Klarna’s engineering director, Peter Bergenwald, gave SALT a chance to prove themselves, a decision he is very pleased with.
Thanks to Klarna’s position as one of the most well-known companies in Sweden, it’s a great opportunity for junior developers to enter the tech industry. However, the large number of applications also places a great strain on the selection process.
“It takes us a lot of time and energy to find the people we really want. It’s often difficult to evaluate a candidate’s potential when they have little work experience. SALT became a partner for us that can help with this.”
Above all, SALT’s rigorous selection process was particularly interesting, with only about 30 candidates selected from 1,000 applications. About halfway through the program, Klarna subjected the SALT developers to their own screening process, which led to surprisingly good results.
“They performed better than other developers with a similar background. I also appreciate that on average, more female candidates came through SALT than we would normally see. As a company that values diversity in both gender and background and nationality, we saw a match.”
At present, 8 SALT developers work at Klarna. Some are more senior with a university master’s degree, while others have more work experience. “All developers excel in motivation and drive. That is a minimum requirement for participating in a SALT program.”