Recruitment steps to become Rocket Scientist
What happens in our recruitment process?
We’re looking for beautiful, functional code and people who like people. If you’re looking for interesting projects and want to have a say in choosing them, we could be a good match!
"All sounded good to me so I decided to apply even though I really doubted getting accepted given the fact that I’m like a kiddo compared with other scientists – some knew about computers before I knew how to read! :)”
– Bao, Rocket Scientist #37
1. Initial call
Let’s have a chat! No need to prepare thoroughly, it will be a relaxed conversation to get to know each other better and see if we would be a good professional match. You will be meeting our Growth Lead Tessi who will be your guide throughout the whole process.
The agenda of our 30–45-minute eMeet:
who you are and what are you looking for,
who we are and what are we looking for,
the process and next steps.
2. Technical interview
The purpose of the tech meeting is to exchange ideas with Rakettitiede people on different topics in software development (like what is good code, thoughts on structure, testing, etc). We want to understand more about you, your career, work, and projects. We will do this with the help of a general discussion and with a code sample from you. The idea is to start the meeting with just talking and then go deeper into these topics with the help of your code.
The purpose of this part of the interview is to understand how you approach software development in practice. Think of this as a specification driven development exercise.
Step 1: Bring a code sample that you are comfortable showing, discussing, and modifying during the interview.
Step 2: Share your screen (Mac users, please check screen sharing permissions beforehand). Give a brief introduction to what your solution does, highlight interesting parts of the code, and point out areas you would improve. Recognizing opportunities for improvement is just as valuable as the implementation itself.
Step 3: Be prepared to modify your code live during the interview using an AI tool. We will ask you to implement a change or feature of our choosing during the demo.
We are interested in how you:
Translate requirements into a plan.
Explore and implement solutions.
Verify that a solution works.
Identify limitations and opportunities for improvement.
Communicate your thinking throughout the process.
You do not need to narrate every thought, but we encourage you to share observations and decisions as you work. This is a collaborative discussion, not an exam.
Use the development and AI tools you normally use. We have no preference for specific products or vendors. Please ensure you have access to your preferred tools before the interview. If they require a paid subscription, use your own license. Some free services may be slow or rate limited, so choose tools that allow for quick iterations during the exercise. A smaller codebase usually works best, as it keeps implementation and tool response times short.
The goal is not a perfect implementation. Development is an iterative process, and we are most interested in how you think, communicate, and work through the problem.
Do you want more tips on how to nail the technical interview? Read more here: Navigating technical interviews.
3. Meeting with a Rocket Scientist
After the technical interview, if you wish, you have a chance to have a casual conversation (it could be e-meet, breakfast, lunch or a pint) with one future fellow consultant colleague. In this meeting, you will hear what working onboard the Rocket is like. The Rocket Scientist will evaluate your cultural fit/add and share their thoughts with the recruitment team. But no need to worry, the details of the conversation remain confidential.
4. Meeting with Rocket Accelerators
The final round: in this 30–45 min (e-)meeting you’ll meet Rocket Accelerators (our salespeople) and our CEO Juha. The purpose of this meeting is to sync the expectations of yours and ours and see if there is a match between your future ambitions and our assignment offering.
Finding interesting work for our consultants is our highest priority. You’ll have the chance to talk about your hopes and wishes for future assignments. Our salespeople will also tell you how our sales work and what kind of clients and opportunities we usually have and what there is to expect if we still decide to proceed together after the meeting.
This is the last meeting of our recruitment process. After this, we’ll either continue discussions about employment and potential client assignments or decide we aren’t a match and go our separate ways.
What is your compensation model like?
We believe skilled developers should be well compensated for the work, which is why we give them 50 % of what the client is billed.
In other words, when a Rocket Scientist charges a customer 6 000 €/month or more, the salary is 50 % of the billing. Otherwise, the monthly salary is 3 000 € (surely you will pay taxes, fees etc. from that amount). During the first 6 months of employment the “bench” salary is 5 000 €/month. Our sales rate is continuously ≈ 97% so no need to worry too much about being on the bench.
Our salaries are significantly higher than the industry average – and you don’t have to work overtime to achieve it.
All work and no play make Jack a dull boy – how about the vacations?
Vacation days are determined by the ICT sectors CLA (collective labour agreement) and the vacation salary is based on average daily earnings. And there is also The holiday period is flexible but it must (ofc) be agreed with the client. You can also take unpaid vacations – work-life balance is important to us.
What if I get sick?
Sick leave salary is based on average daily earnings, according to the CLA. In case of your child’s illness you can take off a maximum of 3 days paid per incidence, and the payment is just like your own sick leave. Or you can turn to our childcare service provider if you wish to work and let them entertain the little patient.
What are the benefits in a nutshell?
In addition to a hefty pay package, our benefits are exactly the same as those of the best companies in the industry, but with us you get to choose the projects that you enjoy the most. We believe that the best work is carried out by people who work on things that they’re genuinely interested in. We employ smart and helpful people who help to create an open, transparent and fair culture in which things are called by their real names. You will meet your fellow scientists not only during client work but also at summer and Christmas parties as well as other events and excursions we organise throughout the year.
Our other benefits include:
the opportunity of becoming a shareholder
psychological support, an early intervention model, your own caretaker, comprehensive occupational healthcare and health insurance, on-call child care service
plus basic stuff like hardware of your choice, home internet, and a lunch/commuting/culture benefit.