Hearst VP Of Engineering Ive Had A Lot Of Success Adding More Women In Tech

Hearst VP Of Engineering Ive Had A Lot Of Success Adding More Women In Tech Theo Burry is the VP of Engineering at Hearst Digital Studios. After managing distributed kollektivs at the Huffington Post and NowThis News, he is an enthusiastic advocate of remote work. Theo took time out of his busy day to speak with PowerToFly about how he sold the Hearst CEO on remote, why he conducts job interviews via instant message, and more.You work for a large, traditional publishing organization. What inspired you to start hiring remote employees?Its an approach Ive used in the past on a number of jobs. Im in Hearst Digital Studios, which is a new initiative, so theyre open to this type of experimentation. I joined in April, and I brought on some people I had been working with on a freelance fundament from past projects, then continued to hire remotely so my team was remote from the start.How did you convince your organization that this would work?I made a presentation to the Hearst CEO early in the process. I introduced PowerToFly and the idea of having a remote team. I was pleasantly surprised that they were open to experimenting. Its something I believe in strongly. Its bedrngnis about saving money. I believe this is a better model overall, and its more efficient. They gave me their full support.Did you have to make any changes to your organization or process to facilitate remote workers?From the beginning, I tried to create a new process that was based on the idea that people dont have to be in the building to get things done. For example, we use JIRA, which is a cloud-based service. Its not behind a firewall, and you dont have to be here in the building. Similarly, we use Dropbox for file storage and Slack for communication. These are all accessible from anywhere in the world.What do you look for in a remote hire?Im looking for people who are independently interested in the work and engaged without me having to constantly ping them. Its hard to know what everyones work ing on at a given time. My goal is to find the people who will be more actively involved from the start.Whats your interview process like?I dont ask a bunch of tech questions that I know the answers to already just to quiz people. Ive had great success with PowerToFly recommending people to me. I start with that recommendation, then I see if the person is independently interested. The traditional tech interview process is heavily quiz driven, and maybe some people are concerned with remote hiring because they cant bring someone in the office to quiz them. But, its better to avoid that approach entirely. Its better to find people who are engaged. Whats really important is when something new comes up, are the people on your team interested in jumping in and figuring it out?I conduct the first interview on IM (instant message), which I know is not a traditional approach. But, the fact is, were communicating all day on IM, so if they cant communicate with me on IM from the start, its no t going to work. If I find people who can communicate on IM, then they join the team on Slack and complete a task. If they do well, its a good sign it will work out.How do you keep your remote team motivated and connected to your team in the office?Since were a new division, we havent done any hiring in the office. The team is the remote team. I try to be responsive to the people on the team in the same way I would if they were in the office. Were all working together, and I try to be online at all hours of the day and be responsive in that way to keep things moving. I dont try to get everyone to work 95 EST to match my schedule in New York. Instead, I try to extend my time online.What are some remote worker red flags?Its a warning sign if Im not hearing from someone regularly, or if theres some task thats taking longer than expected. I try to start off with trial tasks that are well defined that way I can gauge if this new trial-er is meeting my expectations.What do you appreciate most in a remote employee?Its not just about completing tasks, but thinking through the problem and asking questions to make it better. Im looking for people who are asking questions even during the interview. With remote work, we cant all bond as a team in the office, so there has to be that particular interest there from the beginning.What are some unexpected perks of working with a remote team?The big thing is that you can bring on people who work in different time zones pretty easily. Once you have the process setup, you can capture more productivity in each day??thats the longer term goal. Ideally, if Im finding people who are working on the opposite time zone as New York, we can get more work done on the off hours.Ive had a lot of success adding more women. I know Katharine and Milenastarted PowerToFly because there isnt enough representation of women in tech. But, its not just a political thing. Ive been pleasantly surprised by the quality of people theyve found. There are a lot of talented developers that companies are missing out on if they dont add women to the team. Aki Merced