The details on ezCater
ezCater. And what we are, is the largest online provider of corporate catering solutions here in the US, we are the leading technology platform, sort of purpose built for food for work in the US. The way sort of think about our products at a high level, we're two sided marketplace that's got now I think today over over about 105,000 restaurants nationwide, we've essentially become the go to for the cafeteria replacement.
What they look for in a candidate
Before any of the technical know-how our skill set or qualifications on a resume stand out for us, as we go through an interview process, the biggest thing that we look for is it comes down to our culture, right, we actually call our set of values that we operate by our culture recipe. And one of the prominent, one of the prominent ingredients of that culture recipe is no jerks, so to speak. So we don't hire jerks, even brilliant ones, is typically how we say it doesn't matter to us how, you know, technically sound you might be, we value who we come to work with every day. And we find talented people who like us believe in an environment of kindness, inclusivity respect. And in going beyond helpful, which is another one of the ingredients are our culture recipe. On top of that, as we go through our interview processes, you know, we look for the things that are going to be they're going to make you extremely successful on a day to day basis. So strong communication skills, and that's, you know, being able to deliver a message in a respectful but pointed way, right, as well as you know, good listening skills and be able to kind of take that feedback and then move forward. Just really, in any capacity, folks that are data oriented, right, we look at everything that we do, and decisions that we make, using sort of data is that foundation for us, in every aspect and on every team folks that are team oriented, right? So you're always thinking of, of your team, and you know, what's the best step for your team, as far as you know, improvements, feedback, growth, right, your team oriented in that mindset, and then maybe, and potentially, most importantly, sort of adaptability. And for us, you know, it's still a largely untapped space. And with that comes change and adjustment. And you know, we value a person that can move fast is comfortable shifting and reprioritizing. Because we pivoted sort of out of COVID originally and have been sort of that in that lockstep moving forward together ever since then. And so we value somebody that is, is comfortable in the space that that moves quickly like that.
ezCater's interview process
So for us kind of go, I'll happy to go over the general interview process, I think at first, before we dig into any of that piece of it for us, we look at interviewing as sort of a two way street, we understand that candidates, you want to find your next best home at work. And that's a two way street, right? So you're you're vetting us just as much as we're vetting you at every stage of the interview process. But we want to make sure that we're the right fit for you as we go on. And so we sort of lead our interview process in the space of transparency. Clearly, telling each candidate that applies each candidate that goes through the interview process exactly what we're looking for, and being as honest as an employment and as transparent as you possibly can be with the questions that a candidate might have of us. That said, the general process that somebody could expect at an interview and ezCater starts with the recruiter screen, right? So you've applied to the role or you've been reached out to about a position, you'll talk to myself or one of my wonderful team members. We'll go over just sort of your own career aspirations and things that you're really looking for in your next opportunity. Check off a few boxes around sort of the technical components of our role before preparing you and giving you information and scheduling the next step in our process, which would be the hiring manager interview, surpass that any candidate that's qualified will then speak to the hiring manager for the role. That is typically an interview via zoom or phone, anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes that is sort of an introduction to the team gives the candidate an opportunity to ask questions of the hiring manager, anything around technical, or is that sort of the cultural aspects of that role of making sure the hiring manager has the chance themselves to sort of vet the right bits for the role from there, and we will slot in a technical assessment where necessary, not every role that ezCater is going to require a technical assessment. But the ones that do will typically slide it in right there. Before we move on to our final stage of interview. The final interview is made up you typically have a few different components and a high level you'll meet probably two or you probably have two to three different conversations, either one to one or two to one with high level stakeholders and members of the team that will vet everything from the technical know how strategic business strategic business questions or even just like I mentioned, going back to the sort of the dominating piece for us in our process, the culture aspect. Now on top of that, Most of our roles will have a presentation or project component. And so that will be a chance for you as the as the interviewer or as the interviewee, right the candidate to come in and either present an area where you've been able to drive meaningful business impact, and past work, or will pose you a challenge, you know, based on our business or our space that we would want you to be successful and sort of, have you walk us through your approach to a particular problem or project again, varies roller roll team, the team technical, the business side of the house, but that's typically what a candidate interviewing with us can expect.
How to stand out
I think, you know, at a high level, and just the question, the way that I kind of answered this question more than even just that ezCater, but just in general from being in recruiting myself is, is to be yourself, I know, we keep going back to the culture piece of it, but at the end of the day, you know, who we work with, and we hope who you work with is just as important to you as it is to us right on a day to day basis. And then on top of that going after some of our big hairy audacious goals, right, we were excited to, to kind of come to work with a team that's not only you know, talented and bright, but also can become your, your friends in the process, right. And, like I said, valuable coworkers upon which you can, you can ask advice or lean on or, and grow with together past that, standing out in the hiring process, I kind of like to roll it all the way back to the beginning to the resume. And I guess maybe this is just a self blog. But as a recruiter, the easiest thing a candidate can do for me is make their resume easy to find if you are qualified for the role you are applying for. And you want to show it off, don't be afraid to have a look at our job description. See, you know what we've outlined as necessary for our team and then craft your resume in a way that makes easy for us to kind of identify right find and, and go into our first call excited to have that conversation. I think that's just the number one number one way, especially in a time where you know, we might have several 100 resumes come in for any particular role every single week, right? It's always a little bit different. But I think just making sure your resume and your qualifications are outlined in such a way that it's easy for us to find, that's going to be the biggest piece sort of off the bat past that once we get into the interview process. I'm a big fan of someone who's bringing examples of impacts they've been able to make in their past role and ways they've been able to like I think I mentioned this earlier, drive measurable improvement in a in a relevant way to the role that we're discussing with you, right. And then in the, at the end of it, all right, just be clearly aware of what you know, the candidate are seeking in a new role going into the conversation, we want to we want to make sure that our role is a good fit for you. And we want to make sure that before you commit, you know, one two hours of your time to an interview process that you know, this is something that you'll want to pursue and in the end, it's going to be the right fit for you if we do get to get to that offer stage.
Why they should be on your radar
I think you know, I'll start with why it's always been a good time to join ezCater. And I think that that goes back to you know, sort of how we were established and, and that means, like I said, we like we've mentioned a few times now our culture, we have a strong intentional culture that is built into our DNA here, ezCater, we have outlined what we call our culture recipe, right and the values by which we operate. And that's made up of things like transparency, continuous improvement, going beyond helpful all these aspects that are sort of the tangible intangibles on a day to day basis that are going to make somebody extremely successful with us. And I think personally as an employee of EZ cater make it really really easy to not only communicate if I'm if I'm having a challenge, or it's easier to communicate successes that we're having, it can really mean a bunch of different things. But at a high level, it's us understanding what's good, what's going on with our own business. It's us understanding our career path and the ways that we can continue to grow continuously ourselves, as well as the ways that we can continue to help our teammates grow and help the business ezCater, continue to be as successful as it has been. Past that, you know, to kind of talk more recently, we were actually just named one of I think it's 2020 threes best medium workplaces by Fortune magazine. So the national impact of that has been super, super exciting. In the past, we've been named you know, we've gotten work life awards for most passionate employee bases. Having just I'm in the office right now you can kind of feel that passion when you're when you're, you're stepping out of the remote world and kind of getting into our office you= definitely feel that. And then in the past, I think we are a multiple time award winner. The Best Business Journal's best places to work are the Boston Business Journal, excuse me best places to work and have regularly been recognized as top workplaces in both the Boston Globe and in and out in Denver as well. And on top of that, we actually just on boarded our new CEO Ashwin Raj, who's who we are excited to to watch us Lead, he's a catering to the next phase of our own growth. Ashwin is extremely sharp. He's got a ton of experience when it comes to marketplaces growth, operating at scale, just from his time at Lyft, Amazon and visa. But that's that's obviously not all. I actually had a chance to meet him for the first time myself yesterday. He's got a ton of humility, super kind. And since day one has been extremely transparent with us about the ways he wants to listen and understand and learn about not just our culture, not just the business itself, right and the food for work, but also our culture. And that's one of the big, big reasons that he was drawn to us in the first place and we're excited to see you know, the contribution you can make to our success moving forward.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
