How to Get a Job at Spotify Design

Hi, I’m Adrian. I’m a part of Spotify’s expertise acquisition crew. We’re accountable for bringing high-quality people to Spotify Design throughout our places of work worldwide.

During my time right here, we’ve talked to plenty of designers who’re interested in working for Spotify. And there are a number of questions we’ve been requested time and again:

How do I get on the crew’s radar? 

What abilities do I have to work at Spotify? 

What ought to I anticipate from the interview course of? 

What’s Spotify Design in search of proper now?

We might hold the solutions to those questions a secret. But we predict it’s in everybody’s greatest curiosity to reply them as truthfully as we will. So what you’ll discover under is our information to the hiring course of at Spotify Design. I’ll reply the favored questions above and inform you a bit extra about how we do issues after we’re seeking to fill open roles.

Whether you’re a designer who needs to work at Spotify, otherwise you’re a design supervisor seeking to refresh your hiring processes, I hope you discover this peek behind the scenes attention-grabbing and helpful. Let’s go!

How we discover individuals

One query I’m requested on a regular basis is learn how to get on the expertise acquisition crew’s radar. There are, in reality, a number of methods. Our radar is wide-ranging, and we’re continuously looking out for expertise anyplace we will discover it. I test every little thing from Instagram to LinkedIn to App Index, HTTP Hipster, New graphic, Eye on Design, and Kill Screen to the resumes despatched to us from candidates worldwide. And sure, I even test Twitter. So in case you’re fearful that you simply’re not in that one particular place the place we discover everybody, don’t be. There is nobody place!

Plenty of the time we discover designers the old style manner: by networking. And I don’t imply at occasions with lukewarm beer and stick-on identify tags (though these may be enjoyable, too). But extra by our connections with various design communities worldwide — as a result of that’s the place the gifted individuals often collect. So wherever you’re, I like to recommend that you simply take part in your native design neighborhood. Sign up for the newsletters. Go to the occasions. Share your work with different designers. Ask individuals in the event that they need to work with you. In quick: Put your self on the market. 

Finding the most effective designer for a job can also be about in search of a designer that may convey variety of thought. We companion with our Diversity & Belonging crew to construct stronger partnerships with unrepresented demographics. For us, it’s not about discovering somebody you need to get a drink with, however somebody you need to create impactful and modern work with.

And we attempt to nurture relationships over time. When we maintain occasions, I typically discuss with designers in regards to the Spotify Design tradition even when we’re not discussing a selected open function. Even a fast chat is usually a spark, and an off-the-cuff dialog now can result in a job alternative later.   

Submitting your utility

For these making use of to Spotify Design by the job portal, that is your pleasant reminder that each function is handled in a different way and requires its personal mix of abilities and expertise. If you’re eager about a couple of job, be certain that to name out your suitability in separate functions. Yes, it takes extra time, however you dramatically improve your probabilities of success by tailoring your utility to the function. 

I like to listen to why somebody thinks they’re an ideal match for a job, so we encourage you to point out us your greatest self in no matter manner works for you. A fantastic portfolio does not must be a set of shiny screenshots and big-name manufacturers. Highlight your coding experience. Send over your sticky be aware sketch artistry. Make certain you cowl your expertise working with totally different processes and navigating by the muddy stuff. Pitch your self as a connoisseur chef who could make one thing scrumptious utilizing the melting pot of design instruments. Share articles you’ve written, knowledge you’ve visualized, and talks you’ve given. 

Whatever you’ve received, we need to see it. No matter what your supplies appear to be, we’re most eager about understanding the way you suppose critically in regards to the methods design and expertise work together. 

And for designers early of their profession, right here’s another choice: Every September, we begin our seek for interns to affix us in the summertime of the next 12 months, largely in New York, London, and Stockholm. Internships at Spotify are something however standard, and are at all times paid. You received’t be making tea, choosing up packages, or taking minutes in conferences. You’ll be on the coronary heart of main initiatives, working with our groups to create superior issues. 

Most of our junior designers have been employed after performing properly in our internship program. I extremely suggest that you simply hearken to our Greenroom podcast episode to be taught extra about what internships at Spotify are like, and think about making use of when our internship functions open in September. 

The introductory interview

We usually begin our candidate conversations with an introductory interview. It’s much less an opportunity for us to pepper you with questions than your alternative to inform us what you need from a job, and from life itself. Don’t share simply your abilities, share your hopes and desires! Our hope is that Spotify is an efficient match for these desires. We need you to have the ability to do your greatest work right here.

When I do these chats, I need to hear in regards to the work that’s outlined you, what kind of stuff you need to work on, and the place you need to develop. We’re additionally evaluating you for what you’ll convey to the crew and the way you embody the Spotify values – these are our non-negotiables! So do ensure you familiarise your self with them (and our band manifesto) and have a solution for the way and why they resonate with you. I additionally run by Spotify Design’s organizational construction and provides some context for the way it suits into Spotify as a complete.

It’s lots to pack into a primary convo, however as a result of we work carefully with different groups, we’re in a position to rapidly decide whether or not you may be a greater match for one more function right here. I’ve been midway by a dialog with a candidate and realized they’d be excellent for one more place on one other crew. And so I pitched them for that different job. Don’t really feel like you have to match right into a predefined field matching the function you’re making use of for; you by no means know the place the true alternative will probably be.  

Even if that first chat doesn’t result in additional discussions, don’t be discouraged. This course of is all about constructing a relationship. If you don’t get employed for one place, there’s nonetheless a great likelihood that one other appropriate opening will pop up later. It pays to be affected person.

The portfolio overview

If we transfer ahead after the introductory cellphone interview, there are two extra people to fulfill within the type of a video name with the Talent Acquisition rep for the function after which one other with the Hiring Manager or a member of the crew during which the function is open, generally a Product Manager will even pop up. This will greater than seemingly take the type of a portfolio overview. What they’re in search of right here is so that you can take them on a design journey, starring you as the primary character. They’ll undergo one or two of your favourite initiatives so you may speak about your course of, pondering, and method. Seeing a cultured remaining product is nice, however what they actually need to know is how you bought there. 

(And, by the way in which, the venture doesn’t even must be completed. Some candidates take us by a work-in-progress imaginative and prescient board or content material technique. Those sorts of artifacts give us unbelievable perception into how designers method their work.)

During the portfolio overview, we’ll seemingly ask you to replicate on two of Spotify Design’s most beloved traits: autonomy and multidisciplinary pondering. I at all times take pleasure in listening to how candidates have labored with non-design disciplines to create one thing superb. We’re in search of designers who’re versatile and adaptable, so having all kinds of expertise may be useful. Worried you don’t have all kinds? Dig into your skilled archive and take into consideration jobs you’ve had that weren’t strictly design-related. How may these various experiences allow you to succeed at Spotify?

If you’ve ticked all of the packing containers up to now then we’ll ask you to come back in and meet the crew, for a day of onsite interviews. You’ll meet with the tech, product, insights and design companions who you’d collaborate with each day. We’ll ask properly in case you’d thoughts strolling us by your portfolio once more, in individual this time and to a barely bigger, at all times pleasant viewers. Prepare for questions.

On the day of your portfolio overview, you’ll additionally take part in a real-time design train with members of our crew that provides you with a style of what it’s wish to work as a designer at Spotify. We’ll offer you a short, a whiteboard, and a stack of sticky notes, and also you’ll have about 2 hours to provide you with concepts to handle a Spotify design problem.

The significance of perception

There’s plenty of knowledge and different bits of quantifiable info flying round at Spotify, however for us the true magic is within the perception — the interpretation of that info. Whether you’re taking part in analysis periods, finding out A/B check outcomes, or arising with metrics that outline success to your venture, virtually each side of a designer’s job right here is influenced by perception. 

And so one factor that may make a candidate stand out is a capability to assist derive perception and make design selections based mostly on it. During the interview course of, we prefer it when designers inform us compelling tales which can be pushed by perception: We need to know the way you’ve interacted with knowledge, what you realized from it, and the way you used these learnings to your benefit. We’re in search of inventive downside solvers who could make sense of data and put collectively robust hypotheses to form their options.  

We’re hiring

It’s true: We have design openings that we’re seeking to fill proper now! They’re all listed on the Spotify Jobs web site, the place you may filter by the job class “Design and User Experience.” Even if there’s nothing that speaks to you or your expertise proper now, we’re at all times posting new alternatives, so hold checking again on our social media channels, the spotify.design web site for updates on occasions and conferences we’ll be popping up at and ensure you signal as much as the Spotify Design publication. 

I hope this information is useful to you, no matter your job desires could also be!