The IDinsight hiring process

Our rigorous and data-driven interview processes help us find passionate leaders who will thrive at IDinsight. 

IDinsight seeks dynamic teammates who are passionate about large-scale social impact. IDinsight colleagues are humble, service-driven, analytical, personable, and thrive in dynamic, entrepreneurial settings. Our roles are demanding and require a meaningful commitment that, coupled with training and mentorship, yields considerable personal and professional growth.

To achieve IDinsight’s ambitious vision for the sector, we are continuously expanding our client-facing, data science and engineering, and other functional teams across Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. To fill a diverse array of open opportunities at IDinsight, we seek committed and determined leaders from a variety of backgrounds. We strongly encourage applications from professionals with a deep understanding of the local context in which we work. 

While IDinsight is a registered 501c(3) in the US and has a small remote team based in the US, we do not frequently hire in the US. The vast majority of our open roles are in our three regions (Africa, India, and Southeast Asia), which is an important component of realizing both our values and our path to impact.

Crafting a stand out application

For any given role at IDinsight, you will be asked to submit a resume and a cover letter. You will also need to answer formal application screening questions. We encourage you to highlight your past relevant experiences in your resume and cover letter.

We strongly encourage applicants to use your cover letter to highlight why you want to work for IDinsight specifically, and what has prepared you to succeed in the role you’re applying for. A customized cover letter is an important part of IDinsight’s recruiting process as it allows us to understand your motivations for the position, relevant skills, and clarity of writing.

Key aspects of IDinsight’s hiring process

IDinsight has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, beginning with our application process. We encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply to our roles and are particularly invested in building a team that is representative of the communities that we serve. We encourage candidates from marginalized and underserved backgrounds of any type to note this in the cover letter and interview process if they are comfortable doing so. 

We actively seek to minimize implicit bias in all aspects of our hiring and have developed a rigorous, multi-step recruitment process based on best practices. Some elements of our process include algorithmic/blind screening that minimizes reliance on human judgment and competency-based assessments that are scored via uniform rubrics.

While the recruitment processes for any given role will vary slightly based on the hiring team and the competencies required for the position, each IDinsight hiring process will typically include the following aspects:

• Formal application submission: Each IDinsight application will ask you to submit a cover letter, resume, and formal application screening questions. We ask that you respond thoughtfully to the application questions as they’ll allow us to better understand your past experiences and what makes you the best candidate for the role.
• Hiring exercises or competency assessments: In many of IDinsight’s hiring processes, you will be asked to complete a hiring exercise or a competency assessment. Depending on the role, these exercises and assessments may simulate the work that the position will require, evaluate a candidate’s quantitative abilities and writing skills, or test a candidate’s coding and data science/engineering skills. This aspect of our hiring processes may come before any interviews or they may be scheduled once a candidate is in an interview process.
• Interview rounds: Most hiring teams will conduct two to three interviews for an open role. Many roles will include a technical and quantitative interview, an interview to discuss the candidate’s motivation and experience, and a final interview with the applicable regional or functional team lead for a role. Interviews are nearly always conducted virtually due to the international nature of our team. When possible logistically, we may invite candidates to have their final interview in person. If you are invited to a first-round interview for a client-facing role, these resources will help you prepare for the technical case study interview. Interviews usually last between 30 and 60 minutes, and may end early — often some buffer time is scheduled for connectivity and logistical purposes.

Given the thoroughness of our recruitment system and volume of applicants, an IDinsight hiring process can take anywhere from five to twelve weeks, typically with a couple of weeks between each stage. Applicants often will not hear back about the final results of their recruitment status until the position has been filled. If you have another competing offer or recruitment timeline to balance and would like a status update, please contact careers@idinsight.org; for candidates in active interviewing stages, we will try to expedite a decision to accommodate such timelines. 

IDinsight receives many talented applicants for each role, and we know that we will not be able to bring on every exceptional applicant who applies. We appreciate the time investment and commitment demonstrated by thousands of IDinsight applicants each year and encourage applicants who may not receive an offer to continue to gain relevant experience and strengthen their applications in the years to come. Due to bandwidth constraints, IDinsight can only offer application feedback to final round interview candidates who are not selected for a role; to reach out for candidate feedback after a final round interview, please contact careers@idinsight.org.

We greatly look forward to receiving your application to join our team!