Opto turns up the heat with SF hiring week

Opto is coming off a busy week focused on hiring the next wave of talent into its new San Francisco office. It was five intense days of travel, meeting new people, interviewing, event hosting, and deliberation. We conducted 42 onsite interviews and chatted with hundreds of university students. More importantly, we are energized by the quality and quantity of talent that is excited about Opto, and our pipeline is the healthiest it’s ever been. It also gives us confidence that our commitment to working in-person is resonating.

How did we pull this off? Well here’s the step-by-step guide.

• Step 1: Get an office. We chose SF. It’s not dead. I promise.
• Step 2: Launch a blog. We used Hugo, but any framework will do.
• Step 3: Host events. We hosted a grand opening, and then a happy hour.
• Step 4: Blog about your events. Like I’m doing here.
• Step 5: Plan a hiring week. Reserve all the conference rooms. Invite enough interviewers to fill them at 100% capacity. Order lunch so they don’t get hangry.
• Step 6: Prepare candidates. Pre-interviews. Scheduling. Coordination. Oh my! You’ll need an amazing talent coordinator to help here.
• Step 7: Host in-person resume drop. Yes, you heard that right. We value live and in-person connections.
• Step 8: Show up somewhere else. We overlapped our hiring week with Berkeley STEM Career Fair. Two funnels are better than one.
• Step 9: Interview as many people as possible. Some will be planned in advance. Many will be ad hoc. Be flexible.
• Step 10: Debrief daily. Memory fades fast. Make decisions quickly. Triage. Invite people back for later round interviews.
• Step 11: Happy hour. This is intense for everyone. Invite all participants to gather at the end of the week to relax in a social setting.

It takes an army of dedicated individuals to pull off a week like this. Fortunately Opto has some of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with, and they are eager to build upon our amazing culture. Special thanks to our head of talent Sydney Sharp who orchestrated this endeavor.

Do you have what it takes to succeed at Opto? It’s not too late to submit your application at https://www.optoinvest.com/careers.