In the last month, Cohesion has added 13 new members to our team, meaning that we've expanded by almost 50%. We’ve come a long way from our inception in 2018 as a three-person company and it has to do with the strong foundation we built.
Building a collaborative, enthusiastic, and (for lack of a better term) cohesive team of employees is no simple feat. Hiring is both an art and a science, especially at a startup where priorities are shifting and timelines are short. When making a new hire, our teams evaluate more than just technical know-hows, or how well a candidate checks off the boxes on a job description. We're looking for passionate team players that believe in our core values of integrity, commitment, ingenuity, continuous improvement, and meaningful interactions.
From intro calls to extending an offer, we believe the best way to build a motivated team is through transparent conversations to understand a candidate's pushes and pulls in their own job search. In a market like Chicago, where unemployment for the tech space is anywhere from 1-3%, candidates are king. It's important for us to keep in mind that an interview works both ways - candidates need to evaluate us as much as we evaluate them, which is why it's so important to be transparent about expectations from the first interaction. This also provides a candidate insight about the company from a variety of sources and allows them to be evaluated fairly from a diverse hiring panel.
At Cohesion, we believe in challenging the status quo - in the real estate industry and in our interview process. Our product disrupts the traditional real estate industry by improving operations through digital tools and delivering actionable insights (like our revolutionary Indoor Air Quality program) in ways that have never been done before. When building a team, our streamlined interview process of back-to-back calls and transparent conversations allows candidates to feel at ease and gain a diverse understanding of our company.
Interviewing with Meaningful Interactions
During interviews, we take time to not only understand our candidate’s technical chops but really make sure to speak about their long-term goals. We know employees stay with a company when they're appreciated, challenged, and are given opportunities to grow. We don't just focus on what they've done, we also home in on where they want to go and how we can support them to get there.
"At Cohesion, we approach every conversation as a two-way street," said Ren Wang, VP of Product. “This begins in the hiring process and sets a good foundation for honesty, growth, and fulfillment after a candidate joins our team. We are looking to create meaningful connections with every conversation so that both our team and the candidate can make a complete decision about working together.”
Teams Across Time Zones
Working with globally distributed teams is an incredible way to get varying perspectives on the challenges we encounter and the users we design for. It also means that we have employees working around the clock, making us faster and more efficient. Our globally distributed team is diverse and allows us to evaluate different perspectives and insights and allow our product to grow in a unique way.
"Our team is made up of individuals that are located across the globe," said Nik Patel, CTO, and Co-Founder of Cohesion. “We are able to increase our productivity by putting our minds together to solve complex problems.”
Strength in Diversity
Diversity and inclusion are also pivotal to our interview process. We take the time to acknowledge our implicit biases. The first step of our interview process is always a phone call, as opposed to a virtual or in-person meeting. The purpose is to understand the person for who they are, not their "professionalism" during a video call.
"Our people have truly unique backgrounds and skillsets, which are essential for a company like ours,” said Allison Noelle, People + Culture Manager at Cohesion. “A good portion of the work we’re doing has never been done before. We need people who are always learning, eager to try new things, and excited to share their knowledge with the team.”
Ingenuity doesn’t happen in stagnant environments. At Cohesion, we’ve created an environment of continuous learning. Our people are consciously curious, staying on top of new trends and technologies and leading the way as we create the product of the future.
Interested in joining our team? We’re hiring - check out our open positions.
