worried about the looks of it but I wanna see how she builds the layout code
- Bonus points for AutoLayout
- Bonus points for all-code layouts on iOS and proper use of resources on Android
- We don't care about view controller tests or testing the parts that hit the network but everything else (JSON to Model mappers, the record provider that either hits the cache or the network, etc.) should all be unit testable — i.e. they don't have to be tested but they need to be testable
- Bonus points for actually writing unit tests — turns out that test code does tell a lot about someone's programming practices
Subject: Opportunities at Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign
Hey {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I reached out in the past with regards to exploring opportunities with the Hillary For America campaign and, as we look forward to November and recognize how much is at stake in this election, I’m checking in again because we are growing our team.
[PERSONAL PITCH]
Over the past 6 months, it's become clear this is no ordinary election cycle. The hate and fear-mongering on the Republican side have been taken to heights no one would think possible — surprising even many members of the GOP.
Trump is almost certain to get the nomination. Even if he doesn't, the rest of their bench isn’t any better on the issues that matter to Americans.
At this point, you have two options:
- Sit on the sidelines, telling yourself that someone else will fight this battle, or -
- You become part of the fight. You help elect the first female president of the United States. You keep your country moving in the right direction after 8 years of steady progress, even in the face of the most gridlocked congress in history.
Which will it be?
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Opportunities at Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I'm {{MY_FULL_NAME}}, the {{MY_JOB_TITLE}} here at Hillary For America.
[PERSONAL PITCH]
The HFA Tech Team produces reliable tools that empower our organizers, volunteers and analysts to work efficiently, while supporting the campaign's spirit of exploration as we search for new ways to engage every voter.
Within the Mobile Team, we'll go beyond this. We won't just be building internal single-purpose-one-offs. We'll be pushing out an app that will set the bar for what you can accomplish with mobile in future elections. We truly believe in compelling and enthralling experiences, and that's why we're going native (iOS and Android), targeting the latest platforms and using the latest technology.
Let me know if you'd be interested in chatting. We're always looking for smart people to help us build technology to keep the US moving forward.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Opportunities at Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I'm {{MY_FULL_NAME}}, the {{MY_JOB_TITLE}} here at Hillary For America. Thank you so much for your generous support of the Clinton campaign. So grateful for your help. If you have a few minutes, I'd love to get your help building out our Brooklyn-based technology team.
[PERSONAL_PITCH]
The HFA Tech Team produces reliable tools that empower our organizers, volunteers and analysts to work efficiently, while supporting the campaign's spirit of exploration as we search for new ways to engage every voter.
Within the Mobile Team, we'll go beyond this. We won't just be building internal single-purpose-one-offs. We'll be pushing out an app that will set the bar for what you can accomplish with mobile in future elections. We truly believe in compelling and enthralling experiences, and that's why we're going native (iOS and Android), targeting the latest platforms and using the latest technology.
Let me know if you'd be interested in chatting. We're always looking for smart people to help us build technology that keeps Republicans out of the White House.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Following up on my previous email
Hey {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Just following up on my previous email. If you have time, I'd love to chat about our campaign and how we use technology to change the playing field. As the NY Times puts it, it's the ultimate startup.
Let me know if you're interested. I'd be happy to setup a quick 30 minute Google Hangout.
Cheers.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Thanks for applying to join the HFA Mobile Team!
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thank you for your interest in joining the technology team at Hillary for America! My name is Bruno de Carvalho and I am the Director of Mobile here at HFA.
You should receive an email from us within a week. This email will let you know if the hiring committee would like to schedule an interview. Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions.
We have a lot of exciting products to build in the coming months. Some of these products will be internal tools used by hundreds of staff members at headquarters in Brooklyn and thousands of field staff in all 50 states. Other products will be end-user facing to tens of millions of Hillary Clinton supporters. Solving these technology challenges in such a constrained environment is, as an article on the NY Times puts it, "the ultimate startup".
Here is a brief overview of each step of our hiring process:
- Your resume is reviewed by engineering managers.
- A 30 minute hangout is scheduled with me so that we can chat.
- You will either receive a take-home code project or you can send us some of your work (links to articles, GitHub, etc) so that we can review your competences.
- Once you're done with your take-home exercise or we're done reviewing your work, we'll hop on a 1h call to discuss approach, alternatives, improvements that you would have done in an unconstrained environment, etc.
- We'll bring you on-site to meet with the engineering team, the design lead and product leads for mobile projects.
- We will contact two professional references that you supply.
- We will discuss an offer for you to join Hillary for America.
This process can happen as quickly as one week or as long as one month depending on the campaign’s staffing urgency and the your availability. Note that based your experience and skill-set we may adjust the process outlined above.
Thanks again for applying.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I hope you're well! Thanks for your patience while we work through a pile of applications here at the campaign.
I'd like to get you scheduled with a 30 minute interview with our Director of Mobile, Bruno de Carvalho, some time this week or early next week. The interview will be via Google Hangout.
Might you be available, I'd like to invite you to come visit the HQ on [POTENTIAL DATES]. We can also schedule remote hangouts or try other days.
Thank you, and please let me know if you have any questions!
All the best,
{{SENDER_FIRST_NAME}}
Subject: Next steps with HFA
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thanks again for taking the time to speak with me. We're excited to move you forward to the next phase of our interview process, which is a short code exercise. The assignment is not strictly timed — we understand that everyone's schedule is different — but we suggest that you spend about 3-4 hours on it. We'd like to see what you put together within a couple days, if that works for you.
Once we receive the exercise from you, we'll reach out to either bring you on-site or hop on a call to discuss your implementation with some engineers. Our team is eager to see how you tackle the problem!
Below are the instructions for the exercise.
Good luck!
{{MY_SIGNATURE_}}
Subject: Next steps with HFA
Hey {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Just wanted to touch base with you and make sure you're still interested in moving forward. If you have any questions with the take-home test I would be happy to help!
Cheers,
{{MY_FIRST_NAME}}
Subject: Next steps with HFA
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I hope you're well. I'd like to go ahead and get you scheduled for an on-site visit (if possible) to meet with a few members of the Mobile team.
The interviews will take up to two hours total (30~45 min each). We'll try to schedule them back-to-back, to be more efficient.
You'll be talking to the team's Designer, the Product Manager and another Engineer. In this last interview, you might be asked some technical questions about your previous work (no whiteboard puzzle questions).
Might you be available, I'd like to invite you to come visit the HQ on [POTENTIAL DATES]. We can also schedule remote hangouts or try other days.
Our address is 300 Cadman Plaza West Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Thanks, and please let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
{{MY_FIRST_NAME}}
Subject: Next steps with HFA
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thank you so much for taking the time to work through our coding exercise. I'd like to go ahead and get you scheduled for an on-site visit (if possible) to meet with a few members of the Mobile team.
The interviews will take up to two hours total (30~45 min each). We'll try to schedule them back-to-back, to be more efficient.
You'll be talking to the team's Designer, the Product Manager and another Engineer. In this last interview, you might be asked some technical questions about your previous work or your solution to the exercise (no whiteboard puzzle questions).
Might you be available, [SUGGESTED DATES].
Our address is 300 Cadman Plaza West Brooklyn, NY 11201.
Thanks, and please let me know if you have any questions.
All the best,
{{MY_FIRST_NAME}}
Subject: Next steps with HFA
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I wanted to follow up on your interviews with the team and say they really enjoyed speaking with you!
For the next step, can you please send me the contact information for two professional references? Ideally, at least one of these references would be a former manager and the other can be a former colleague.
[I understand the sensitivity of interviewing for a job while currently employed so these references do not have to be from your current employer.] If you have any issues or questions about references please don't hesitate to reach out.
As soon as I connect with both references I will be in touch on next steps. It usually only takes me a day or two to contact both references depending on their availability.
Cheers.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Reference check for {{CANDIDATE_FULL_NAME}}
Hi {{REFERENCE_FIRST_NAME}},
My name is {{MY_FULL_NAME}}, and I'm the {{MY_JOB_TITLE}} at Hillary For America. I'm reaching out because {{CANDIDATE_FULL_NAME}} suggested I contacted you for a professional reference.
I was hoping we could hop on the phone for 5-10 minutes to talk about {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}}. When would be a good time for you, today?
Cheers,
{{MY_FIRST_NAME}}
Subject: Hillary For America is hiring Mobile Engineers
Hey there, friend!
I'm reaching out to you as we've began staffing our Mobile Engineering team here at Hillary For America, and I need your help.
Mobile Engineers are part of a small agile team that will build a suite of apps that will raise the bar for Mobile on presidential campaigns. They won't just be building single-purpose brick-and-mortar apps, they'll be crafting polished experiences like no campaign has seen before, that will be talked about for years to come.
Please help me find the right people by reaching out to anyone within your network that has a knack for mobile, likes solving complex problems, has built enthralling experiences and really loves pushing the boundaries of iOS and/or Android platforms.
I'd give you a list of requirements for the role but, by now, you already have a few people in mind (maybe even yourself!) Please forward them this email, or to connectors who might know some potential candidates.
Here are the job listings:
Thank you for your help!
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Opportunities at Hillary For America's presidential campaign
Hey {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Hope you're doing well. It's been a while since you applied for a Mobile Engineering role with Hillary For America and I'm terribly sorry to only now be getting back to you.
Note: If they didn't apply specifically for a mobile role just say "an Engineering role".
I've recently joined the tech team as Director of Mobile and we're back on track for hiring and building some incredibly exciting projects. Would you happen to still be interested in joining the campaign?
Thank you for time and patience.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
I'm sorry to hear that we lost you over not being expedite enough but I'm happy that you've found another exciting project to work on!
If your situation changes or you'd like to commit some of your time to volunteering, don't hesitate to reach back out. We'll take all the help we can get :)
Thank you for time and understanding and best wishes.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Outstanding! Again, thank you for your patience in all this time without a reply.
Here is a brief overview of each step of our hiring process:
- Your resume is reviewed by engineering managers.
- A 30 minute hangout is scheduled with me so that we can chat.
- You will either receive a take-home code project or you can send us some of your work (links to articles, GitHub, etc) so that we can review your competences.
- Once you're done with your take-home exercise or we're done reviewing your work, we'll hop on a 1h call to discuss approach, alternatives, improvements that you would have done in an unconstrained environment, etc.
- We will contact two professional references that you supply.
- We will discuss an offer for you to join Hillary for America.
This process can happen as quickly as one week or as long as one month depending on the campaign’s staffing urgency and the your availability. Note that based your experience and skill-set we may adjust the process outlined above.
Might you be available, ...
Note: Complete sentence above with list of potential dates for the intro call.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Thank you!
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Our hiring team reviewed your resume we think that there is a mismatch between the candidate we are looking to bring on and your current experience.
Thank you for your interest in supporting the mission and values of the campaign. We hope that you'll continue to support Hillary Clinton and the Democratic party in other ways, such as by joining our volunteering program at https://devprogress.us
All the best,
Bruno de Carvalho Director of Mobile Hillary for America
Subject: Thank you!
Dear {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thanks so much for applying to work on the campaign. Unfortunately after reviewing your resume there's a bit of a mismatch between your background and what we're looking for in this role.
Thanks again for your interest in supporting our cause — we hope that you'll continue to support Hillary and our country in other ways.
Good luck in your job search!
Sincerely,
HFA Tech Team
For when a candidate fails to meet sensitive hiring criteria, such as nationality, location, etc.
Subject: Thank you for applying at HFA!
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thank you so much for applying to work on the campaign.
Like you, dozens of other talented engineers have applied recently so we'll be going through a lot of applications and we'll reach back out if we'd like to schedule an interview.
Thank you so much for your interest and support. In the mean time, we hope that you'll continue to support Hillary and our country.
Cheers.
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Subject: Thank you!
Dear {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thank you for your work so far with regards to our hiring process. We've enjoyed our discussion and we appreciate the time and effort that you put into exploring a fit with us.
Our team's hiring committee has met to decide on this round of candidates, and we've decided not to advance your candidacy at this time.
We've had a very competitive applicant pool, so please don't take it as a statement about your overall strength - it is just a matter of fit and timing for us.
We’re committed to make our interview processes a positive experience and would really appreciate it if you took 2 minutes to complete this anonymous survey. Thanks again for your interest in supporting our cause - we hope that you'll continue to support Hillary and our country in other ways.
All the best,
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Hi {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thanks so much for spending time with us this far to explore a fit with our team. Our hiring team reviewed your coding exercise and we think that there is a mismatch between the candidate we are looking to bring on and the work we received from you. We have decided not to advance your application forward in the hiring process.
I really appreciate you taking the time to work on the code exercise. I don't want that to be wasted time so I'd like to share some constructive feedback from our hiring managers on your code exercise. I hope the feedback below is helpful to you.
[FEEDBACK]
We're committed to make our interview processes a positive experience and would really appreciate it if you took 2 minutes to complete this anonymous survey. Thanks again for your interest in supporting our cause — we hope that you'll continue to support Hillary and our country in other ways.
All the best,
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
Dear {{CANDIDATE_FIRST_NAME}},
Thanks so much for your conversations so far. We appreciate the time and effort that you put into exploring a fit with us. Unfortunately our team's hiring committee has met to decide on this round of candidates, and ultimately decided to move in another direction for this role.
We really appreciate the time you've taken to speak with us and please don't take it as a statement about your overall strength - it is just a matter of fit and timing for us.
We’re committed to make our interview processes a positive experience and would really appreciate it if you took a few minutes to complete this anonymous survey. Thanks again for your interest in supporting our cause; we hope that you'll continue to support Hillary and our country in other ways!
All the best,
{{MY_SIGNATURE}}
In order to not waste time in calls, begin with (from krush):
There are many reason to come work here, but there are two reasons you shouldn’t. First, the campaign is funded by donations so our compensation matches a non-profit. We won’t IPO, there are no stock options. This isn’t a get rich opportunity if you’re looking for that in the next 3 months. Second, presidential campaigns are crazy. If a healthy work/life balance is super important to you in the next three months this is probably not a good opportunity for you. We are working 7 day weeks until election day, but we work with people to prevent burnout.