As a rule of thumb you should reserve at least 4 months for the process. It’s not straightforward to say how long it takes from the point you submit an application to Startuplifers and get accepted, to the point you’re sitting on a plain on your way to SF.

As Kate’s case will showcase, the recruiting funnel might be a one-week show, while for others the journey can take moths.

Every time we want to introduce an applicant’s a profile for a certain startup, she/he will get a notification about it trough our Slack network.

Kate Dorrer got accepted to Startuplifers talent pool in fall 2017 but was actively introduced to startups from early spring 2018 on. 

When introducing her profile to Crowdmade, it took three days for them to look up her profile. They were interested in getting her to be a part of their team, so we introduced Kate to the company and they proceeded to setting up an interview a few days later. The interview took place on a Wednesday. Next Tuesday she received an initial offer.

*Note: Kate’s case was special as she only had one call with the company. In most cases, the candidate has at least a few interviews before an offer is made.

At her interview, Kate went through her background with the CTO of the company. Right after, she conducted a couple technical assignments that were commented and discussed live as she proceeded.

Task 1: Basics of algorithms and data structures, string manipulation.
Task 2: Working with the system that was about to come (like how to structure database tables for a new business need)

The company’s contact person promised to return to her right after he’d had talked with their CEO. Once he did, Kate took a couple of days to go through the contract with the Startuplifers team and accepted the offer.

After signing the contract, Startuplifers introduced Kate to Kilroy team and our lawyer who started walking Kate through the paperwork, like the language tests and filling out the training plan. 

Kate’s internship as a Full-stack Engineer Intern begins on June 1st. By then, she has been in our talent pool for 9 months.

Even though the actual recruiting process took no longer than two months, we highly recommend to apply to the talent pool way ahead your desired starting time. This is for two reasons:
1) You’ll increase your chances of being added to many startups. Every day you spend outside the talent pool, interesting opportunities will be missed.
2) You’ll get invaluable practice in job interviews. The remote technical interviews can be confusing for first-timers. Hence, you need to practice, practice, practice.

Soooo…. Why not take the chance and start your own process by applying right away!