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The Pillars of an Award-Winning Program
MongoDB was selected as a 2023 Campus Forward Award Winner for their unwavering commitment to seeking out and hiring early career talent, their emphasis on diversity & inclusion, and investments in nurturing and retaining the next generation of talent. Please see below for the highlights of their approach to early career recruitment.
Demonstrated Investment in Early Career Hiring
MongoDB’s early talent programs are critical to its future success. MongoDB believes that embracing differences and valuing inclusion advances innovation and creates belonging. As future leaders in tech, the early talent cohort members provide new ideas and perspectives that promote creativity and lead to new initiatives, while building the diverse talent base needed to connect and build relationships with end users. MongoDB values early talent minds and considers early career individuals as vital constituents to help advance growth while mentoring a talent base of future leaders that allows MongoDB to be a successful tech firm. Investing in early talent increases retention and strengthens the company’s historical knowledge base, supporting its leadership breadth through advancing the careers of people of all backgrounds.
Innovative and Multi-Faceted Approach to University Recruitment
MongoDB Early Talent team’s sourcing and recruitment strategies involve a growth mindset. The team knows and appreciates that great technical talent does not just come from a list of “top CS schools”, so the company sources candidates from a wide range of schools and majors to attract a broad talent base. This change occurred as a result of an intentional strategic initiative to innovate the recruitment process. Prior interns play an active role in the recruitment process by contributing to MongoDB’s website and participating in MongoDB’s ambassador program at their schools. MongoDB does not restrict its interactions with schools to career or computer/engineering technical societies, but rather the Early Talent team is actively involved in campus organizations of all types that leads to attracting a diverse talent pool. Investing in RippleMatch’s automated platform has significantly expanded MongoDB’s candidate pipeline by eliminating the most time intensive elements of the recruitment process.
Overarching Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
MongoDB fosters a culture where employees are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work. The Early Talent team partnered with MongoDB’s Affinity Group, ‘The Underrepresented People of Color,’ to host a virtual summit open to students from underrepresented groups who wanted to learn about MongoDB and how to navigate starting a career in tech. Attendees networked with current employees and many participants moved forward to complete the internship recruitment process. MongoDB has committed to support Affinity Groups to advance its diversity and inclusion initiatives, and early talent is encouraged to join the groups. In summer 2022, 50% of all interns joined an Affinity Group — and 86% of those participants received return offers and 96% of those offers extended were accepted. MongoDB also partners with underrepresented organizations on campus to make early connections, and ensures its interview panels are diverse.
Impactful Internship Program
Connection to MongoDB begins early in the internship process to ensure interns are experiencing authentic connections. Ownership, collaboration, mentorship, and relationship-building are cornerstones of the program. All staff work hard to ensure interns realize how they contribute to solving problems and making an impact using their diverse skillsets, and that interns experience the value of working on a team. The internship focus is on learning and development; interns work on projects that will be used by developers and organizations worldwide. The executive team’s speaker series focused on MongoDB’s six core values, with each leader addressing how they live a particular value. Understanding how these values are internalized helps interns connect to the company’s culture. The company also offers social events designed to build relationships, such as an intern day of service. Because the internship program is in NYC, interns come from all over the country, so the company secured college housing for them.
Growth and Development of the Next Generation of Talent
Acknowledging that experiencing early career successes, feeling valued and engaged, and being closely connected to a team are central to creating a stronger company culture that ensures robust retention rates, MongoDB created a comprehensive program for entry-level hires. MongoDB offers new grads the choice to go directly back to their intern team or participate in a rotational exploration program the first 18 weeks of full-time employment. The firm created a specific learning and development track that provides new grads the following sessions: Building your Personal Brand, Giving and Receiving Feedback, Energy Management, Unspoken Rules of the Workplace, and Building your MDB Community. New grads are paired with dedicated mentors throughout their first year, and can work on projects across a variety of product lines. These programs were implemented to invest in entry-level hires, not only to increase retention, but to position them for a successful career at MongoDB.