Identio has been continuously recruiting. We have mostly recruited people when we encounter someone suitable – naturally taking into account the situations of our customers and ongoing projects. We want to increase the transparency of our recruitment process and openly explain how it goes.
1. You are interested in the job – where should you go first?
Our recruitment page has a section where you can find openings for software developers and an open application form for Turku and Helsinki. You can submit an application on that page or send an email to recruitment@identio.fi.
Our Helsinki office is located on Kaisaniemenkatu and also in Turku we get to work in the heart of the city, on Linnankatu.
What is a good job application like?
It is very pleasant to read an application that has been slightly stylised compared to a regular white Word layout. Technical competence is, of course, important in recruitment, but it is also good to show your own personality. We want to recruit humans, not just technical characters. At Identio, we emphasise continuous learning and it will be appreciated if you are able to briefly analyse your learning experiences in your application. However, it is a good idea to present your skills realistically, as we are not looking for people who are ultimate professionals in every area.
We work in teams in our company, and the ability to recognise and put into words our own uncertainties is also a valuable skill. It contributes to achieving common goals. You can also highlight in your CV what your previous roles have included and what those roles have taught you.
2. Invitation to a culture interview
We go through the applications we receive a couple of times a week and try to respond to them all as quickly as possible. We are trying to find people who, to some extent, have the same values as we do and the experience that allows them to do customer work. At Identio, all software developers do customer work.
From among the applications, we will select people who we will take to the next phase immediately during the same or the following week. We call the first interview a cultural interview. Usually, we go for lunch and chat for an hour. In our cultural interview, we survey you preferences, values and hobbies. Usually, one or two people from Identio take part in the cultural interview.
What is ‘the ideal employee’ like?
A person who somehow succeeds in meeting all the criteria does not exist. During a relaxed discussion, we will pay attention to communication skills, for example, as they will be at the centre of customer projects. It is a good sign if the flow of the discussion is pleasant.
The focus will be on themes related to working with customers. Do you like interacting with customers? What kind of roles do you usually take on when working in teams? The aim is also to find out what you expect from us and what kind of role you want to play in your work. It also affects your own enjoyment of your work.
The interview is therefore a two-way interview: we get a picture of the applicant, and the applicant receives more information about us and our company. The aim of the recruitment process is to find a good employee who genuinely also wants to work for us.
3. Technical interview
After the cultural interview, we will review the progress of the interview and what kind of person we were dealing with. If everything goes well, we usually invite you to a technical interview within about a week. During this interview, the focus will be on your technical competence. We aim to ensure that the two people conducting the technical interview are different people than those conducting the cultural interview. This will give us more opinions on you and at the same time you will be able to ask more people questions.
In the technical interviews, we ask technical questions depending on the role you are applying for (e.g., cloud architecture vs. frontend). After that, we will implement a dynamic list of questions with the aim of examining your competence in more detail. The process is easier if you can show us a piece of code you have made. It does not have to be fine-tuned, but it must give us an idea of your abilities. For example, the code can be from a recent project or other actual piece of code. We may also ask what could be corrected or changed, or what properties could be developed next.
If the technical interview has gone smoothly, we will approach you again and tell you that we want to continue the process with you. We will send you a written offer that you can respond to within a week.
4. Employment contract and start of work
The start date of the work is agreed upon when drawing up the contract. At that point, we give you the freedom to choose the tools you want to use in your work. Your computer, phone and other equipment are delivered either to the office or directly to the front door of your home. The first week is a peaceful experience of familiarising yourself with the company, its operations and your new colleagues. We take advantage of a Trello page, which includes onboarding tasks.
It includes, for example, updating your CV, taking part in coffee breaks and getting to know different aspects of the job. After the first week, we will collect feedback to help us make starting work at Identio better. The challenge in the consulting business is figuring out how we can be a unified company when different people work for different customers. We want to make sure from the get-go that we have our own community in spite of this. That’s why we want to get to know all our colleagues well. Communality is also promoted by our own internal team structure, pods.
After the first week, we don’t throw anyone in the deep end. Instead, we will ensure that everything continues going well. At this point, we also strive to find a project that interests you.
Starting salary
The scale is quite large, but the starting salary of a software developer at Identio ranges from EUR 2,700 to EUR 5,000, depending on experience and how that experience shows in their daily work. The salary is also affected by location. Our employees living in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area receive a bonus of some hundreds of euros due to higher living costs.
We utilise loose ‘engineering career bands’ for our salaries, the idea of which is to give an idea of how our employees can develop their skills and pay levels. It has worked comfortably so far and is constantly evolving. We also compare this with the ideas we receive in job interviews. We propose a salary for the applicant, and they have the opportunity to negotiate the terms of the contract or accept the offer as-is.
Summary – What kind of people are we looking for?
- Team workers. We do a lot of things together. At Identio, priority number one is supporting and helping others. We want everyone to agree on this.
- Empathic people. We take care of each other, and we want to ensure that our culture and our discussion environment is one in which everyone can participate and express their opinion.
- People committed to their work. We want to take care of both our employees and our customers.
Did you take interest in Identio as a workplace? Check out our open positions and send us your application. We also want to hear opinions and experiences about our recruitment process. You can always email us or send a message on social media.
