To learn more about what's it like to work at GitLab, please visit our Jobs FAQ page.
We strive to be as expeditious as possible in our hiring process. However, the speed of the process can and does vary. To see our historical and recent trends related to time-to-hire, please view the Time to Offer Accept (Days) chart on the Talent Acquisition Performance Indicators page.
To note, this metric is calculated by taking the number of days it takes from the time a candidate starts the recruitment process to when they accept an offer.
Should you reach out on any social media platform to any GitLab team member with whom you have not previously worked or do not know and request a referral, instead of or in addition to applying to our jobs page, you'll receive the following reply: "Thank you for your interest in GitLab. We would much rather prefer you apply for the position you have in mind directly via our Jobs page. This will ensure the right GitLab team member reviews your profile and replies back to you! Unfortunately at this time, I cannot refer you for the position as we have not had a chance to work together. To ensure we stay inclusive, I also cannot influence your application."
If you are invited for an interview with GitLab and you need financial support for your interview, you may be reimbursed for the following:
To initiate the reimbursement process please email ces@gitlab.com
. Additional details found here.
If you are a current team member and are interested in applying for a current vacancy, please follow the steps below.
US
in its title, it's open to all applicants from around the world.There are situations in which multiple internal applicants apply for the same role. Please remain professional during the interview process, and refrain from discussing interview questions/anything pertaining to the process until it is over.
private
on the calendar. Many team members at GitLab have their calendar event details set to be internally viewable. Setting up interviews as private
is important to maintain confidentiality of applicants/candidates during the interview process.We want our interview process to be accessible to everyone. You can inform us of any reasonable adjustments we can make to better accommodate your needs by emailing ces@gitlab.com
about the need for adjustments at any point in the interview process.
ces@gitlab.com
which is managed by the Candidate Experience Specialist (CES) team.leaves@gitlab.com
to arrange adjustment(s).These steps may vary role-to-role, so please review the hiring process on the job family page for the role you are interested in.
no show
and be disqualified. We will unreject a candidate when circumstances beyond their control cause them to miss a scheduled call.no show
policy as the recruiters. If a candidate does not show up or reach out to the team, they will be disqualified.The GitLab team understands the importance of inclusive interviewing, and we strive to ensure our hiring team is well versed in every aspect of diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence. A positive and comfortable candidate experience is priority.
Calls can last anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the conversation.
Example questions include:
applicants sign up
.At the end of the screening call, the recruiter will tell you what the next steps will be, if any. There should be time for you to ask any questions you may have.
In an effort to streamline the hiring process, improve the candidate experience, and hire talent faster, best practice is to coordinate interview times so that candidates can complete the process within 2 weeks. Just as if we were to interview candidates in-person at an office, we wouldn’t make them come back 3, 4, or even 5 times. The initial screening call and optional CEO interview are not considered to be part of the 2-week goal. If the process before or during the team interview is taking more than a few days to confirm, the Recruiter should reach out to the candidate, apologize, and explain what is going on. As a candidate it is really frustrating to not hear anything from the other side just to have the conversations resume later as if nothing had happened.
Those on the interview team should prioritize the interview in their schedules. If it means you have to miss an already scheduled or recurring meeting, please consider participating in the interview a priority and reviewing notes from the missed meeting agenda afterwards instead. Hiring an amazing team is critical for GitLab, and how we spend our time shows where our priorities are.
Maintain candidate confidentiality. All candidate names and details are kept confidential within the hiring team to avoid bias or the potential to jeopardize a candidate's current employment as well as to maintain data protection. The only people who should have access to details about candidates are Talent Acquisition, People Ops, the hiring manager(s), approved interviewers or reviewers within that team, the executive of the department, the legal team, the CFO, and the CEO.
Remember to inform candidates about what stage they are in. For example, if in the hiring process for the particular position / team you've agreed that there will be four stages, be sure to inform the candidate of where they are in the process during each call / stage. To better manage candidates’ expectations, at the end of the interview, let them know what stage they are in as well as what the next step/stage will be if they do pass this interview. Considering we are speaking with other candidates, they can expect to hear back within a couple of days. Some brief feedback from the previous stage can also be included to help the candidate gauge their progress. If there will be additional or fewer stages than expected, be sure to let the candidate know so they are aware of where they are in the process.
The process can differ from team to team and from position to position. If a candidate submits a resume to a particular open position and is being considered for another open position, send a short note to update the candidate and get their approval as well as to inform them that their process may be slightly different than previously expected or delayed. If the roles are on different teams, the candidate will ideally only move forward with one, depending on their interests and qualifications. If the candidate is being rejected for one or all of the positions they applied for, they will be notified of which vacancies they are being rejected for.
Talent Acquisition will schedule the next person in the process. Someone on the talent acquisition team will move candidates forward to the next person in the interview plan if the candidate has received positive feedback. Interviews should be scheduled with a minimum of 48 hours (two business calendar days) notice in order for the GitLab interviewer to review their schedule and fully prepare so that both the interviewer and the candidate get the most out of the experience. We do allow exceptions to be made when the hiring manager would like to expedite the interview plan. If the 48 hours cannot be met, CES will reach out to the interviewer directly to coordinate.
Communicate urgency where necessary. Recruiters, CES team members, and interview panelists should inform the Hiring Manager when a candidate shares they have other interview processes at the offer, or other similarly late stages. We will do our best to expedite a candidate's interview process while continuing to follow the necessary steps in the hiring plan.
Compensation is discussed at start and end but not in between. Compensation expectations are asked about during the screening call. If the expectations seem unworkable to the manager or recruiter (based on what had been approved by the compensation committee at the creation of the vacancy), then the recruiter can send a note to the candidate explaining that salary expectations are too far apart, but they should also ask how flexible the candidate is and if they would consider adjusting their expectations. If expectations are aligned, then the topic of compensation should not re-surface until an offer is discussed internally. Following this guideline avoids conflating technical and team interviews with contract discussions and keeps the process flowing smoothly.
If the manager has a question about compensation, please ping the People Ops Analyst for review. If the question needs to be escalated, the People Ops Analyst will add the Chief People Officer to the conversation.
GitLab Employment and Contractor Agreements are internal-only. If an applicant requests to see one or more of our contracts from our Internal-only Employment and Contractor Agreements section, please advise them that we are unable to share them with the applicant. Talent Acquisition and CES may point the applicant to the relevant Benefits handbook section or pages, or direct any specific questions to the relevant internal teams, be it Legal, Total Rewards, or People Ops.
An approval team authorizes all offers. The manager proposes a suggestion for an offer (including bonus structure if applicable, etc.) as a private comment in Greenhouse and informs the talent acquisition team on its details depending on what is applicable. The talent acquisition team will create an offer package to present to an approval chain consisting of the People Business Partner, executive of the division, and Chief People Officer for approval. Verbal offers should not be extended to the candidate until the offer is approved. The CEO may choose to interview the candidate, and any offers given before the CEO's approval are premature.
As an all-remote, global company, GitLab gives all team members the flexibility to determine their time away from work, including the holidays they observe. There will likely be holidays that our candidates observe that a recruiter, hiring manager, or CES may not. If there's a time during the year when a significant portion of the company will be taking time off, we'll be sure to send a communication to all active candidates to let them know of a possible delay in communication. Please note that not every member of the team will be observing that holiday, so you may still receive emails from them.
The talent acquisition team will ask candidates for references via email. The hiring manager should not conduct backchannel references. More information on how we conduct reference checks can be found on the Talent Acquisition Process - Hiring Manager Tasks page.
The talent acquisition team will begin a background check on the candidate once an offer as been extended.
If, at the completion of the interview process, both the candidate and the hiring team wish to move forward with the candidate's application, an offer will need to be prepared.