Careers at MDRC

What to Expect from the MDRC Recruitment Process

We seek mission-driven candidates who want to be part of an organization dedicated to improving the lives of low-income people. During the recruitment process, we try to ensure that candidates have an opportunity to engage with various members of both the hiring teams and the Human Resources department. Our goal is to identify exceptional candidates who will thrive and deliver exceptional results once hired. An applicant can expect to be engaged in the process anywhere from an average of two to six weeks.

Let’s go over the steps of the hiring process:

The Application: Potential hires should complete the application per the requirements listed for the position that they are interested in. Some applications will require a writing sample or a sample of the applicant’s coding skills depending on the responsibilities of the position. The uploaded documents may be course-related materials or documents from an independent project that was monitored by someone with a professional background in research. Please note that applicants will not proceed to the next step if they have not followed the application instructions.

The Selection Process: Both the Human Resources Talent and hiring teams review all applications. If your application meets the requirements for the position, you may receive an email to inquire about your availability for a video/phone prescreening call. The prescreening call gives you the opportunity to explain why you’re interested in MDRC, to share your experiences that are relevant to the position you’ve applied for, and to discuss salary expectations and location preference (MDRC hires for positions in New York City; Oakland and Los Angeles, California; and Washington, DC). Please note that a prescreening call doesn’t guarantee an in-person interview.

The Interview Process: If your skillset is identified as a good match for the position after the prescreening call, you may be invited for an in-person interview. In these interviews, we want to make sure candidates meet some of the individuals whom they will work with. While we do our best to schedule these meetings soon after the phone screen is held, the scheduling may take a week or more to finalize. Once we finalize all schedules, an in-person interview may consist of a series of interviews with various team members from different areas and levels across the organization.

Depending on the position, applicants may be asked to complete an assessment exercise administered by the HR Talent Team or the hiring areas. These exercises are meant both to provide candidates with a glimpse of the day-to-day work associated with the position they’ve applied for and to give us a sense of the candidate’s attention to detail and analytical skills. In some cases, we might request additional meetings or calls with the candidate.

The Reference Checks Process: If we decide to advance your application in the hiring process, we will contact your references to gather additional feedback. MDRC will review the references and then decide to either proceed with an offer or to consider other candidates. You can expect to hear from us within a week after providing your references.

The Offer Stage: This is our favorite stage—when we offer you a position to join our team! A member of the Human Resources Talent team will extend a verbal offer of employment, followed a few days later with an official offer letter with on-boarding instructions. We’ll work with you to ensure a successful launch to what we hope will be an experience affording you many opportunities to grow professionally.

To request a reasonable accommodation during any stage of MDRC’s employment process due to a disability, please contact HR[email protected] or 212-532-3200 to speak to a member of the Human Resources Department.