Build a Career As a Remote Developer At Leading U.S. Firms With Turing.com | Developer Town Hall #06
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our Town Hall today. Hey Hammad. Hey Sally. Hey Carlos. Nice to have you here. Oh, from Argentina. That's awesome. Nice to have you. Okay. Thank you for coming. I'm Santiago. I'm from Argentina and I'm a Project Manager at Turing. Nice to have you all. Well, let's get started. The purpose of the Town Hall today is to first
welcome you to Turing, and also to give you some tools to help you become a successful Turing developer if you choose to do so. At the end of this Town Hall, we will have a Q&A session, and we're really eager to answer your questions so that we can help you move further, in your career growth with Turing. Now, if you have a question that is more specific to your situation, maybe specific about a tech stack test that you're taking or something, please contact us at support@turing.com and we will be there to help you, and we'll get back to you in less than 24 hours, but for the sake of time today, we'll only go through questions that benefit most of the audience here today. Okay. Let's get started. Welcome to Turing. If you're really looking for a high-quality U.S. job, if you're looking into working for leading-edge technologies, then you've come to the right place. Here at Turing, we want to offer you those opportunities. We were built by engineers coming
from Facebook, Uber, Google, and these awesome people that started this company, these founders, most of our VPs, most of our managers, most of our internal teams here at Turing, we are software developers that come from foreign countries and we also want to grow our careers and we want to share these opportunities with everyone. And that's the common goal that motivates all of us to continue working with Turing. And one of our goals for this year is to create a thousand of these high-quality jobs for talented developers like you worldwide. We believe that talent is universal. We can find great software, talent everywhere, but opportunity is not, for a long time, this opportunity to have high quality, Silicon valley type, opportunities of jobs that has been limited to people living in a certain area in the United States or these hubs where you can find workers to work on your projects. But we want to give this opportunity and take this opportunity to everyone. That's the goal
that moves us at Turing. We believe that we will revolutionize the way that developers get hired. If you have any questions, please post them in the Q&A tab at the top right corner. And we will go through those at the end of the session. Also, feel free to go to help.turing.com.
Our content team is currently updating the most frequently asked questions there and, that'll be really helpful. And again, if you have any specific questions, please email us at support@turing.com. We'll get back to you in less than 24 hours. Now want to emphasize this, we don't offer short-term gigs, we're not a freelancer platform, but we want to have you grow your career in really meaningful ways. We want to have jobs for you that are career-defining. So we're here for the long run. We're here to help you build yourself as a developer and build your career, not just a two or three months contract.
Many people ask. So I want to become a Turing developer. What do I need to do? And so basically there are three steps in your developer journey. First, and this is where most of you are right now, you need to go through a vetting process. The vetting process includes taking the Turing Tests taking the Coding Challenge, completing your Work Experience Analysis, and so forth.
Once you pass through all those tests, our AI matching algorithm will start suggesting multiple job matches. And we have a team that's dedicated to helping you improve your matchability. They will help you finalize your us engineering resume. They will help you, prepare for interviews. And this is really exciting cause, again, we're not offering you just, you know, short-term engagements, we're offering you the whole experience. The whole team is here to help you grow. We are invested in your career growth. And once you get a job, once you get a match, you will start working with one of our partner companies. Again, say NO to gigs and YES to careers. We want to help you grow your career here at Turing.
If you have any more questions about this process, please send us an email at support@turing.com and we will get back to you in less than 24 hours. Now I'm really excited to invite someone to the stage he's Peter and he's from Nigeria. Hey, Peter, nice to have you here. One of the interesting things about Peter, the first time you attended a town hall, it was as an attendee, right? Yeah. Cool. And now you've come full circle and you're coming as a Turing developer to tell us about your experience. Yeah, Turing is an awesome place to be and is a good place to work. So
I've been developing and I've been advancing in my career since I joined. How did you find Turing? Maybe through an ad or how was... So I found out about Turing around late 2019 through a Facebook ad, and I applied through the Facebook advert and took the Turing Tests like three months after that.
And Peter, how has your experience with taking the Turing Tests? Yeah, so when I took the test, it was the first time I've ever taken such tests. So it is a bit challenging. So I was not really sure if I'm going to do well. But I just have to take it. And I was surprised to come out and receiving a message from Turing that I have passed the test. So it was a bit challenging, actually. Not really easy as I thought as of then. Thank you, Peter. Did you use any sort of preparation methods?
So, I try to read documentations on the tech stack for those tests I wanted to take. So I try to familiarize myself with the latest updates in those technologies because I don't want to be taken by surprise. So I try to update my knowledge on the latest changes, latest updates on those new technologies that I want to take the test on the Turing website. Awesome. And Peter, you already had experience with these technologies, but you just wanted to
kind of update your knowledge, and kind of refresh the knowledge. Right? Yes. So that's what I was trying to say, like trying to update my knowledge on the latest changes and updates in the technologies so that I won't be taken by surprise while doing the test.
That's great advice. And, Peter, after you started working remotely for Turing, what are some of the advantages or what are some of the things that you enjoy about remote work? So to me, there are lots of advantages in remote work. For example, I live in Lagos, Nigeria, and transporting to work is really a big issue here. So most times you get stuck in a traffic jam. So without the traffic, now I kind of sit down comfortably in my house and work. Then apart from transport, I choose my own time of work. I don't need to wake up early in the morning. So one of the advantages, like I can always choose my time of work. So the working time is flexible. Then
another thing is like the extra time that I spend in traffic most of the days, I always use that. I use that to improve on my knowledge, update my knowledge, and spend time with my friends and families and get along with people around me. Lastly, I would also like to talk about one of the advantages I have to do with meeting people all over the world. It gives me an opportunity to meet
with bright minds out there. I was able to work with people from different parts of the world, and I'm able to learn and share knowledge with them. So it's a very great advantage to me. Awesome. Thank you, Peter. Just out of curiosity, about your coworkers, where do they come from?
Okay. So, some of my coworkers, I have people from Brazil, I have from China, then I think I also have some from Argentina and the USA. So they are just everywhere. Everywhere. Thank you, Peter. Before wrapping up with the interview, is there any other advice that you'd like to give to the audience today? Okay. I just have one advice to give to the audience. So while preparing for tests, I believe since most of the tests and the technologies are going to take the test on, they are most of the technologies we use for work every day. So there's always this kind of temptation to just take the test like, I already know this, I can do this. But I think we should just take some time
aside to update our knowledge. Sometimes there may be new updates in some of those technologies. We should try. to update our knowledge and make sure we are up to date before taking the test. Awesome. And so just to recap,
maybe before taking the SQL test, kind of go through the documentation for 30 minutes, get the confidence needed and go to take the test. Am I right Peter? Yes. Exactly! Awesome. Thank you, Peter. Peter, please stand by cause now we will move on to the Q&A session. And I can see lots of questions here. Okay. So let's start with the first one coming from Sattar.
Awesome. Thank you. So is it possible to relocate to the U.S. and work onsite after some time? Thanks for the question, Sattar. So the short answer is we don't offer that at Turing. Here at Turing, we encourage people to work with these companies, but not necessarily go and relocate to the U.S. and work there. I hope that answers your question Sattar. So maybe working with people remotely, people that are from the U.S., that will help you and guide you if that's your dream and you want to do that. Thank you for the question. Let's move to the next one. This one is from Ashwini. Thanks for the question.
What if we fail the test in first attempt? Peter, do you want to take on this one? Yes. So if you fail the test the first time, you can always come back, I think after that three months, to retake the test. So you can take the test multiple times. So if you fail first time, I think I can always, advise you to go back, study more, then come back to take the test. Awesome. Thank you, Peter. So, Ashwini, three months after you fail the test,
you'll be able to just kind of recap. So a question from Philip. How long has Turing been around? Perhaps a little history about the company would be a great example. For the founders, what inspired them to start this business? Why this business model, et cetera. Great question Philip. And this is one I'm really happy to answer. So founders,
two founders, they are great engineers. They come from India and they met at Stanford University. They are called Vijay Krishnan and Jonathan Siddharth. And they are really visionaries in the field of AI technology before founding Turing, they founded another AI company that was successfully acquired. And kind of what inspired them to start this business is the fact that again, talent is universal. You can find this talent everywhere, in India, their home country, or in Argentina, or Phillip where you're from. We have a ton everywhere, but opportunity is not. And that's one side of the story, the other side of the story, and kind of going to the next question, explaining the business model, companies in Silicon valley want to grow, they want to expand.
They want to scale, but they don't have the engineers. The city is running short of software talent. And that's why they created this company. So that they can bring these amazing Silicon valley type job opportunities to everyone around the world. Um, hope that answers to the question, Phillip. So next question from Zoran. How does finding a job with touring work for college students? Can we get a job while in college or can we not? Thanks for the question Zoran. So in order to be a Turing Engineer, we require that you have at least three years of experience, as a full-time software developer.
And so chances are your matchability for the jobs that we're offering will be low. We still offer some junior-level jobs, but in general most of the jobs, most of the opportunities that we offer are for software developers that have already graduated and have already completed their certifications, and have three or more years of experience in the industry. Peter, is there anything else that you'd like to add here? Maybe some advice on how to continue preparing, because Zoran, in the future we want to have you here, cause we're looking for talent. Peter, some advice for Zoran? Okay. So I have one advice. So while preparing to join Turing. You can always work on projects. Try to update your knowledge on the tests and technologies. So by the time you are done with your college, it should be much more easier to gain the nursery experience to join Turing by then. Peter, as a follow-up question, and kind of trying
to get help Zoran and other developers in this situation. Is there any online platform or online free platform that you recommend for preparing for these kinds of opportunities in the meantime? I think there's one online platform I used while preparing that was I think Free Code Camp. So, Free Code Camp have a lot of educational materials and while enrolled in Free Code Camp you can work on live projects, view projects in industry standard. So if you
work on that platform, it will enable you to gain the necessary knowledge of the technologies and how things go in software development. Well, thank you, Peter. And thank you Zoran for the question and thank you for attending. Okay. We have a question from Phillip. Okay, thanks for the question Phillip, what is the job setup? Like example, you'd be an employee of Turing or Turing client, for example, Facebook, Snap, or whomever. Great question, Phillip.
So you will technically be a Turing employee, but you will be working for one of our partner companies. Of course, we also offer our developers to work for Turing in the internal team. And if that's the case, you'll be working on really interesting projects. We're growing aggressively. And so lots of projects here. Lots of very talented people to meet here. So yeah, it can be either working for one of our partner companies, chances are you will work for one of our partner companies, or maybe you'll get an offer to work for our internal team. Thanks, Phillip.
So do you have an age range for developers? Not really. I heard of a kid that graduated from university at age 12. I guess he must be talented. I mean, of course, you need to be more than 18 because of the legal framework. Right. But I mean, as long as you have the experience, as long as you
have the talent we want to have you here. Thanks, German. Okay. Question from Avik, how is the interview process? How many technical rounds and behavioral rounds are there? Some suggestions regarding interview preparation will be helpful.
Thanks for this question Avik. After you pass your coding challenge, you will be reached out by our team to have what we call an entry call. And basically, we will get in contact with you and help you get ready, ask you some questions about compensation. We will prompt you to upgrade your resume. And so, that's the interview that we will have with you. And then if you get matched with a job, there are two possibilities. And I would say these are 50-50, based on our current set of customers.
So chances are you will receive a job match and you will be able to start working with a company right away. I mean, they will want to have a short interview so that they can get to know you and kind of see if you're a good fit with the team, kind of a light interview. But they trust Turing enough to, have you start working right away, without having, the usual, you know, 5, 6, 7 step interview process that you see outside of Turing. Now, there are some chances that some of our partner companies will want to do a more technical interview, if that's the case, we are here to help you prepare for that. We know
that I mean, for me, for example, even if you're fluent in English, having an interview in English, being a foreign developer, it's kind of daunting, you know? And so that's why we have a team, a developer success team we call it, that will help you get ready if that's the case. Hope that answers your question. Okay. So question from Sanem. Hi, does Turing offer non-developer roles such as project management to experienced IT professionals who are not engineers? A great question. Thank you, Sanem. So we offer some positions for project managers and product managers, and
being an engineer is not a requirement. Maybe you come from another career path, but you need to have experience in the software industry. And these will be project manager or product manager positions in the software industry. Thank you for the question Sanem. Okay. Sajja. Any benefit other than the salary we will get from Turing? Uh, Peter,
do we want to take on this one? I mean, salary is great, but other advantages. Okay. So apart from salary, I think one of the benefits of working with Turing is fun. So fun in the sense that you, apart from salaries, you have almost every other benefit
or lemme say some of the benefits you can also get an office job. Like you can have a paid time off as a developer. So that is one of the benefits. Then other benefits, like there's always a kind of online meetup where you get to know others from different parts of the world.
We always have coffee. We are at our breakfast, our lunch hour, where we do stuff like fun. We have game sessions and so on and so forth. So there are lots of benefits apart from salaries. Thank you, Peter. Another benefit that I think is the greatest benefit from working with Turing. Um, once you join our exclusive community of Silicon valley caliber software engineers, software developers, you may never need to apply to a job again. You may never need to apply for a job again. You know, other freelancer platforms, offer you
maybe a short contract for two, three months, or something, but once you become a developer with us, our developer success team will make sure that before your current engagement ends, you will be matched to a next engagement. So I think this is the greatest single benefit from working with Turing. We are invested in making your career grow. Okay. Thank you, Sajja. So the question from Will, how much do we have to pay Turing and for how long? Um, you don't have to pay Turing. You don't have to pay anything. So you will be
working with us. So yeah everything, you know, all the vetting process, all the coaching, all the advice, all the AI recommendations, et cetera. Those are for free and this is the value that we're bringing to the world. Peter, would you like to add something here? Okay. So just like, Santiago said you don't have to pay anything to Turing. So rather you work for Turing and Turing pays you. Not reversed. Thanks, Peter.
Awesome. So question from Sherzod. Do we have to have formal engineering education? Uh, Peter, do you want to take this one? Thanks for the question Sherzod. Okay. So I think I've been engineering.
Education is not really compulsory. What you need is knowledge and experience. So I believe someone like me, I don't have the engineering education. So, but I try to push through the knowledge, gained industry experience and I'm able to learn myself on the job. So you don't need it, it's not compulsory. But if you have it, it can really help. Thanks, Peter. Let me add to that. Let me take a step back and talk about the purpose of Turing. Again, we want to find great talent. So if you have this great talent,
the fact that you have the skills and the experience and the talent, that weighs way more than where you studied, or where you got that knowledge. Thanks for the question. So we have a question from Noe. So what happens if I fail on the Turing test? Again, you can retake it after three months.
Question from Temitayo. Who do I answer to when I get a job touring or the company I work for? So, at Turing, we will be here to support you. We will be here to help you transition into the engagement with one of our partner companies. We have events for our developers that are currently working with our partner companies, but that's about it. Most of the time you'll be talking with your manager at the company you were working at. We'll always be here to support you, but yeah, you will be answering to your manager at the company you're working at. At Turing, we are,
again, we're invested in your career growth. So we have set up several ways for your managers to give you feedback. We are launching a new calibration system that's completely automated and that helps you get feedback from your coworkers. So again, we'll be here to do, to ensure that your
career is growing and that you're having a great engagement with the company you're working at. But most of the talk would be between you and your coworkers and your managers at the U.S. partner company you'll be working at. Hope that answers your question. Okay. Andreas, what are the work hours? Are the hours flexible? Peter, would you like to take on this one? Yes. So the work hours are flexible, you can choose your own time of work. So it's flexible.
Great. Just as an example, I'm here in Argentina and I may start working at 10:00 AM and finish at 6:00 PM and that's okay. But some days, I might start working, I don't know, at 4:00 PM and then later at night, so yeah, hours are flexible. You can talk with your manager and figure that out. What we ask though is at least four hours as a general rule, you should be able to have at least a four hour overlap, with the company time zone. That's important because if you know, you'll have meetings, you have to communicate with your coworkers. So it's important to have a minimum
time where you have that overlap. But besides that, it's really flexible. Thank you for the question, Andreas. Okay. So we have a question from Sandeep. Does Turing charge if a dev lands a job? No, we don't. We pay you in full and yeah. Peter, would you like to add something here? The answer is no. Turing does not charge. Turing will pay you in full agreed, hourly rate
or monthly salary. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, Sandeep for the question. Question from Marek. Hi, where do I pay taxes when working for Turing? So that really depends on your country. I have a friend here working at Turing,
a developer friend, and he's from Brazil. And so in order to get everything ready, he had to work with an accountant to make sure he was paying the taxes, uh, abiding by the law of his country. It really depends on your country. Yeah. Of course, you will not pay U.S. taxes, but you will be subject to your home country's laws. Yeah. So question from Fernando. And Fernando you're from Argentina. Thanks for coming today. Can I receive my pain crypto? Yes,
you can. So we are partnered with a payroll system, we will pay your salary in full over that payroll system, and they offer lots of options for withdrawing that money. So you can withdraw in crypto, you can do a bank transfer. You can use PayPal. As you wish. And I mean, yeah. That's the short answer. Thanks for Fernando. Okay. Let's move on to Tony's question. Is it possible to work in Asia normal time zone?
Yes, you can. Let me see it. It really depends, Tony. It really depends on the partner company that you're working with. Some of them are really strict in the four-hour overlap requirement. Okay. So if you're in Asia, let's say you're in Korea. You have like an eight-hour difference with the bay area, with Silicon Valley. And so kind of hard to schedule, you know those four-hour overlap. Yeah, I hope that answers the question. Peter, have you had any trouble adjusting
your time zone in Nigeria with LA? Yes, but not really, not a serious one because the time overlaps the four hours to fall within the time zone here in Nigeria. When I first started, it was a kind of issue, but I was able to adjust to it. Awesome. Thank you, Peter. Thank you for coming everyone. We will answer one more question and then we'll need to wrap up with the Town Hall. Thank you all for all the questions in the Q&A,
and, uh, please reach out to us at support@turing.com so we can answer the rest of your questions. Our team will get back to you in less than 24 hours. So let's finish with this question by Camilo. Thank you, Camilo, for the question. Which are the most wanted technologies? So, right now the most in-demand technologies are based on React technologies, based on Node JS Python, Python, Django. We have lots of jobs for that. We are also hiring for mobile, like iOS, Android. Yeah, those are the
most in-demand technologies in the industry right now. Okay. Peter, thank you for coming today. It was super nice to have you. And again I wanted to finish by saying this is possible. Like this is not a dream.
You know this is possible, and to work with these incredible companies, we're here to help you. Peter, I mean, you were part of the audience not so long ago, and now you're on this side of the stage. Sharing your experience. And this can happen with all of you. If you can go through the vetting process, we're here to help you out and give you the opportunities that you deserve. Thank you so much for coming.
2021-08-07 16:01
