"cultural fit" has become a dirty phrase because in Silicon Valley that tends to mean "someone just like us" (and "us" is mostly young, white, single, male brogrammer), but I think cultural fit -- in the proper sense -- is very important.

For us, it means being sensitive to the cultures of our very diverse members -- and our staff reflect that: about 50% women and folks from all over the globe. Right now, our IT team is a bit "white male" which frustrates me but we were more diverse for a while (we're a small company: folks sometimes leave for more upward career options at bigger companies).

The way resumes are handled here is: very basic screening by HR then into JIRA for tracking, resume review by one or more members of the team, promising candidates get an HR phone interview (covering cultural fit, work habits, why they want to work here, what they look for in a job, etc), based on notes from HR, we either move to a first one-on-one IT interview (the mind map) or reject -- and HR follow-up with all candidates and explain why we rejected them (and sometimes we recommend a candidate re-applies in a year or two). Based on the IT interview, we may reject (again with HR follow-up) or move to a team interview, and on to an executive level interview (for most positions), and then discussion of offer and, hopefully, onboarding.

We have a JIRA workflow for this whole process to ensure that at any stage where a candidate is rejected, HR will reach out to them, and also so we can make sure we move forward in a timely manner on all candidates.

Actual 'culture' tends to hings more on the values and philosophies you hold as a team.

Or rather, 'ought to' more than 'tends to'.

Yes, ought to. Unfortunately Silicon Valley has poisoned the term 😞

A question.. tourist in NY could search for jobs?? Or internship?

@rcustodio A tourist wouldn't be eligible to work legally in the US.

A tourist (B1 I guess) can open a company, using that I would be able to work, remotely?

Depends on the specific visa. When you said "tourist", I assumed visa waiver or whatever it's called these days.

foreigners can own US corps and work remotely for them.

but you may want to get an accountant in the US to help you out with that

you cant use it to work in the US though

(self-sponsorship is a no no)

Yeah, I don't know what it would take to set up a US corp as a foreigner...

ive done it but i also have an SSN assigned from a visa I was on. I guess you could use an ITIN in place of SSN.

hardest part is getting a bank account because it seems like banks want you there in person to open it

i think Stripe Atlas might help with that if you go through it though.

I came over on an E-2 (Executive Transfer) but prior to that I was employed by the UK office and was visiting the US office for short stints (up to three months).

did you do B2 for the short stays?

I have B1/B2 visa

I guess B1 allow you to open company, I thinking about going to NY later this year

Maybe, If I really enjoy it, I will try to find some job, dunno

But, work visa ppl says that is REALLY hard

And just with big companies, maybe later change to student visa, dunno

you dont even need a visa to open a C corp in the USA, but you may need to get what’s called an ITIN which is a tax identification number from the IRS.

But, that is really boring

@jgh No, I was just on regular business trips from the UK, working remotely in our US office. Paid in sterling into my British account and paying British taxes.

They like ppl that brings economy to their country

Maybe that helps me

oh i see

@rcustodio tbh the visa situation in the US is pretty messy right now. They could do with cleaning it up.

Yeah, with Trump, things are very messy there

even before trump it’s a mess

now it’s a volatile mess 😉

That is a good thing for me?

haha probably not, but worth trying if you end up liking it

The funny thing was when I transferred on the E-2 and switched to US payroll, I called up the UK Inland Revenue one morning and just told them I was now being paid and taxed in the US and asked what would happen to my UK taxes -- they just took me at my word and and said "Oh, no problem sir! We'll just make a note on your file and you won't be taxed in the UK any more"... and that was what happened!

same thing for Canada. I think it’s just the US that it becomes a fight.

I see, I will go there and see what happens… But with ITIN I will be able to make some money

if you dont make money in Canada that year, you dont pay taxes 😄

The visa have 6 months to expire

Its a long time to try a lot of things.. before come back

ANd hoping… never come back

😂

@rcustodio no itin is literally just an identification number for filing taxes. You need an SSN for employment. And if you’re on a visa your SSN card says “not valid without DHS authorization” so you need a valid work visa.

A friend said that I can change my visa to student, and ask in the school to work, if they allow it (normally they do), then I get permission to work

@rcustodio You'll definitely want to keep a close eye on legal issues around visas and work permits and so on -- the current administration is very happy to deport people and if you got deported, getting back in would be next to impossible 😐

Student visa is the easy way to go

starting companies is the way a lot of illegal immigrants get by, so if you’re planning on doing that it’s a tried and true method of staying mostly above-board. But you’re still in the country illegally

yeah they’ll ban you for 10 years if you look at them sideways 😕

Well.. I do everything to not come to that

I dont like that also

Some ppl says to buy a marriage, but…. i dont like taht too

where are you from>

Brazil

Here is not a good country for developer

oh, so you’re ROW and probably qualify for the green card lottery

why not sign up for that?

I dont know about that

What is ROW?

oh nm, brazil doesn’t qualify

unless you were born in a different country

ROW is rest of world…they have weird quotas on green cards. So like India has its own line, China has its own line, Mexico has its own line..there are a couple more and then there’s “rest of world” which is everybody else

the line for rest of world is short

I see

but it means finding a company that will sponsor you

So they give free green card… and those who wants to go there really work.. its a hard chance

well.. i can try that in 6 months… make some company fall in love with me… and maybe they do that

But thanks for the tips

you’ll want to do more reading on the american visa system, it’s not like a lot of countries where you can kinda just show up and ask for a visa at a police department

and they’re super strict about it

Yeah.. I’m doing a lot of studies about that, maybe I will go after an immigrant lawyer

To learn more about it

im trying to get one of those new french entrepreneur visas now…been waiting 2 months so far for the visa processing, my lawyer thinks itll be another 1-2 months 😛

I dont know about that visa

I hope you can get it

In USA?

im in canada right now, the visa is for france

its one of the new ones Macron is pushing

Oh I see, Im thinking about applying to Canada, some ppl says its better than usa

Well.. Im still planning… lets see…

Trump and his cronies are trying to get rid of the visa lottery 😐

the rhetoric about it is a complete lie too because people who are picked for the lottery have to do an interview 😛

so its not like the actual lottery where you win no questions asked

i see.. so no lottery

getting married or give a lot of money to us

Heh, yeah, "lottery" is a very misleading term 🙂