Our interview process
As you take your first steps in our hiring process, we want to be transparent about how we evaluate candidates, what you can expect, and what we expect in return. We believe in a rigorous but fair process, and we want to ensure that you have what you need to decide whether GSA is the right place for you.
What to expect
Here's a breakdown of the stages of our hiring process for core research and technology positions. The precise format may vary for other teams and roles, but this gives you a realistic roadmap.
| Stage | Purpose | What you'll face / What we'll assess |
|---|---|---|
| Round 1 interviews | Assess core technical fit | Round 1 interviews - assess core technical fit Two remote (via HackerRank or Zoom) technical interviews, each lasting up to one hour. We test foundational knowledge we consider essential - whether in computing, engineering, mathematics or statistics. |
| Take-home exercise | Evaluate practical skills with breathing room | Take-home exercise - evaluate practical skills with breathing room An exercise to complete in your own time, giving you the opportunity to showcase your skills without the live pressure of an interview. |
| Recruitment alignment call | Ensure mutual fit | Recruitment alignment call - ensure mutual fit While the take-home is ongoing, you'll have a call with our recruiting team. This is your chance to ask your questions, and ours to ensure we understand what you're aiming for, what motivates you, and what you need to succeed here. |
| Round 2 interviews | Deeper technical / team fit | Round 2 interviews - deeper technical / team fit Up to approximately four hours of interviews (onsite or remote if needed), with more focused technical and team-specific evaluations. At this stage we're exploring team-fit, so this is also your opportunity to understand what your specific role might look like. |
| Final rounds | Leadership, long-term potential, cross-functional fit | Final rounds - leadership, long-term potential, cross-functional fit Conversations with senior or technical leadership. We'll discuss your vision, how you might grow and contribute beyond day-to-day tasks, and what we can offer you. |
Note: Sometimes we uncover things in earlier rounds that lead us to explore alternative team fits or further verification, so the "standard path" can flex a little.
What matters to us
- We hold a high bar for ourselves and for those we hire: strong technical foundations, curiosity, and the skill to reason carefully through ambiguous or evolving problems. We're rigorous, but never for its own sake.
- We prize people who take ownership of what they do and how they grow, and who push for better solutions without needing to be asked.
- We work best with people who are independent thinkers and generous collaborators. Your impact should compound with time here.
What we've learnt
We believe in being open about what we're good at and what we find difficult. Here are a few things we'd like you to know up front.
- Process length: We're aware our process isn't the shortest. We strive to balance thorough evaluation with speed and want you to have enough information to evaluate us, too. We appreciate your patience and understand that you may prioritise faster processes elsewhere.
- Limited Q&A time in Round 1: Our Round 1 interviews aim to assess your technical ability as precisely as possible within the limited time available. Our interviewers will do their best to answer your questions at the end, but if time runs short or you'd like to explore topics in more detail, the alignment call with our recruitment team is designed to give you that opportunity.
- Responses and feedback: We'd love to provide detailed feedback to every candidate, but we receive an extremely high volume of applications. We aim to offer more specific feedback to all candidates who reach the later stages of the process.
- Rejection despite strong performance: It's not always about whether you did "well enough" in the abstract; it's often about whether your performance convinces us more than other applicants or fits precisely with what we need. Sometimes excellent candidates don't move forward and will go on to excel elsewhere. We aim to make these decisions carefully and strive to get them right, though we recognise that's not always possible.
Tips for success
Here are some tips to help you prepare and get the most out of the process:
- Be rigorous in fundamentals. Write clean code, think clearly, and explain trade-offs.
- For the take-home exercise, invest time wisely but keep it simple. Think through your design, tests, documentation, and maintainability, but don't make life harder for yourself. We know the temptation to go above and beyond can be strong, but we encourage you to focus on applying sound judgement in how you use your time.
- Demonstrate curiosity. Show how you think about improvement, rather than just solving the problem.
- Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. It's better to show how you learn and adapt than to pretend perfection.
- Bring your own questions. We want you to assess us as much as we assess you. Questions about culture, team structure, growth, failure cases, and what makes someone excellent here are all welcome and will help both sides.
Final thoughts
We know interviews can be stressful. We hope the experience shows that our questions are never designed to trick you, but to understand how you think. We're looking for people who can grow with us over many years - people who share our ambition for high performance balanced with integrity, collaboration, and impact.
Thank you for your consideration. We hope you'll find the process illuminating, challenging, and fair.
If you have any further questions, please reach out to us at recruitment@gsacapital.com.