About Optimism
Optimism is a media company working to build a brighter web. We conceive, launch, and operate high-quality digital brands that spark curiosity, spread positivity, and improve the lives of our readers. With an inbox-first approach, we aim to transform email into a healthy alternative to social media feeds, a place where you can curate the news, entertainment, and information you truly want and enjoy.
Our brands populate a variety of lifestyle categories: including travel, learning, home, health & wellness, finance and more. Our universal approach helps us reach 15 million subscribers across our network and serve more than 30 million web sessions each month. And we’re growing with each new brand and newsletter launched.
About the Interviewer Role
As our dedicated Interviewer, you will be a keystone piece of our Talent team. You are the frontlines of understanding our most promising candidates: who they really are, what they have accomplished in their career, what motivates them, and where they want to go next. This is a part-time hourly position that is designed for maximum flexibility, but it has the potential to grow into a full-time role. You can do this job from anywhere, as long as you have a fast internet connection and a professional background for video calls.
You will receive introductions to candidates that have passed their first round hiring manager interviews, and receive their resumes/LinkedIn, as well as the role scope that they are applying for. Your job is to conduct meticulous ~hour long interviews with them, taking careful notes, and then to polish/revise those notes into a brief that you then submit to the hiring manager. Your role is not to judge the candidate. Your role is to extract as much concrete, detailed information as you can about what they have done in their last several positions, so that we have as much information as possible to inform our decision about whether to advance them or not. Your job is to do this in a way that feels like a nice conversation, not an interrogation, so that they have a positive candidate experience.
You love people, stories, and details. While any curious person with attention to detail. Optimism is a high-accountability setting. Here you will own your work, and are free to organize your time however suits you best, as long as you adhere to the guidelines for submitting your deliverables. You will be joining - and helping shape - a high-performing Talent team.
AccountabilitiesReceive the role description & search materials for each role that you’ll be interviewing candidates for for. Align yourself on the key elements that we are looking for for that position.Receive introductions to candidates that you’ll be interviewing.Schedule and conduct ~60min deep dive interviews. (We will train you in how to do this.)Do basic prep ahead of each, e.g. review the candidate's resume & LinkedIn, form a plan for where you will spend the most time.Use a semi-structured approach, hitting consistent questions as well as custom questions relevant to that candidate.Take meticulous notes during the call, and after the call polish the document and create a PDF of that doc + their resume to submit to the Talent team as their Candidate Packet.Make the candidate feel comfortable, heard, and welcomed during the interview.RequirementsHave an innate curiosity of people and their stories.Have a good grasp of the modern professional landscape of technology, finance, and business, i.e. you know enough about how companies work to ask good questions and understand the answers when interviewing senior and executive candidates.Have attention to detail, and ability to take detailed notes on a conversation while you’re having it.Have a pleasant, personable, and professional demeanor.Have a reliable ability to do phone calls and video calls (i.e. consistent and reliable access to strong phone signal and fast wifi).You must have professional background for your video calls.Bonus points for a background or training in, and passion for, journalism or journalistic pursuits.
Our Commitment
We aim to provide equal opportunity for all. We are firm believers in the strength of diversity and aim to build teams of individuals that offer unique perspectives, come from different backgrounds, and challenge each other to be better every day!
