At MarsBased, we have started hiring again after almost a year of consolidating our current team without new hires.
One of the things that I always do during my interviews is starting by asking our candidates any doubts that they might have about our company or the job position. To us, hiring is not only seeking the right person but also convincing this person that MarsBased is the best fit for them. If you are curious, I might post about how we do job interviews at MarsBased in the future.
What has surprised me the most about the latest job interviews that I've done is that all our candidates are now asking about how MarsBased is financed. They want to know if we are bootstrapped, whether we have external investment, the kind of clients that we have, and the type of contracts we have with those clients.
I see a change of paradigm here. A year ago, almost every question was focused on the methodology that we followed in our projects. Most of the conversation revolved around agile and how we managed development sprints. Now it's all about financial stability.
Fortunately, MarsBased has never relied on external investment, and we are proud to always have taken financial decisions aimed at ensuring the continuity of our company in the long term.
But this is indeed confirming a change in priorities among our potential candidates. We are starting to see the consequences in the last month layoffs (and adquisitions too), and we might be facing a transitional moment where people are going to be more cautious about making a change.
Time will tell. But in the meantime, MarsBased will continue being this small spacecraft in the middle of the universe. Proud of their own command and always choosing the best route to avoid risks and ensure that we bring our crew safely home.