Why we love work trials at Foxglove

tl;dr →

Working at an early-stage startup isn’t for everyone—especially at a fully remote, early-stage company like Foxglove, where we place a high value on rapid iteration and proactive ownership. Many people are drawn to this dynamic, but if you’ve never worked in such an environment before, it can be hard to know whether you’ll enjoy it or what it’s really like.

Hiring mistakes are costly for both you [the candidate] and companies. I’ve heard far too many stories from friends who joined a company only to discover that the role or company was not at all what they were sold during interviews. The traditional interview process often falls short in finding the right fit for an early-stage, remote startup like Foxglove. Typically, companies assess your suitability through a limited set of structured interviews, which rarely capture the realities of startup work. As a result, hiring decisions are made based on only a few hours of conversation, without realistic work simulations, ultimately leading to a high rate of mismatched hires. While a “fire-fast” mentality can help maintain a high-performing organization, it also leads to churn and disruption for the employees and you, when you might have been better suited for a different company from the start.

At Foxglove, we believe there’s a better way—an evaluation method that offers a more realistic insight into how you will perform on the job, while also giving you an authentic glimpse into what working at Foxglove is truly like.

Enter the work trial

Work trials offer a more engaging, two-way evaluation where both sides benefit. After a short interview loop, we invite you to join us for a paid, three to five-day engagement, working on a real project. During the work trial, we find a real project for you to work on, set you up with full access to our environment (including Slack, Notion, Figma, and GitHub), and ensure that existing team members are available to support your efforts.

My personal experience with work trials dates back to 2014, when Coinbase flew me out from New Zealand to spend a week working onsite with their team in San Francisco. After an action-packed week I was convinced it was a great fit, and I went on to make many lifelong friends including Foxglove co-founder Roman Shtylman.

Work trials at Coinbase were great at selecting for builders, and it’s no surprise that many Coinbase alumni continued the tradition, including Linear:

"Building a quality product and business requires people we can trust to make good judgments. Linear uses paid work trials to have candidates complete real projects that test the skills and attributes essential for roles in our startup environment." 

Work trials are also becoming more common across the interview process, with a great overview shared in Lenny’s Newsletter:

"A work trial refers to a step in the interview process where candidates are asked to complete a project that’s representative of the work they’ll be doing in the role. The “representativeness” falls on a spectrum, from doing an in-depth project at home (e.g. 37signals) to co-working with existing employees in the real codebase building something the company will ship (e.g. Linear)."

"Where you fall on the spectrum of how close to reality your work trial should be is directly correlated with the size of your company. The fewer people you’re hiring (and thus the more important each hire is), the more time you should be investing in a work trial. As you grow, you can streamline the process."

What makes a good work trial project?

We’ve found it important for work trial projects to be real work, not hypothetical scenarios. It’s also important to select a project that provides value to the company while being manageable within the trial period. Ideally, the project should reflect the kind of tasks that you would be doing if you joined full-time, allowing both you and the team to get a realistic sense of what working together would be like.

In addition to being a real project, it creates an opportunity for you to show the team what you are capable of. A good way to think of the work trial is similar to a team try-out. As a candidate, you get to play with the team and showcase the qualities that would make you a good addition, while also assessing the team’s qualities and values against your own.

The final piece of a successful work trial project is team support. It is important for the team to acknowledge that you are showing up with near-zero context on internal architectures, gotchas, prior-art, etc. Being available to answer questions and share knowledge is a key part of helping ensure a smooth work trial process.

Executing the work trial

We value flexibility, understanding that you may have other commitments. Whether you’re employed or balancing personal responsibilities, we’ll work with your schedule to ensure the work trial fits into your life. 

Our efficient onboarding process gets you set up in 30 minutes, after which you’ll meet your manager and begin working on a project that mirrors the responsibilities of the role. Throughout the work trial, you’ll collaborate with future colleagues, and at the end, you’ll present your work to the team. We’ll review your performance promptly and follow up with a decision and also to gather your feedback too.

Apply today and let's get started

A work trial at Foxglove isn’t just an interview—it’s a preview of your potential future with us. It helps both of us determine if we’re a good fit for each other. You’ll experience our culture, get to know the team, and see how we work day to day.

We’ve had great feedback from both successful and unsuccessful candidates, including occasional candidates who decide not to move forward after their work trial due to Foxglove not being the right fit for them—which we also consider a great outcome.

If you value high-quality work, proactive ownership, and enjoy working in a fast-paced, fully remote, early-stage startup that ships iteratively—and you’re passionate about helping us increase the global GDP of robotics—then apply for one of our open positions and let’s start a work trial!