$2.75 billion startup GitLab will close up its normal job application process and only focus on outbound recruiting for critical roles, including those in support, growth, and security.

It's part of a short-term, proactive cost-saving measure amid the coronavirus crisis, GitLab CEO and co-founder Sid Sijbrandij tells Business Insider.

Anybody who's interested can still upload their resume to GitLab's talent community site for later review, but they won't be able to pick and choose which job to apply for.

Instead, hiring managers will have free rein to find and approach anybody they think would be right for the job — whether or not they directly applied with GitLab.

If these efforts are successful, GitLab CEO Sid Sijbrandij says the company will continue hiring this way, even after the pandemic is over.

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$2.75 billion startup GitLab is making some major changes to its hiring process, as a proactive and short-term cost-saving measure amid the coronavirus crisis.

On Tuesday, GitLab announced that it's closing all of its job postings, and moving to only hire for critical positions. More dramatically, the company will move to an outbound recruiting model — which means that candidates can no longer apply for particular jobs; GitLab's hiring managers will go after whoever they think is the right person for the job, whether or not they actually sent a resume over to the company.

"I think it's really interesting because it allows us to be much more intentional about that profile of the people we hire," GitLab CEO and cofounder Sid Sijbrandij told Business Insider.

GitLab is widely seen as the leading competitor to Microsoft's GitHub, providing tools to help even large teams of distributed programmers collaborate on software projects and release code into production more often.

GitLab's executive team decided to prioritize hiring for those positions that best support the overall business. Examples include support roles to help customers, growth roles to help sell its product and generate revenue, and security and compliance roles that are crucial to making it more palatable to larger corporations.

The startup has been planning to go public this November, although Sijbrandij previously told Business Insider that its IPO "might be sooner, and it might be later" depending on market conditions.

While layoffs are becoming widespread across Silicon Valley, Sijbrandij says GitLab only plans to slow down hiring. Sijbrandij also says the company is well-positioned to hire at this time as it has always operated completely remotely.

"Obviously this crisis is hard on all companies," Sijbrandij said. "It's harder on some other companies besides that. What's been great for us is we can help people adjust to remote."

And it has big plans to grow this year. Right now GitLab has about 1,200 employees, with ambitions to grow to as many as 1,500 people by the end of the year.

The 'right time for a more efficient shift'

Sijbrandij estimates that at GitLab, 80% of job candidates came from inbound applications, while 20% came from outbound sourcing. Now, he says, those proportions are going to flip, with 80% of new candidates coming from sourcing, and the other 20% coming from referrals, recruiters, and job-switchers within GitLab.

While job applications will no longer be open, interested people can upload their resumes to GitLab's talent community site, though they won't have their choice of roles for which to apply.

Sijbrandij says GitLab has had over 12,000 people applying to the company every month, and he estimates that the company had to decline more than 99% of applicants even before the pandemic started.

But now, since GitLab is only hiring for critical roles while there are more people who may have lost their jobs because of layoffs, the decline rate will only grow. That's why GitLab is making this switch now.

"With this limited number of roles to focus on, it felt like the right time for a more efficient shift," Dave Gilbert, GitLab's vice president of recruiting, told Business Insider.

This isn't the first time GitLab is hiring this way, but now recruiters will spend more of their time on sourcing. Sijbrandij says that when GitLab did sourcing in the past, it found candidates who were a better fit.

"The problem is we didn't have enough capacity to do it for every role," Sijbrandij said. "Last year we almost tripled our headcount. That growth is so fast we could not source for each and every role. Luckily we had a ton of applicants. We still had a great community inbound."

This switch may not be temporary, either – Sijbrandij hopes that this hiring process will be successful and continue even after the pandemic.

"We hope it will be successful and will keep the model as we open up more vacancies," Sijbrandij said. "We hope it's a model that will continue to prove more successful and we keep doing it, even after the pandemic."

'We're always looking for evidence of a great career trajectory'

When sourcing candidates, Sijbrandij says recruiters will look for the skills each role needs the most and work on building a diverse team. What's more, while GitLab is famously an all-remote company, it will take into account the candidate's location, where it's relevant. For example, sales roles require being close to where customers are, while time zones are important for employees in a support role.

What recruiters look for will vary depending on the role, but in general, Gilbert says GitLab is looking for people who have made career progress by taking bigger roles over the years. In addition, they're looking for longevity at previous employers, namely people who stay in their jobs for at least two to three years.

"We're always looking for evidence of a great career trajectory: people who have accomplished and achieved excellence, people who have shown loyalty, and evidence they can achieve things and drive results at a company like GitLab," Gilbert said.

How GitLab will source talent

Recruiters plan to use LinkedIn to search for possible candidates as well as look into previous applicants who did not get an offer but may be a better fit for another role. For people who are interested in applying, they can upload their resume to the talent community and make sure their LinkedIn profile is up to date.

"Sourcing is all about identifying and starting the conversation proactively with someone who may never have applied," Gilbert said. "We still think of sourcing as mining that community we established."

GitLab will still consider the applications that have been already submitted for critical roles. For roles where hiring has been delayed, applicants will be informed that the role is no longer available but be invited to upload their resume to the talent community to be considered when the role opens up again or even for a different role that aligns with their skills.

"For me, thinking about GitLab's growth, it's a good time to increase the intentionality and the focus of our hiring that we've already proven works," Gilbert said. "We just need to have the opportunity to prove it at scale."

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