How to land a role at Lendsqr

Congratulations! You have successfully gone through the screening process and now you have been scheduled for an interview at Lendsqr.

How we screen for technical roles

For our technical roles (product managers, product specialists, product support officers, engineers, etc.), you would be given a practical task to work on. This is so that we can see your capabilities in action. We believe this is important as interviews aren’t always the best format to assess your skills, this helps us to get a more well-rounded view of how you’ll approach the role.

Who is it with?

Just you.

We will send you an assessment to do. Assessment could be a product review, coding a simple feature, or a case study.

How long does it take?

You will be given a few days to a week to complete the given task.

If you’re struggling to find the time— not a problem, just let us know — we can work on an alternative approach to accommodate your additional need of time.

What’s the goal?

To see your real capabilities in action
To see how well you pay attention to details

How to prepare for your first interview

#1 Check out our product
Lendsqr is a LaaS that’s transforming lending in Africa by empowering small to large lenders with the tech stack they need to scale while providing their borrowers with an awesome loan experience.

No matter what role you’re interviewing for, an understanding of how Lendsqr works and how we’re helping lenders is a must. So play around on the app (you’ll be amazed at how many people don’t do this prior to the first stage).

💡 Cheat Sheet

You could even go as far as chatting with our support team to ask questions concerning the app.

Suggesting improvements we could make on our products might just give you extra points!

#2 Read more about Lendsqr
Lendsqr has lofty goals and to achieve these goals, we need the right people who are ambitious, self-driven and disciplined. Not only must you be well aware of our mission, you must also believe in it so as to work effectively towards them. Know more about Lendsqr, our mission, culture, how we operate, the solutions we proffer.

Also know more about the people you will be working with. One of the most common things you hear our staff say when asked what they love about Lendsqr is how much they love working with their fellow employees. You can check out our staff on LinkedIn. Know more about them, especially the CEO and the manager of the role you have applied for.

You will come across a lot of interesting stuff on their pages and you can even start jotting questions ahead of when you are given the chance to ask them during your interview.

💡 Cheat sheet

#3 Be yourself
Interviews can be stressful for many reasons, but trying to be someone you’re not shouldn’t be one of them.

We value diversity & our team is representative of that. We have a good mix of genders, a range of experiences from recent grads to fintech industry heavyweights, and all sorts of passions, interests, and hobbies.

Ultimately, we want people who believe in our mission, who love our product, and who want to be the best they can be at their job, whilst working with a team they respect.

💡 Cheat sheet

Be Yourself

The interview process: what to expect

We are committed to creating a fair and inclusive interview process, so we like to keep it as streamlined and light-touch as possible. Our interview process usually happens in 4 steps:

Step 1 — Technical interview with the manager

Who is it with?

Usually, this will be led by the manager of the role you are applying for, however, depending on availability this could be a peer from the team instead.

How long does it take?

Approximately 30 minutes. However sometimes this can be longer depending on the role.

What’s the goal?

To help us get a deeper understanding of your technical skills and experience, we usually ask more situational and technical questions, asking you to dig deeper into your past experiences that are relevant to the role.
To test your competency for the role.
Opportunity for you to ask any questions directly to the manager you’ll be working with.

Step 2 — Culture fit interview

Who is it with?

There will be two culture fit interviews, first with our COO on Google Meet and the second will be with our CEO, Adedeji Olowe. Both interviews will be informal chats (relaxed conversations) to assess how your values align with that of Lendsqr.

What’s the goal?

They would like to know if Lendsqr and you are a fit based on our culture and your own expectations.
To know your short and long term plans.
To help us understand what you’re looking for in your next role and how we can help you grow.

Step 3 — Get an offer and join the Festus Program

As Lendsqr is a technology company with an affinity for young people trying to change the world, we focus a lot on attitude and drive. While it may be easy to discover how smart someone is during the interview process, their value system, which is subtle but very powerful, can only be found in a work setting.

Prospective employees that already have significant experience also have track records that help us know how they fit into Lendsqr. But for younger people with zero or few experiences, we have the Festus Program that they go through before they get our final offers.

The Festus Program is Lendsqr's "dating" process designed to assess younger technical professionals in a near-work scenario. The objective of this is to observe how prospective candidates work under pressure, engage with other teams, etc. .

It’s a two week program where the prospective staff would get a chance to show that they have the basic qualities that would make them succeed in a high-performance organization.

The Fesus Program is not a job and candidates are not required shouldn’t resign to get into it. Overall, it requires just a few hours a week to engage with the Festus Program Manager to get through this.

Subsequent to passing the Fesus Program, successful candidates will be given full time contracts.

We hope this helps to remove a little bit of the anxiety you may have ahead of your first interview.

Good luck! We’re sure you’ll do great!