If you’ve completed your application to Revolent, then all that’s left between you and your new dream role in the cloud is a couple of interviews! If you’re at this stage, you’re almost there. But the real work to secure your place on one of our highly competitive career programs starts now!
Don’t worry, though—with the right application and dedication, you can start your dream career as a Salesforce, AWS, or Microsoft cloud professional with us. And, to help, we’ve put together a quick guide, so you know what to expect, and how to succeed in your interview.
The interview format
First things first. Our interviews take place on Teams. If you’ve never used it before, make sure you download the app well in advance and run a test call with a friend or family member just to check that everything works okay. It’s worth doing this around the same time of day as your interview (just to make sure that you’re well-lit), and from the area you’ll be dialling in from for the real thing, so you can be sure that your connection is strong enough. An interview call that often drops signal isn’t new to us, and we can always re-schedule, but it can be frustrating and leave you flustered. So it’s worth checking all this in advance to give yourself the best chance to succeed.
We get that video interviews can be an unusual situation, but you can also leverage them to your advantage. We’d expect you to have done some research ahead of your call with us (we’ll go into more detail on that soon), and that would be the same for an in-person interview. However, with a video call, it’s far easier to refer to your notes! So, if there are any points you want to get across, make a note and stick them around your monitor, close to your webcam. This will help to maintain eye contact with us through the camera, without forgetting anything you had in mind to say.
This may seem obvious, but it’s worth having a clean and tidy background, too. It helps give the impression that you’re working in a focused environment. After all, it’s always worth presenting yourself in the best possible light.
Now that we’ve covered some of the basics, let’s look at what we’re expecting from the interviews themselves.
Interview one
By this stage we’ve already spoken to you informally to gauge your interest and suitability, made sure that your salary expectations meet what we offer, and given you a short tech test to assess your competency. So, the next stage is a more formal interview. No need for a suit, just dress smartly, and one of our talent acquisition team will speak with you for around 30 minutes.
We’ll discuss your own experience and work history, but we’ll also be looking at what you’ve learned about the cloud platform that you’ve applied for, as well as the Revolent program you’re hoping to join.
Our team are a friendly bunch, and at this stage we’re mainly checking to make sure that you have a genuine interest in the technology that we’ll be training you in, as well as learning more about you. As much as we’d love to hear your in-depth understanding of how the platforms can be leveraged by organizations, as well as your role in making that happen, a few facts about the key figures within the various ecosystems will do the trick—we’re always keen to hear what you’ve learned.
For instance, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff is famous for teaming up customized sneakers/trainers with his suit when appearing at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference, so much so that they even once spawned their own parody Twitter account. But, if you want to wow us with Benioff facts, it might be worth choosing something different to that, just so you seem original!
Don’t worry though – there’s plenty to choose from. Just show us that you’ve taken the time to read up on AWS, Microsoft or Salesforce, as well as Revolent, and tell us a little bit more about yourself. That’s it for the first interview.
Interview two
Once you’ve wowed us with your first interview, we’d like to introduce you to our Sales and Operations team, who you’ll be working with. We’ll also ask you to deliver a short presentation.
Although the format will again be a video call through Teams, we will ask you to dress more formally for this one.
Aside from a presentation, the majority of your interview will be in a Q&A format, as we’ll be keen to hear about your previous tech experience or education, but don’t worry – we aren’t expecting you to know the nuts and bolts of cloud technology just yet (that’s what we’re here for).
We’ll go through your presentation first, to get it out of the way, so you’ll probably get quite a few questions based on the content you’ve just presented.
The presentation
Chances are you may have seen the word ‘presentation’ and skipped straight to this section anyway. We get it. And while it may seem like a nerve-wracking task, we can assure you it’s not.
We aren’t looking for an hour-long demonstration of every string in your bow, or for you to recite a jargon-heavy monologue. Many of our roles will involve you being able to explain your thought process to stakeholders, so we want to see evidence that you can communicate effectively.
While the exact presentation details will vary, to put your mind at ease, this is an example of the sort of content we’d ask for in a Salesforce presentation:
- What do you know about Salesforce – particularly Marketing Cloud?
- What do you know about Revolent as a business, and the course you are entering upon?
- How would the opportunity with Revolent allow you to achieve your future career goals?
- Why should Revolent hire you? (i.e. why is this opportunity for you?)
In terms of length, we’d expect your presentation to last roughly 10 minutes, broken down into sections that work out at two and a half minutes per answer, which hopefully shows you that it’s not as daunting as it may first appear!
And we’ll send you the questions when we arrange the second interview with you, so you have plenty of time to prepare.
To recap, the main things we’re looking for in your second interview are: a basic understanding of the platform you’ve expressed an interest in, as well as an ability to communicate effectively.
Relax!
Once you’ve done all that, it’s time to sit back and relax. Go for a walk, read a book, or lose yourself in Netflix – whatever you need to do to occupy yourself while you wait to hear if you’ve been successful!
And if you’ve not applied to join us yet, well… What are you waiting for?! Take a look at what we have to offer, and get started on your career in cloud technology today.
