Hiring FAQ

We’ve been a fully-remote company since 2009, so we’ve had enough time to learn all the ropes. And we’re all CEOs here! We have a flat structure and are based on small, self-organizing teams. We care a lot about internal communication, the professional and personal development of our team, and we pay just as much attention to team building and having fun together. Learn more about the culture of a remote company.

Before your first day at SoftwareMill, you receive an ebook about our company culture and a welcome surprise pack. Can’t tell you what it includes, don’t ruin the surprise! Prior to day 1, you also meet your guardian, a senior employee who will guide you through the whole onboarding process. You’ll receive a list of to-do things, including setting access to different tools, installing software, and getting acquainted with chosen company materials.
On your first day, you get introduced to the whole company during a daily “chrum” meeting. Chrum is not like a daily standup, it’s a rather informal meeting that gives us an opportunity to spend some time together and chat about whatever’s on our minds. The first week is a so-called “cultural week” when you get to know us better: you participate in as many meetings as possible to meet the team and learn about us, and you have access to all the essential resources to learn more about the company. Want to learn more, check out this article about onboarding in a remote company.

Yes! We don’t have an office and we work completely remotely. Our team members are scattered across Poland. We work in different cities, but together, we form one company. Find out how we built a fully remote, self-organizing company before it was cool! You can also download our ebook about organising remote teams.

We’re flexible: we usually work 8 hours a day, but it’s not a 9-to-5 job. We choose the best times of day when we’re productive. Have in mind that it’s best to work together with the team for at least a few hours a day to allow for effective cooperation. And, of course, you have to be available for the client for some time during the day - that can sometimes affect your schedule.

Yes – you will probably travel to meet the client, usually once a year for 2–4 days. We encourage the client to meet the team in the first 2–3 months. It’s great to meet face to face and spend some time together - it’s fun but it also facilitates later cooperation. We sometimes take part in conferences and workshops all around the world and who knows, maybe you’re the next great public speaker? Just in case you turn out to be one, make sure your passport is valid at least 6 months ahead! Read more about one of our client visits in Japan.

You bet we do. For a remote company, team-building is really important. Every month, we meet for a “birr”. It doesn’t end with one beer, though, it’s a whole day of activities that help us get to know each other better and gives us space to hang out. Every year, we meet for a family weekend (with partners and children) and a company weekend (just the employees). However, in times of pandemic, we can’t meet face to face - but we meet online instead and it’s lots of fun anyway!

The first week in SoftwareMill is called “the cultural week”. During that time, you get acquainted with the company culture and the way we work. We want you to meet as many of your teammates as possible, and get used to the flow of work. You will start working in your project in the second week.

As a new member of our team, you’ll go to the project where there is at least one other senior software engineer from SoftwareMill who has been working with us for a while.

We’re trying to find the best match based on your knowledge, your previous experience, the interview and the project team. We’ll suggest a project that should be a good fit for you, the team, and the client. Your guardian who will provide you with more information about the project. In case there isn’t any project in our pipeline, you’re more than welcome to join our sales team and let them know what projects sound interesting to you.

What’s cool about working in a software house is the fact that working for one company, you can still participate in different projects. There isn’t any rule at SoftwareMill regarding the length of your stay in one project. The projects we run are rather mid- to long-term (3–5 years), but we believe that engineers are most productive while working in one project for 18–24 months. Every project has an account manager assigned - that’s a person who will help you find someone to replace you when you’re switching projects. Every change in the project needs to be agreed in advance both with the project team and the client.

We’ve got that all worked out. It may seem like it’s hard to be a real team when we’re scattered across the country, but we’re actually pretty close! We meet regularly: for daily “chrum” meetings, monthly “birrs”, yearly retreats. Oh, and there are also the “donut” meetings - you and 3 randomly selected coworkers are encouraged to schedule a call just to chat. Thanks to that, you get to meet people outside of your project bubble too.

The decisions are always made by common effort. Each one of us is a CEO on their own, so everyone is involved in the process of decision making. While making important decisions, we almost always use the voting system where every vote counts equally. Check 3 ways of decision making at SoftwareMill.

We have a clear remuneration structure that indicates the daily wages for each position. Raises depend solely on how long you work with us – with each year, you get a predefined raise. The longer you work, the more money you get. We also share a yearly dividend with all the employees in the company.

Apart from our great projects, we also provide various opportunities for growth and development for all our employees. These include English classes, architecture discussion club, dev talks, reading club, co-financing education, and many more. We also created and maintain an industry newsletter, Scala Times, that you can contribute to.

The team is self-organized, but there usually is an account manager who supports both the team and the client in building a long-lasting partnership.

Every new person has a “guardian” who’s a more experienced employee that will help you onboard and can answer all the questions concerning company culture, your working schedule, technical matters, and so on. The guardian will guide you through the first three months of your work. They can direct you to the right person when you have issues concerning different areas.

We prefer B2B contracts, so you have to set up your own company before you start working with us. Every month – based on the number of days you worked – you issue an invoice that is then paid by us.

We settle your monthly salary on the basis of the exact number of days you worked, excluding weekends, public holidays, and your days off. However, if it happens that you work during a weekend or on a holiday (we try to avoid that and want you to keep work-life balance), we will include that into your monthly remuneration.

The company provides you with a computer – it may be a laptop or a desktop computer, according to your preferences. We also give you “allowance” to buy minor equipment like headphones or a mouse. The latter items are yours to keep even if you finish working for SoftwareMill.

We use email for exchanging important information for all the external communication, especially with clients and candidates, Slack for everyday text communication, and Google Meet, TeamSpeak, and Zoom for video and audio calls. We also work on Google docs, spreadsheets, and slides. Check how we communicate as a fully remote team.