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Rangoli – check!

Diyas – check!

Lanterns and fairy lights – check!

Diwali – one of the most prominent festivals of India and that of Hindu culture, is celebrated with much grandeur among various communities in India. Diwali is a diminution of its Sanskrit name – Deepavali. Also known as the “festival of lights”, it is a five-day celebration wherein families get together, friends indulge in merry-making, light diyas and lanterns, as well as overindulge in sweet delicacies. This festival is celebrated on Amavasya or ‘no moon’ day. 

Although the essence of the festival stays the same across the country, Diwali traditions and activities vary from state to state. Every Indian welcomes the divine festival of Diwali with open arms. Irrespective of different cultures and backgrounds, the nation comes together on this auspicious day. North India celebrates Diwali as Lord Rama’s homecoming to Ayodhya after defeating the Demon King of Lanka – Ravana. On the other hand, Western India celebrates this festival for over a fortnight and honors the Goddess of wealth – Lakshmi. In Eastern India, Diwali is associated with Goddess Kali and diyas are lit to commemorate the souls of departed ancestors. Southern India celebrates the festival of lights for three days where people begin the day with an oil bath before sunrise, have sweets and newlyweds spend time at the bride’s parental house.

Diwali is also celebrated by Indians all over the world with great enthusiasm. Every year, the White House observes Diwali or “Indians Christmas” with great honor and respect. Australia and New Zealand also celebrates the festival with cultural performances, fairs and carnivals. Other countries like Malaysia, Fiji, Singapore and Europe also celebrate this festival.

During the five-day period, homes are lit up with diyas (clay lamps) and fairy lights. Inside homes, one will find rangoli art or traditional designs on the floor created out of coloured powder or rice powder. It symbolizes the welcoming of the Goddess Lakshmi, thereby bringing wealth, prosperity and happiness into the homes. The holy land of Varanasi celebrates Dev Deepavali, known as the Diwali of the Gods. Buying gold during the day of Dhanteras which is around Diwali is considered auspicious. Neighbors, friends and families exchange gifts. Sweets & dry fruits happen to be the most common gifts besides others. It is also a time to share with those in need and give freely to members of the community who have little. The air is filled with the smell of ‘agarbattis’ or incense sticks, burning crackers and the aromas coming out of the kitchen. Another attraction to the Diwali celebrations are the various rich savory and sweet dishes. While eating out is popular, families will mostly prepare food at home when guests are invited to exchange gifts and watch fireworks together. We asked the LMers in India to share their Diwali home decoration and family photographs while they were celebrating Diwali. We loved the vibrant photographs shared by our fellow LMers, the amazing rangolis and their happy faces.

Happy Diwali!

Written by Bheeni Kapoor & Arijit Patra

Position: Director, Product Management

How long have you been at LogicMonitor? 

Almost 6 years (Joined December 2014).

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

The satisfaction that comes from solving problems and seeing customer reactions. Our product management team is always looking for creative ways to delight users — being able to see or hear about how we make our users’ lives better never gets old. 

What do you find most challenging about your job? 

Having to say no. Although our amazing engineering team cranks through new features, they only have so much bandwidth. We strategically prioritize what goes into our roadmap and we can’t always do everything – sometimes we have to say no.

What are some of the new challenges you’ve seen since the shift to remote working? 

Trying to juggle multiple people talking on Zoom calls at once in a studio apartment with a dog barking in the background! Luckily, the LogicMonitor product and engineering teams were already quite efficient working remotely, as we have teams around the world, so team collaboration hasn’t suffered with the shift. 

If you could learn one new professional skill, what would it be? 

After trying to figure out how to efficiently delete a countless number of Kubernetes pods from a runaway cronjob in my test cluster today, I think I’d like to learn/improve my bash skills 🙂

What advice would you give to other people in your field of work? 

Take initiative and get your hands dirty! There’s always more work to be done and an opportunity to contribute – identify a problem and do the legwork to find and test a solution.

What do you like to do in your spare time? 

I like to compete in triathlons, which means I do a lot of running, cycling, and swimming in my spare time.

What is your favorite way to relax? 

See above – swim, bike, run! To me this is relaxing, but afterward, I do sometimes sit on the couch for a short recovery.  

What are your top 3 places in Santa Barbara to go for food and drinks? 

Mesa burger (who doesn’t love burgers?!), Arigato (a LogicMonitor go-to choice in the olden days), and On The Alley (because they have my favorite breakfast burritos).  

What book would you recommend that you have read recently? 

I’ve always been a big science fiction fan, but I only recently picked up the Kingkiller chronicles — highly recommended!

Position: SEO Specialist

How long have you been at LogicMonitor?

I have been working at LogicMonitor since August 2019.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

SEO is not something that offers overnight success, so seeing work and efforts gradually build over time until they culminate in exceptional results is extremely rewarding. 

What do you find most challenging about your job?

The entire SEO landscape is frequently changing so adapting and rolling with the punches is a constant challenge. 

What are some of the new challenges you’ve seen since the shift to remote working?

Honestly, I’ve mostly loved the shift to remote work. The biggest challenge I’ve found since moving to full-time work from home is turning off work time. Since I’m always by my computer, I can always be working, which sometimes means I’ll run a report or make some late-night changes, when I should be cultivating a better work-life balance.

If you could learn one new professional skill, what would it be?

I’d like to get better at general web development, especially surrounding performance improvements. Finding new ways to increase site speed can make a world of difference for someone’s web experience. 

What advice would you give to other people in your field of work? 

Bring data. Having the numbers to justify initiatives is absolutely critical to long term success. Good marketing doesn’t work off of feelings, and being able to offer solutions based on historical data is paramount. 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

Most weekends I spend kayak fishing around Austin or fly fishing in creeks around the Hill Country. When I’m not in the water I’m normally thinking about the next time I can be. I’m picking up fly tying as well. 

What are your top 3 places in Austin to go for food and drinks?

ABGB: Pre-covid I was a regular at Skull Mechanix Brewery, but it has unfortunately closed its doors. ABGB has picked up the slack, I’m particularly partial of their Hell Yes Helles.

Thai Fresh: When it’s time to order takeout, this is almost always the first place I mention. 

Salt + Time: Special occasions always seem to be celebrated with a trip to pick up some steaks from Salt + Time. They’re also one of the few places in town I’ve found that I can get ham hocks for soups and soppressata periodically. 

You can have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what is it?

Polaroid film. I take a bunch of candid Polaroids already, but film is expensive and each pack is only 8 shots. An unlimited supply would let me take a lot more pictures without worrying so much about how many I have left at any time. 

 What book would you recommend that you have read recently?

Redneck by Donny Cates. It’s a comic book series by an Austin-based author about redneck vampires in Texas. The perfect horror Halloween read for the nerdy and comic-loving. Cates’ Venom run has also been a thoroughly enjoyable read as well.

How to Build an Internship Without Ping Pong Tables 

LogicMonitor has hosted a summer intern program for quite a few years now, and each unique summer has been beneficial for students and internal teams alike. Although an internship at a growing software company will always be exciting and valuable, part of the overall experience and charm historically came from being in an office. Some of the fun perks of being in our offices during the summer include ‘spa water’ in the kitchen, socializing by the ping pong table, beach days, and other events. This year there were a few factors that were different- Covid-19 caused LogicMonitor to pause our hiring efforts for a while, which allowed the Talent Acquisition team to combine efforts with our Learning and Development team to focus on project-based work. This included building a scalable, remote, diverse, inclusive, best-in-class, and most importantly, structured internship program. 

We wanted to make sure that the interns had structure in a meaningful way while working from their homes, as one of the best parts of a traditional internship program is being able to learn simply from being immersed in an office environment. We’ve put together a foundation for an awesome (remote) program that offers an immense amount of support to our interns and to the managers. To stay consistent with our company goals, we’ve incorporated LogicMonitor’s company pillars into our vision for the internship program. Below I’ve provided our mission statement, and how we’ve tied in the program to our core values. 

Vision: Provide a meaningful professional experience that complements academic foundations and empowers students to discover, develop, evaluate, and implement their unique perspectives and experiences as they prepare for careers in an ever-evolving global workforce.

#OneTeam – Fully integrate interns into their teams and be supported by the LogicMonitor family. 

#BetterEveryday – Give interns the tools they need to succeed not just at work, but in life as well. 

#CustomerObsessed – Ensure the interns and managers have a valuable experience.

After so much planning, what did the interns actually do? 

The Curriculum

“Check the confluence page…” is an expression we used a lot during the ten-week program that ended on August 21st. Confluence is an internal resource we use at LogicMonitor and it is where we built several pages for our interns, including a detailed Syllabus with a ton of resources to set them up for success. 

In the planning stages, we knew we had ten weeks where we had to fill the time spent remotely. We asked managers to think of their interns as temporary team members instead of tasking them with mundane activities or checklists. Our managers were on board to incorporate their interns fully into their departments and had amazing ideas right off the bat on how to do so. We supplied the managers with tools and support to help them create deliverable plans. We also provided writing prompts so that the interns could keep track of what they’d worked on, what they’d learned, constructive feedback they received, and brag about the new topics that interested them. 

I wanted to share one example of creativity from the manager who oversaw the Social Media Marketing Intern. She had an awesome idea where every two weeks her intern would switch focuses within the marketing team and deliver a project for each focus. Two weeks focused with our Public Relations Specialist yielded an intern written press release, two weeks with our Content Producer yielded an in-house studio, etc. 

It was amazing to see how involved the interns were within their departments. 

Still, there would be more time in the week… 

…And thus, the Professional Development Workshops were born.

We created two weekly workshops to give the interns organic interactions outside of their relative departments and some time with each other since they were split into three different departments. Whereas in the office they may get to know each other on lunch breaks, there was little reason they’d get to know each other remotely. One workshop was led by People Operations and was geared towards professional development: topics such as communication, professionalism, time management, and networking. These workshops were also used as check-ins alongside the formal feedback sessions that were scheduled. We wanted to know, how are you doing? What are you learning? Where can we improve? 

The second workshop was our LogicMonitor Lounge series. We created a weekly workshop where top performers across different departments got on a Zoom call with the interns to network, teach the interns about their departments and responsibilities, and answer questions spanning from career development to favorite hobbies. The interns cherished these sessions, and several of them ended up setting up recurring meetings with these professionals! 

Diversity and Inclusion

To explain our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion at every level, including the intern level, I thought I’d share what Todd Riesterer, our Chief People Officer, has said recently on the matter. “Respect for our coworkers, partners, and customers, no matter their background, has always been a foundational part of our company culture. We operate as #OneTeam, and we believe that every individual has equal value in this world. We treasure the power of human differences and recognize that building a culture of respect, diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) is an essential part of our workplace and company.”

Our interns are encouraged to participate in the following D&I Initiatives, and are encouraged to bring their whole selves to their programs: 

LogicMonitor also partnered with Fund II Foundation for the second year to hire from their InternX program, and this year all of our interns were hired from the diversity platform. The objective of InternX is to provide highly qualified, pre-screened, entry-level talent for the employer while providing access to 21st Century quality jobs for the student. We will continue to hire from and partner with this organization in the coming years and would love to expand that relationship as we scale our program and do more intern hiring. 

Making an Impact 

I’d like to believe many of the features and programs we’ve mentioned above are what make our intern program unique. During week nine of the internship, our interns gave a presentation to the entire company on what they had worked on and what they had learned. To say they gave brilliant presentations is an understatement. They blew everyone away and were such an important reminder of why it’s important to celebrate the new generation of talent. The presentations even ended with personal invitations from our CEO to consider LM after graduation! 

Every summer our interns are given the opportunity to be truly themselves, bring all of their skills and differences to the table, and make an impact. They are trusted as employees and are pushed to grow. We’ve even published intern narratives on our blog, describing their growth and experiences in past years.

I’d like to quote one of our interns from a previous summer to summarize the final thoughts: “LogicMonitor is a very special place! It is packed full of people who are there to inspire and challenge you. It’s a place where hard work is applauded, and people are empowered to do what they love. So, if I have any advice to give current or future LMers, it’s this: head over to the kitchen (or schedule a Zoom Call!), grab a snack, and get to know the people around you — you may just learn something phenomenal!”

The time is now

LogicMonitor is growing–fast. In the last two years, LogicMonitor has doubled its employee headcount. But even with this rapid growth, we never forget the importance of inclusion and diversity. In fact, these important pillars are at the very forefront and the foundation of our growth. Myriad statistics indicate a correlation between organizational diversity and greater overall success. However, a diverse organization is not something that can be achieved overnight. It’s a constant work-in-progress that depends on the support of every employee.

Building

LogicMonitor is not only committed to building a diverse workforce, but celebrating that diversity as well. Here are some ways that our commitment to diversity is woven into the fiber of our business (although we still have room to grow!):

  1. Inclusive job descriptions: We use cutting edge tools to ensure that our job descriptions encourage inclusive language in all job postings.
  2. Consistent hiring process: We have a consistent process that helps eliminate bias by ensuring that every single candidate is treated fairly and equally, from Interns to Executive Leadership candidates. Every candidate has the same resume review, is asked the same interview questions, and goes through the same steps. We also employ a pre employment assessment to all candidates, which can also reduce bias in the process.
  3. Discrimination training: As part of onboarding, every employee goes through discrimination training. This sets a precedent of tolerable behavior at LogicMonitor, and prepares employees as they’re tapped to be interviewers.
  4. Interview training: As part of our interviewer training process, interviewers are refreshed on consistent hiring practices- such as avoiding any questions or behaviors that could have the potential for bias.

All that said, we know we have areas where improvement is still needed. LogicMonitor is building out relationships with diverse college groups and organizations. We’re also looking to incorporate Diversity Interview Panels, a step that companies like Cisco have incorporated with great success, to improve the candidate experience and further eliminate unconscious bias. 

Quarterly women in STEM meetup
LogicMonitor hosting the quarterly meetup for SBWiSTEM (Santa Barbara Women in STEM)
Summer interns 2020

Celebrating

As important as it to make sure we’re bringing in diverse talent, employee equity and inclusion is critical to LogicMonitor as well. We want to always create an environment where everyone feels comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. Some examples in action of this include:

  1. Commitment from the top: Our Executive Leadership Team is personally and professionally committed to diversity. Every summer, LogicMonitor hires interns from InternX, a program that Vista Equity Partners started to provide career opportunities to underrepresented communities in tech. As our CEO, Kevin McGibben, said in a recent company e-mail, “LogicMonitor is built on a foundation of respect for each other, a belief that every individual has equal value, a commitment to integrity in action, and an environment of diversity and inclusiveness where we treasure our differences.”
  2. Support for LBGTQI+ community: In August 2019, LogicMonitor sponsored the Pride Festivities in Austin, TX. We made pride-friendly LogicMonitor T-Shirts available for all LM Employees to wear during the weekend-long festival and parade. A few LogicMonitor employees also marched in the city-wide parade. During June 2019, which is globally recognized as Pride Month, LogicMonitor Santa Barbara hosted the Pacific Pride Foundation, who provided LMers with resources and information about the LGBTQI+ community. LogicMonitor will also be hosting an internal Virtual Pride Event in June 2020.
  3. Employee Resource Groups: LogicMonitor encourages robust employee engagement and discussion around various topics, examples are some of our ERGs- Women@LM, LM Cares, Pride@LM, and People of Color.
  4. Supporting minority-owned businesses: Lastly, in accordance with the Diversity Holiday calendar, our monthly company lunches are ordered from businesses associated with making positive steps to support diversity and inclusion. For example, in April 2019, to recognize Autism Awareness Month, we ordered from Kyle’s Kitchen, a known supporter of the Autism Community in Santa Barbara. 

With the help of all of our team members, we continue to run a number of initiatives to make LogicMonitor a company where everyone feels not only included, but celebrated.  

Team members from our Austin, TX office celebrating at the pride parade.

What’s next?

In the future LogicMonitor will continue to explore ways to successfully build and celebrate team members. We hope to see our employee resource groups expand and blossom, and will extend existing partnerships with organizations committed to empowering underrepresented talent in the workforce. LogicMonitor is committed to being better every day (one of our three core company values!) I’m proud to work for a company who values a diverse set of perspectives to solve issues, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds!

The job market for IT professionals right now is challenging. Whether you’re seeking your first job in IT or looking to further your career into a more pronounced and distinguished role, certifications serve as a way to separate from the crowd of applicants. Certifications show a functional level of proficiency, often making them more valuable than college degrees in certain entry-level positions, and just as valuable as years of experience in more established roles. Certifications show functional knowledge of technologies, with labs and virtual environments that set users up to hit the ground running; often more useful early in a career than learning theory in a college classroom environment.

Looking at certifications can be daunting. The first step should be to visualize an intended career path and search for related jobs and the qualifications necessary for those roles. Microsoft, Google, Citrix, and others have shifted their entire certification process to focus more on roles than on specific technologies, with distinct paths for DevOps, system administrators, network engineers, and others. These role-based certifications are great both for landing that first job, as well as changing responsibilities and promotions. 

For 2021 and beyond, certifications in cloud and containers will offer the most for the future-focused, while the CCNA, Net+, and Sec+ sit as the most important for entry-level IT positions. Learn more about some of the most popular and in-demand certifications below:

General IT Certifications

Entering the world of IT and associated certifications should probably start with CompTIA certifications. Sec+, Net+ and/or A+ are all highly important, and constantly in demand as a prerequisite for a variety of entry-level roles and career advancement. The A+ teaches foundational knowledge in IT to prepare applicants for a variety of different IT careers and is often used to attract candidates with no professional IT experience.

The Sec+ is the gold standard for starting a career in IT Security, while the Net+ is great for getting a foot in the door to networking roles. 

Learn more about CompTIA Certifications:

Cisco Certifications

Across IT, the CCNA may be the most highly recommended network certification and offers the perfect all-around crash course that can be extensible into furthering your career. The CCENT, another popular Cisco certification, was recently molded into the CCNA, making the CCNA even more important for networking roles. Additionally, Cisco offers a variety of different certifications based on different career tracks. The CCNP, CCIE, and CCAr all also serve as fantastic advanced certs, depending on the career path. The only catch with the certifications is that they are all, obviously, Cisco specific. Nevertheless, the foundation and concepts, especially in the CCNA track, make it the most required certification in networking-related job applications. 

Learn more about Cisco Certifications: 

Azure Certifications

Microsoft is moving to role-based certifications and has announced its popular MCSA, MCSD, and MCSE programs will be sunsetted on January 31, 2021. Originally planned to be retired on June 30, 2020, due to COVID-19, the certifications have been extended. With this change, Microsoft’s certifications are stepping away from networking and moving more towards Azure and cloud-based proficiency. Of these, the Azure Solution Architect shows expert skill levels for cloud-based roles and can provide a leg up in DevOps applications as well.

Learn more about Microsoft Certifications:

AWS Certifications

With the whole world moving to the cloud, AWS certifications have never been more in need. The most sought after certification is the AWS Solutions Architect, which is offered at both the associate and more advanced professional levels. AWS has the most market-share of cloud, so between Azure, GCP, and AWS, AWS is the one that will be the most applicable to most companies. In addition to the AWS Solutions Architect track, AWS also offers developers and DevOps specific tracks for more depth into each role. 

Learn more about AWS Certifications:

Google Cloud Platform Certifications

Google offers a series of different certifications, but their GCP related ones are the most sought after in DevOps and cloud-related roles. In addition to their GCP certs, they also offer more entry-level IT professional training through Coursera. The Associate Cloud Engineer certification opens the door to the professional level certs which, similar to Azure, offer more role-based certifications depending on career goals. 

Learn more about GCP Certifications:

Red Hat Certifications

Red Hat offers Linux-based certifications and is highly recommended for those in the Sysadmin career path. The RHSCA specifically provides a great foundation for Linux based systems analysis and can help kickstart a career. Although there are not as many jobs available for Linux System specific roles, the need for the jobs currently outweighs the number of applicants, and earning Red Hat certifications can move a resume to the top of the pile. 

Learn more about Red Hat Certifications:

VMware Certifications

VMware offers four tiers of certifications, most prominently the Vmware Certified Professional (VCP) roles. VCP certifications are role-based and cover a variety of topics within VMware, the most extensible and used being the VCP-DCV and VCP-NV. In addition to the VCP level, VMware also offers VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) and VMware Certified Design Expert (VCDX) certifications for most tracks.

Learn more about VMware Certifications:

Citrix Certifications 

While Cisco is great, it’s best not to be tied down to one technology, and branching out into different disciplines is important. Enter Citrix. Citrix offers high-quality training for Networking and digital workspace related certifications. Amongst them, the CCP-N (not to be confused with the AWS CCP) provides depth into Citrix and is great to show proficiency in networking over just the Cisco CCNA. 

Learn more about Citrix Certifications:

Container Certifications

Application and role-specific certifications can help stand out in the job market for carving out more exact career goals. The most in-demand career path right now: containers. Docker and Kubernetes both offer their own container-specific certifications. Along with cloud roles, container knowledge stands as the most needed right now and for the future. 

For a full list of available Kubernetes Certifications, check out our blog explaining all the levels.

Learn more about Container Certifications:

Python Certifications

Python is easily the most desired coding language and skillset that IT professionals look for. The Python Institute certifications are a great way to learn Python and show off a functional knowledge of the language. With it’s growing popularity, the Python Institute expanded its program in 2020 to offer the PCPP, Certified Professional in Python Programming. It has two levels, 32-1XX and 32-2XX. The 32-2XX will be offered starting in late 2020.

Learn more about Python Certifications:

Other Certifications

It’s important to focus on certifications based on the career you want. Almost every niche and technology has a specific certification attached to it that can help teach about the technology, as well as look good on a resume. Visualize the IT professional career you have in mind, and work backward to find the most needed certifications to excel in the role. 

Job Title: Manager, Technical Services (APAC)

How long have you been at LogicMonitor?

I’ve been at LogicMonitor for 9 months.

Why did you want to work at LogicMonitor? 

The stage of growth that LogicMonitor is at in APAC appealed to me – it’s a mature product but there is an opportunity to build out local capabilities and grow the business here. After spending most of my career in IT infrastructure, moving into a software business whilst still using the skills I had learned was something I wanted to be a part of. 

What is the most rewarding part of your job? 

It sounds cliche but I genuinely like seeing my team being successful and being recognized for the great work that they do every day. On a more selfish note – I love talking about the product and demonstrating how it can solve so many of the issues I used to face. 

What do you find most challenging about your job?

At the moment I’m responsible for both our customer experience and sales engineering in the APAC region so it can be difficult to dedicate as much time as I’d ideally like to for both functions. But it’s also very rewarding and fast-paced at the same time, which is great!   

What are some of the new challenges you’ve seen recently since the shift to remote working?

To be honest I haven’t really found it that different for the most part. LogicMonitor has us set up exceptionally well to work from anywhere and has been really supportive through the whole pandemic. Probably the biggest challenge was when my 5-year-old daughter was at home with me during the initial lockdown and trying to balance her schooling needs with work commitments. 

Any tips for staying productive and keeping a good work-life balance while working from home?

Make sure you do something for yourself each day that you enjoy – I usually go to the gym on my lunch break. It breaks up the day, gets me out of the house, and I’m refreshed and ready for the afternoon. Scheduling facetime between the team, with so many working from home, is also so important to keep up that interaction. 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I have two young children so I spend as much time with them as I can. But I love gaming (Call of Duty, Starcraft, etc.), weightlifting, home barista, cooking, and travel. 

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Iceland. The landscape was so dramatic and like nothing I’ve seen anywhere else in the world. Black sand beaches, volcanos, hot springs, waterfalls, geysers – it was so different and interesting. Great coffee and food too! 

What is the best advice someone has given you?

Enjoy the journey. Simple enough but I try to just enjoy each day. 

What advice would you give to other people in your field of work? 

Too many go with the easier option and don’t challenge the status quo. Look for new and innovative solutions that provide differentiation in whatever it is you are working on. Be the person that pushes for change. 

Interviewing for a new job and finding your right fit is tough enough, not to mention the added stress of interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic. As stated on our Careers Page, our process is pretty consolidated and we move quickly (you have to when you’re a growing tech company). Usually, one of our last stages is an onsite interview- an important opportunity for us to learn about our candidates, have them meet team members, answer their questions, and show them the space in which they’d be working. 

As recruiters, we’re used to fast-paced changes, and so when we were given our work from home order in March, we knew we needed to adapt that same level of service to a remote interview process. In this article, we’ll cover how we’ve adjusted our process, our best tips for interviewing remotely, and success stories we’ve already seen in the last couple of months. 

How We Adjusted Our Remote Interviewing Process

We realized quickly that we needed to adjust our high-touch interviewing to scale remotely. Some of the things we were already doing as a team were going to be extra important virtually, such as preparing candidates for interviews by asking the hiring manager what they’ll be focusing on, sharing team LinkedIn profiles, and setting expectations up front. However, preparing our team has been important as well to ensure a good experience all around. 

We created an internal document for our recruiters that details every step of a candidate moving through our process remotely. The main differences include: 

  1. Transparency Early On 
    • Informing a candidate early in the process that if they advance to end stages, the interview will happen virtually. 
  2. Keep It Simple 
    • Using one scheduling video call link throughout the process, along with coaching around our virtual conferencing tool if they are not already familiar with it. In the confirmation email, we point out that there is only one Zoom link needed throughout the interview. 
  3. Breaks Are Important 
    • Building in bio breaks into the interview plan, because Zoom fatigue is real. 
  4. Updates Are Key 
    • Along with standard interview training, coaching the hiring team on alerting other interviewers when they’ve ended or are running late. This ensures that a candidate is not sitting in an empty Zoom room and we’re mindful of their scheduled time.
  5. A Friendly Face 
    • A greeting from the recruiter five minutes before the interview is set to start, where the candidate and recruiter join on call to answer any last-minute questions. We also add the interview schedule in the Zoom chat. 

Remote Interview Tips

Below are the tips we’ve found helpful to provide to candidates before they enter later stages of our interview process: 

1 – Ask Questions, Be Curious

2 – Set Expectations

3 – Test Your Setup

4 – Active Listening

5 – Be Articulate and Animated

6 – Troubleshooting

Real Examples

One of the first teams to shape our remote interviewing practice was our Sales Engineering team. This is an important and high visibility role for us, as the role has a critical balance of elevated soft skills and the ability to hit the ground running, technically. Usually, the end stage is 3-4 hours on-site in one of our locations, with an in-person presentation included. Because of the shift to virtual interviewing, we needed to brainstorm ways to observe candidates’ soft skills and technical foundation. We ended up landing on the idea of giving the candidate an opportunity to be more involved in shaping their virtual process. Do they pick one 4-hour interview or two separate 2-hour interviews? 

Our candidates overwhelmingly chose the 2 segmented times where they were able to meet all the individuals on the team first, and then work on the sales presentation to hone in on their soft skills further. Many studies show that any interview longer than 3 hours risks turning into a negative experience for a candidate. 

Our Director of Sales Engineering says that since everything is virtual right now, it is important to see if a candidate can conduct themselves on such remote channels. A tip he gave is that during the presentation, something as seemingly simple as using two monitors can go a long way to make sure you can keep one eye on the presentation and one on the audience, therefore demonstrating good command of the presentation. He rounded out his advice by saying, “If you come into an interview, be prepared. Dress professionally, have appropriate lighting, be prepared to talk about why you want the job, and have questions lined up.”

While interviewing in person might be more optimal in some situations, being able to master the art of a successful video call is important in both interviewing and the new day to day work life. It is important as a candidate to be adjusted to the new normal of remote interviewing, and it is equally important that recruiting teams ensure both candidates and hiring teams have the best experience possible. 

*co-authored by Briana Friden and Kimi Mashoon

Title: Director, Quality Assurance

How long have you been at LogicMonitor? 

I have been at LogicMonitor for 11 months.

What made you want to work at LogicMonitor? 

I’ve been in the industry for 18+ years and mostly worked for companies where a lot of the automation stack and test processes were already set. The idea of building a team from scratch and setting up all of the processes motivated me to join LogicMonitor. Also, some of my past experience is in monitoring domain and cloud security test automation, so I saw an opportunity to utilize my experience.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

Job satisfaction. Every day I get opportunities to learn and work with a new set of challenges. Every small change that takes me and my team closer towards meeting our goals contributes to my job satisfaction. Some of the most rewarding things are reducing the number of customer cases, increasing the test automation coverage percentage, hiring talented people, and setting up the highest level of collaboration between development and test teams. 

What do you find most challenging about your job?

Hiring, specifically during the COVID timeframe. It’s extremely difficult to hire good talent. People who are strong in niche skills generally tend to continue with their current job. We are trying our best to hire good talent to expand our capabilities, which has been challenging and will remain the same for the next couple of months.

What are some of the new challenges you’ve seen recently since the shift to remote working?

The impact on productivity due to continuous remote working has been a challenge, as well as the lack of in-person interaction with team members. There are new team members who onboarded remotely and I haven’t met them in person yet. It’s very important to know and interact with people in-person to maintain good working relationships. 

Any tips for staying productive and keeping a good work-life balance while working from home?

Keep a good focus on your health along with a focus on work. We all know that working remotely is a challenge due to long hours on call, Slack, etc. However, if we move our bodies for an hour a day, it will help us boost our morale as well as productivity at work.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

In my free time, I enjoy working out at the gym, trekking (hiking) in the ranges of the Sahyadri mountains in India, and long drives to beach spots like Goa. 

What is your favorite book?

I love to read the history of India, specifically between the 15th century and later. “Raja Shivchatrapati” is my favourite book. It describes the immense deep thought process of setting up an independent state and its benefits for the welfare of the people.

What are some of your favorite places you’ve traveled to?

Driving from Germany to Switzerland is beautiful since it is alongside the ranges of the Alps. Mount Titlis and Goa are two of my other favorite travel destinations.

What is the best advice someone has given you?

Success is not possible without hard work. My strong belief is hard work and a learning attitude are two weapons with which we can fight with any situation in life. I have been practicing this for a long time and it has always helped me.

Title: Global PPC Manager

How long have you been working at LogicMonitor?

About 3 months. I started this March.

Why did you want to work at LogicMonitor?

An employee here, Jim, told me about the role and team. It sounded like a great opportunity. I’ve always wanted to solve big problems with a talented team, and I get that chance here at LM. 

What has your experience at LogicMonitor been like so far? 

It wasn’t the usual experience since I started the week before shelter in place orders, but it’s been great nonetheless. My team is awesome, and we’re working hard to build trust during WFH. 

Was there a certain moment in your career that you felt was a turning point?

Working at Adlucent here in Austin was special. I was able to run PPC accounts for several public e-commerce companies and it was a blast. I was traveling to clients to present ideas to expand our impact on their business, and also listening to what they needed at that time. I had my first great boss there, and I began to see how high my professional potential is. Adlucent helped me be more confident and gave me several opportunities to push myself. 

We’ve been working remotely for 3 months now. Any tips for staying productive and keeping a good work-life balance?

Stay flexible. Sometimes I’m interrupted by our kid or dogs, I’ve learned to roll with the punches. Our team is also very aware of keeping limits and avoiding workday creep. 

Before working at LogicMonitor, what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

I managed a wine store in San Antonio for 3 years. We featured only Texas-made products, and it was a blast. We had visitors from all 50 US states, almost every Canadian province, and several countries, and it’s hard to replicate the memories we had there. 

What is your favorite restaurant for take-out in Austin?

P. Terry’s. Sometimes you need a burger and fries. And lemonade. 

If you could only bring 3 things with you to a deserted island, what would you bring? 

  1. Satellite Phone
  2. Tent
  3. Water Filtration System

What is your favorite quote?

“The best-laid schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.” I actually enjoyed this book (Of Mice and Men) in high school and this quote is one step above pure nihilism. Sometimes things happen no matter how well we plan. That’s okay. 

What is your favorite book?

Jurassic Park. My dad, brother, and I just started reading all of Crichton’s books. There’s something enjoyable about plausible science fiction, and I loved the movies too. 

What 3 words would you use to describe LogicMonitor?

  1. Passionate
  2. Determined
  3. Adaptable