2 min lesson
The paid onsite project
Rebuild the parts of "The paid onsite project", then say why each one matters.
Step 1 of 2
This is the decision round. One or two ~8-hour days building a real project alongside the team, paid and in-office. It tests collaboration, judgment and shipping under realistic conditions - not memorized algorithms. As an EM candidate you have to both contribute real code and show how you'd raise the bar.
- Real contribution
- Whether you can land working code in an unfamiliar codebase under time pressure.
- Collaboration
- How you pair, communicate and integrate with the team - the “would we want to work with this person” read.
- Judgment
- Prioritizing, cutting scope and making pragmatic trade-offs you can defend live.
- Bar-raising
- How you unblock, review and lift the work around you without taking over.
Interactive diagram. Tab through its regions; each focused region shows its detail in the panel below.
The same onsite, two postures. The collaborative one is the role they're hiring for.
Learn more
Full explanation
The paid onsite project
- 1Get set up fast. Have your editor, language toolchain and a clean clone-build-run workflow rehearsed so onboarding to a new repo doesn't eat your morning.
- 2Frame and prioritize aloud. Restate the problem, write down assumptions and pick the smallest slice that proves real value before sprawling.
- 3Contribute and unblock. Ship real code and when a teammate is stuck, help - being useful to the team is part of the signal, not a distraction from it.
- 4Defend trade-offs live. When you cut scope or pick an approach, say why out loud and update if someone makes a better case.
The cultural-fit discussion with potential teammates is part of the senior loop. They are answering one question: would we want to work for and with this person. Treat every interaction as part of the evaluation, including the casual ones.