What does the selection process in ARS Embedded Systems look like?

No matter how many times we speak about this topic, for those who seek employment or think about changing their job, it is always to the point.

Companies differ, and so do their selection processes. This is why we have decided to show what the selection process in our Company looks like. We asked our colleagues from HR for help, so they obliged, naturally, it is their job after all. 🙂

And here is what they say…

Dear future colleague,

When you are looking for work, but also when you aren’t, you mainly see job ads. We in HR need to define the job description and which qualities, knowledge, and skills we seek in you at first. Only then do we create an ad, visible on our website, on different employment platforms or social media, thanks to our communications team.

When a large number of CVs overflows our inbox, we start looking into them in detail.

*Pro tip: We always like to see a well-written, clear, and rich CV. This doesn’t mean that it should be longer than two A4 pages. Similarly, a nice and modern CV design is something that can help you stand out from the other applicants and attract attention. When you demonstrate you put effort in your CV, it shows you really care.

You are undoubtedly more eager to see what awaits you after we choose your CV. You can expect three interviews:

  • an interview with HR (about thirty minutes long)
  • a technical interview (about an hour and a half long)
  • and an interview with the Director about the job offer (one hour long).

For the interview with HR, we prepare questions which will serve as basis to determine whether you have the necessary skills, competences and knowledge as a potential candidate.

The technical interview is more an "engineer to engineer" talk, where we talk about your previous practical experiences and the projects you worked on, that way we get to know you better and gain insight into your know-how.

Often, and in response to candidates’ requests, we organize an HR and a technical interview on the same day, in order to avoid stressing you out.

Candidates and nervousness – how to conquer it?

●The first thing you need to be assured of is that we will definitely try to avoid tense situations, because we are aware of the importance of a relaxed setting to allow you to show yourself in your best light.
● Second, you can experience nervousness when you deem yourself not ready enough, or lacking the skills for the upcoming interview, or you simply care too much. You can use your
nervousness as an incentive to prepare yourself better for the upcoming interview, or allow it to influence your decision to give up or block completely.
● As a means to reduce your nervousness blocking you, we advise you first to prepare well, read what awaits you (e.g. this text), prepare your previous projects, think about yourself, what are the most important qualities or experiences you wish to convey. Feel free to ask questions, too. 🙂
● Ask yourself “What is the worst that can happen?”. The answer is – for us to stay in touch and to cross paths sometime in the future. Often times in stressful situations, people perceive the interview process as much more difficult than it is, and that far worse scenarios than those realistically happening are possible. When you ask yourself this question, you realize that the situation is not as bad as you thought. And we promise that we will not judge and that we will understand.
● People get nervous when they fear embarrassment, saying something dull or not showing yourself in your best light. If the feeling “I have to be perfect” follows you, give up that idea immediately. You absolutely do not have to, just try to be good enough and be prepared for the interview. If you make a mistake or can’t think of an idea or a great solution at the given moment, that’s fine, because you will get more chances to answer in the interview and show your know-how.

Therefore, it is expected to be nervous, but conquering it is also possible. Accept that you’re nervous, but don’t pay too much attention, eliminate negative outcomes out of your system,
and try to focus on the tasks before you. Mistakes happen, nobody expects you to be perfect. Besides these tips, it is also advisable to consider breathing exercises in preparation for the interview.

What does HR ask the candidates?

The goal of our interview with you would not be to assess your professional knowledge, but your values, your communication skills and how well you adapt. More specifically, we assess your potential to fit into our team. This makes us the first people you need to convince:

● That you are passionate about embedded systems and/or electronics
● That you are compatible with ARS values;
● That you are able to adapt to the ARS team;
● That you are motivated to work at ARS;
● That you are capable of solving problems and confronting challenging situations.

In order for us to assess whether you can fit into our small community, we may require you to tell us:

● A bit more about yourself… We wish to assess how effectively you can elaborate on your background, your interests, and give out other relevant information. At this stage, we already expect you to convince us that you are the person with the necessary skills for the position you applied for;
● How much you know about ARS and what you can tell us about our Company… This is the ideal opportunity to impress us. So, make an effort to research our core values and what we do. You will be able to find all information on our website;
● How interested/ motivated you are for this position… It is very important to us to recognize your passion for electronics in your answer – because this is how we will know whether you
will fit in the ARS team considering that all our engineers share one common trait – a passion for electronics;
● How ready you are to learn and evolve, and whether you have a strong creative approach to work, because we at ARS deem acquiring new knowledge and skills our personal responsibility and we all share the common value “WE NEVER STOP LEARNING”.

Advice for candidates

At ARS, we encourage an informal working atmosphere and informal interactions between colleagues, so it is important that you be relaxed at the interview, to be yourself and to show the best version of yourself. That’s why we would like to give you some tips on how to prepare for your interview with us:

  • Do some research about us on our website and social networks. This is really very simple and doesn’t take much time. You don’t go on a blind date either (well, maybe sometimes), so you shouldn’t want to work for a company you know nothing about.
  • Do additional research on the position. Aside from the information you found in our job ad, check out other positions that exist in ARS, e.g. firmware, hardware or QA engineer.
  • Have questions you wish to ask us handy. Here are some questions you can ask us:
    1. ○ What benefits do you offer for this position?
      ○ How many people are in the team I can expect to work with and how is the team?
      ○ What are the day-to-day duties I can expect in this role?
      ○ What are the opportunities for career development in this role?

If you wish to know more, write to us at posao@ars-es.com