This blog post was written in July 2016 by Viet Nguyen.

I joined Amino in February as the first talent hire to manage talent acquisition and career development. I'm here because I believe in the company’s mission—to paint a clear picture of American health care and help people to make more informed, confident decisions about their care.

From the start, it was apparent that I shared the company’s values, and knew that it would be an incredible opportunity to build a recruiting strategy that mirrors those values. I spent the first 90 days observing the micro-interactions between Aminos because I wanted to have a fundamental understanding of the Amino culture. I watched how the members of the leadership team carried themselves and how their management style positively impacted the rest of the team.

Here are my observations, as well as what you can expect when you meet anyone from the Amino team.

Empathy in practice, not just in principle

The team really cares about each other, more than any other company I’ve ever worked for. Everyone is hyper-aware of each other and shows an acute level of empathy. The team is thoughtful in acknowledging each other’s struggles and do what they can to help.

Being new, trying to grow a new team, implementing a lot of company-wide processes, and acting as an agent of change, I really felt supported—so many people asked if I needed help or if there were ways they could enable me to do my job better. One of Amino’s core values states, “We are united by our desire to help people.” To live this value, our team operates with a high-level of empathy for our users and each other.

Profound respect for one another

People actually show up to meetings on time! I’ve worked in startups where everyone is so “heads down” that we had to round people up for meetings. This is a good example of the team’s empathetic nature but also shows a profound respect for each other’s time. It’s so nice to schedule a meeting and have people show up, knowing it will be productive and start/end on time—it’s a magical feeling.

Thoughtful (and meaningful) feedback

The team encourages and challenges each other to do the best work they can. Everyone focuses on giving constructive criticism, so you can always count on getting productive feedback.

For example, when I was drafting the job specifications for our Director of Data Science role, the data science team provided constructive feedback on wording, explained health care nuances that I wouldn’t have known otherwise, and played an active role in a project I was primarily responsible for. This was invaluable to scoping the role correctly.

From a leadership standpoint, David (our CEO) often schedules one-on-one walks with team members to check in, hear their feedback on the product, and discuss any ideas for improvement.

What to expect from your candidate experience at Amino

After observing the behaviors of Amino team members, I began designing our candidate experience. The foundation is based on our core values and powered by a simple concept you may have learned in the sandbox: treat others how you’d like to be treated.

If you’re interviewing at Amino, here’s what you can expect when you meet the team:

• Empathy: We’ve all interviewed enough to understand what it’s like to be a candidate. We understand looking for a new job is a job in and of itself—it can be exhausting. We understand how disheartening it is to wait for feedback. We will do everything we can to be empathetic and mitigate the pains of interviewing.

• Objectivity: We will define the respective role as clearly as possible knowing there is inherent ambiguity at a startup. With that in mind, we will objectively assess your skills and experience against the defined role to avoid biases. This also allows us to provide clear feedback throughout the process.

• Feedback: You will get feedback within 48 hours after your conversation with us. We value your time and interest in Amino. The least we can do is share our thoughts so you know exactly where we stand. We’d love to get feedback from you as well so we can understand where you’re coming from and how we can get better.

• Punctuality: We appreciate your time and interest in Amino. If we have a scheduled time to speak, you can expect that we will be on time. If that is ever not the case, you will hear from us beforehand.

• Professionalism: To us, being professional means being clear in our expectations, being respectful, creating an environment where you can be yourself, and being prepared for our opportunity to chat with you.

• Transparency: We will provide you with the exact steps of the interview process and will reiterate the process and provide feedback after every step. You will always know where you stand with us, and should never feel left in limbo. We will do our best to paint the clearest picture of what it’s like to work at Amino.

If you’re curious to learn more about our mission, product, team, or culture, please feel free to reach out to us at careers [at] amino.com. Interested in open roles at Amino? Check out our open roles—even if you don’t see a position that’s a perfect fit, I’d still love to connect and learn more about your aspirations!