[Interview] Justin Gordon

We've paused our weekly inspiring interview for a while, but here is a fresh one today !
We're are pumped to share Justin's story here.

1.- What is your name, role, and what does your company do? :)

I'm Justin Gordon the founder & CEO of ShakaCode and Friends and guests.
We build custom web & mobile applications, with Rails, React, React-Native and swift.

2.- What do you consider the biggest benefits of a remote team?

The team loves the flexibility and work. Oreover, the company benefits from a worldwide talent pool instead of being restricted to a simple city. We all love what we do, and we're always in touch via Slack, Skype, ScreenHero, Github and Trello.

3.- What traits do you look for in candidates for a remote job?

All the candidates that really love what they do, be it programming or design work. We also invite candidates to join our semi-public slack rooms and to contribute to our open source projects on Github.

4.- Why is your company working remotely?

I'm a surfer living in Maui. I love remote work because it gives me the opportunity to organize my day as I want. That's why I started this company to be 100% remote first. Hybrid remote is not nearly as good. You can even google "Telecommuting Maui" and I'm the first search result!

5.- What is your hiring process for remote workers?

Get to know each other by working on open source projects thanks to github or on our slack room, and our forum.

6.- What’s the best piece of advice you can share with an applicant?

Show a deep passion for what you do. It's not a job, it's a passion! And when you share your knowledge with open source, forums, blog posts, etc., you get back more than you give. We hire applicants that demonstrate this passion for giving what they know.

7.- Do your remote team members meet in person?

We use Skype all the time. And yes, sometimes we meet in person, but so far, not all at once. Maybe in the future! Sugar Ranch Maui is our main headquarters!

8.- How do you cultivate company’s culture in a remote work environment?

We tend to communicate a lot! We have frequent communication via Slack and Skype!

9.- Why did you decide to start working remotely?

I wanted to be able to live in Maui! And I hate spending time commuting in traffic! So the best way to combine that was to work remotely.

Thanks Justin! You can find Justin on Twitter over here :)!

Would like to start a conversation about sharing your story? Let us know over here- thanks :)

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