Hiring criteria

First and foremost, we want … hold on, wait a minute … this should actually be a one-sentence page: we hire purely based on merit. Period, and on we should go.

But whilst this should go without saying, we are an Equal opportunities employer. Which, in a nutshell, means we don't care about your race, the colour of your skin, your sex, gender, sexuality, religion, political preferences or any other factors besides your skillset… and the fact that you are not an asshole. Or, to put it more politely, we don't hire people who don't align with our Mission and values nor fit our Culture.

Instead, we want to hire people with whom we share the same ethical and moral values. People with whom we like to spend time with, enjoy our retreat along, and joke around.

You know, we don't want to grow over 40 people, which is quite a small-sized team, in all fairness. The reason lies in weighing the pros and the cons of sizing up. The pro is simple: more people, more money, more profit. But this has never been, and won't ever be, the reason Significa exists nor its driving factor. Significa exists to deliver the best products it can while maintaining the close-knit culture we have developed.

This is why our third recruitment phase (Recruitment process) is exclusively dedicated to evaluating your cultural fit with Significa: we care as much about your technical competencies as we do about your social ones. The technical aspects are far from being the main reason you won't get the job, but the social ones are.

Who are we looking to hire, then?

In a nutshell, we are looking for curious, eager, resilient, agile, accountable, conscious, open, and compassionate people. In short, folks who are proudly themselves.

Feeling comfortable around the team and being happy in our workspace, knowing there's a compassionate human being across the desk is really important for our culture. Knowing we all hold each other accountable, having a team of people willing to fight your fight with you is unquestionably crucial. That’s when compassion kicks in.

This fosters motivation because you know there's someone who is interested in you and your success, humbly and willingly sharing both the good and the bad times. Not just someone who's bothered about their own personal development. Ah, altruism! That's what it's called.

We don't hire people to do a collection of tasks. We hire to share our space with, grow and learn with, to achieve incredible things or fail together.

We seek individuals who wholeheartedly embrace this ideology. We value those who are willing to dive in headfirst, who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, who roll up their sleeves and do it, who place the emphasis on collective achievements rather than personal glory.

This ethos of sharing successes and failures fosters a collaborative and supportive work environment where each team member's contribution is recognised and valued, especially in a small team like ours.

We want to hire those who are swift to help others and are on the lookout for mutual growth. Those who are equally driven by their own success and their team-mates’. Above all else, someone who others can rely on.

We aim to hire people who appreciate the benefits and drawbacks of a small team. One thing to note is that with a small team, there's not much room for climbing the corporate ladder. Well, maybe because we're not corporate at all in the first place.

Here, there's very limited scope for hierarchical progression. Consequently, career advancement is more about Personal development rather than an attempt to grab power or a fancy title name.

This also means we look for proactive people, those who can own their development, play the main character in their lives and set their own goals. We want folks who don't need babysitting or gold stars every time they complete a task.

We want those who are hungry to learn, keen for feedback, and humble enough to separate their egos from our higher goal: the profound chase for never-achievable perfection. This requires an understanding that feedback is about the work, never personal.

Sugar-coating feedback never leads to progress or improvement. Instead, it stalls betterment to the detriment of trying not to hurt the other's feelings. This doesn't mean we will use blunt, schmuck, shouting type of feedback. Instead, it means we strive for clear, truthful, and direct communication, always aiming at improving the quality of your (and our) work.

The people we value the most are those who are willing to tell the truth, even when they know their counterparts won't like it. In the long term, these people will be sought after and listened to because, no matter the context, you know you'll get honest feedback and a path to improvement.

The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off!

A book by Gloria Steinem.

We focus on the concept of “quality” as an archetype of perfection we consistently chase every day but that we know is unattainable. We look for people who don't settle for the average or the good enough. Good enough is not enough. If you want to work at Significa, you must always look to do better. You must embrace the fact that there's always a better way, a better solution.

Chasing quality can be exhausting. The desire to always do and be better requires resilience. The realisation that there can always be a better way can be draining. Bottom line: we want to hire people who are energised by others, by their opinions, their alternative options, and their different ways of doing things.

Embracing local talent

It's worth also mentioning here that we are proud of our Porto roots, Porto is our home. We are fully committed to our local community, and we can state that Significa won't be leaving Porto, ever. As such, we prefer, whenever possible, to hire talent that is already living within our community. That doesn't mean we are shut off to the wider world at all – we embrace everybody, and as we said before, hire on merit first and foremost – many of our team come from far and wide but live locally.

Hiring locally strengthens our ties to our local community, and contributes to the local economy. With team members living nearby we can reduce our environmental footprint, encourage shorter commutes (don't forget we cover your commute on public transport!), and support the region that has helped shape who we are as a company. We aren't ruling anybody out based on where they live, this is a preference, and as we are Office-first, it makes sense for us to all be living within a healthy distance of our office.

You know what? Before we wrap this page up, here are a few other pages that further represent our culture in depth. Perhaps starting with Culture would be a good choice. Then, you could carry one with Maximum freedom, maximum responsibility, where we dive into our motto and how it shapes our relationship with each other and with Significa itself.

Next, take a look at Mission and values. There’s no better place to learn more about Significa’s guiding principles. The Manifesto should follow if you wish to know what Significa is striving to be.

Last but definitely not least, again a prompt to check out Office-first. An ode to our office and how important it is to everything else you’ve read.

If you resonate with all that, you'll resonate with us too.