In a little over 15 years, Yelp has changed the way people eat, shop, fix their cars, find a dentist and most importantly, build a business reputation. While becoming the go-to resource for finding reputable businesses, Yelp has also worked diligently to build a "five-star" culture for each and every one of its employees.
That's where Mariana Gonzalez comes in. Mariana is the Technical Diversity Recruiting Partner at Yelp, focusing on diversity & inclusion programming, as well as recruiting for Yelp's technical organization. But that's not the only place Mariana is making an impact - she's active in many of Yelp's employee resource groups, and even co-leads one of their newest ones for underrepresented people in engineering & product!
To Mariana, Yelp is more than a company, it's a community. Click here to see all of Yelp's open roles on PowerToFly and keep reading to find out how you can become a member of the growing Yelp team!
Q: What traits are you looking for in your next team member?
Marina Gonzalez: Our engineering, product and corporate infrastructure recruiting teams are looking for candidates who not only have relevant technical skills, but who are just as passionate about the product as we are. While candidates are assessed in a variety of technical and analytical skills throughout the interview process, we also ask questions to get a good sense of a candidate's leadership skills and their ability to work in a collaborative team setting. Yelp engineering culture is driven by our values: we're a cooperative team that values individual authenticity and encourages "unboring" solutions to problems.
Q: Why do women and underrepresented talent feel they can thrive at Yelp?
MG: I can't speak for all women and underrepresented talent at Yelp, but I can speak from my own personal experience being a first generation Mexican American woman. I've been at Yelp for 3 ½ years and have been able to thrive in my career here because of the community of folks I've met through our employee resource groups.
We have employee resource groups for various communities here at Yelp including parents, women in tech, people of color in tech, veterans and our LGBTQ+ group. Employee resource groups have been instrumental in not only providing a space for social events, but also creating programming for personal and professional development including public speaking workshops and mentoring. They've also played an essential role in implementing larger company-wide changes like implementing mother's rooms and gender neutral restrooms.
Q: What does the interview process look like and how long does it usually take?
MG: The interview process may slightly vary depending on the type of role you're interviewing for. That said, our interview process typically takes about 4-6 weeks and includes an informational phone screen with a recruiter, a phone interview and an onsite interview. For engineering roles, there will be a code test.
Q: What do you love most about working at Yelp?
MG: I love the people I work with. Yelp is a very collaborative place to work and, as a recruiter, I have the opportunity to work closely with hiring managers and hiring teams. This is beneficial because I get to really know the teams that I recruit for and understand their role and impact on the company.
Also, people here are not only incredibly smart and talented, they're nice and friendly, too! Hiring folks who are aligned with our values is important to us and having been here for more than3 years, I can say that we've done a great job at it.
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