Some people may be hesitant to apply for a job at Spotify because they’re not sure what type of people the company wants to hire. Spotify hires people who are skilled, passionate, and committed.
In this guide, you will find out about the working environment at Spotify and the various positions available. We will also cover how to get a job at Spotify by succeeding in the interview process to get started on your desired career path.
Spotify: Company Background
Spotify is a Swedish company that streams music, podcasts, and videos via licensing agreements with record labels and media companies. It also offers its own exclusive content. Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon founded the streaming service in 2006, allowing customers to access songs via a home entertainment system, tablet, laptop, or smartphone.
There are two ways to access Spotify’s services. You may choose to stream songs for free or pay for premium access. The main difference between the two is the presence of advertisements. The company is serious about reimbursing artists based on the number of times their music is streamed, so ads are a necessary part of the business plan.
Spotify employs over 1,400 people worldwide, with annual revenue of $4 billion. It has offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Helsinki, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, New York, Oslo, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, and Warsaw.
What It’s Like to Work at Spotify
Spotify ranks highly when it comes to employee satisfaction. The work environment helps employees advance their careers and grow in their personal lives. The company gets thousands of applications annually for their available positions.
Below are a few reasons why Spotify is an exceptional place to work.
Live Performances
Spotify also hosts live performances by musical artists at its offices. In terms of hiring, the company prefers to take on music lovers from diverse backgrounds who are also highly skilled. Live performances are proof that the working environment is entirely centered around music.
High Pay
The company’s policies dictate that you get paid in accordance with how valuable you are to the organization. Salaries are adjusted according to the existing market, ensuring that you are well compensated. They also allow for paid leave and six-month maternity leave.
Too Much Free Food
According to Glassdoor, the company is adamant that its employees don’t go hungry. A lot of the teamwork that goes on at Spotify is cognitive, and the company’s view is that food will help workers focus on their tasks.
Getting a Job at Spotify
There are several ways you can land a position at Spotify. Many people acquire their jobs through referrals. In the beginning, the company relied on its employees to give recommendations for others who they thought would be passionate about the job.
Currently, the company is diversifying the platforms it uses to hire new talent. Thoroughly filling out a job application is essential to show the company who you are as a person.
There are many jobs available at Spotify’s three largest offices in New York, London, and Stockholm. The company also offers great relocation packages to ensure you and your family can settle in properly.
How Hard Is It to Land a Job at Spotify?
According to former employees, you need to love music and technology in order to get a job with Spotify. The company’s mission is to change the way the world listens to music. On the jobs section of the company’s website, you will see many tech-related jobs. However, there are also some posts for business and finance experts.
In the business support section, the company is hiring an operations manager, project manager, and product manager. These people will be responsible for leading projects, devising strategies, and collaborating with stakeholders.
To work in the business department at Spotify, you will need to have a master of business administration degree or information systems degree.
Spotify also hires data analysts to analyze big data. The available positions are for a data scientist, data infrastructure engineer, data engineer, and analytics engineer. For these roles, you must know programming languages such as R, SQL, and Python.
To qualify, you must also have knowledge of data access, data modeling, data mining, and data storage techniques. It is also a prerequisite that you have a degree in computer science, math, or statistics.
To get a job as a research scientist at Spotify, you will need to be well versed in machine learning and artificial intelligence. You must also have a doctoral degree in data science, machine learning, or computer science.
Applying for a Job at Spotify
Currently, Spotify is available in 58 countries and has more than 60 million users. It’s a dominant force in the music industry. Before you apply for a job at Spotify, make sure you have the skills they need.
You must be hardworking, passionate about music, and very skilled in your field. You should also be an engaged Spotify user and possess a basic understanding of how music is streamed.
If you want to get the job, make sure your application is creative. Many employees use social media to get attention from the hiring managers. If you apply via their official website, make sure that your resume stands out.
Spotify Application and Interview Process
Spotify is meticulous when it comes to talent acquisition. They are determined to hire people who have the expertise and experience in technology and business. They employ individuals who are passionate about improving customers’ access to music legally.
The talent acquisition team often brings in new employees from other platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, HTTP Hipster, and Eye on Design.
Spotify’s hiring process is thorough. You can easily start the application process on their website. Remember that each role is unique, so you should tailor your application to the position you want.
The interview process at Spotify may take two to four weeks. After your resume has been approved, hiring managers will set up a phone screen interview.
The first interview is instrumental in establishing your interest, salary requirements, and relocation options. It helps the company get a general view of who you are as a person.
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If you pass the phone interview, you will move on to a Skype interview, which may feature technical interview questions on sorting algorithms, as well as personal questions about your motivation and your passion for music.
You will also have to complete a tech interview, in which you will be asked to solve a programming problem so the team can evaluate your work in real-time.
Then, you will be asked to attend an onsite interview. This interview will consist of another programming test, portfolio review, whiteboard programming, system design exercise, and an introduction to some team members. Then, you will attend one final interview to determine whether you are a good fit for the organization’s work culture.
Spotify Career Opportunities: Job Titles and Descriptions
There are plenty of career opportunities available at Spotify. In the past decade, the company has grown exponentially. With offices all over the world, you might find a Spotify job in Turkey, Poland, Hong Kong, Mexico, or the US.
The nature of the music-streaming service requires that you be innovative, reliable, and a team player to get the job. Below are the top-paying jobs currently open at Spotify.
Engineering Manager – Client Platform
- Salary: $80,000 to $100,000
- Benefits: Paid Sick Leave, paid holidays, 401(k), stock options
- Required experience: N/A
- Required education: Degree in software development or engineering
This job offer is for the New York office. You will be working as part of a software development specialty. You will be responsible for creating technology that helps the Spotify app learn fast and scale easily.
The primary responsibility of an engineering manager is to deliver timely technical solutions and advocate for agile software development practices. You will also have to be an active leader with strong software development experience.
Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer
- Salary: $80,000 to $100,000
- Benefits: Paid sick leave, paid holidays, 401(k), stock options
- Required experience: N/A
- Required education: C++, Java, Scala, and Python
As a software engineer, you will help the company build its machine learning infrastructure. You will support the teams at Spotify to scale their experiments with data sets. You will work closely with the machine learning team on personalization, ad targeting, and music recommendations projects.
For this role, the company prefers to hire a skilled communicator with experience in open source contributions. Experience in data processing is also essential. You should have an understanding of storage frameworks such as Google Cloud Dataflow, park, Storm, Cassandra, and Hadoop.
Senior Data Scientist
- Salary: $80,000 to $100,000
- Benefits: Paid sick leave, paid holidays, 401(k), stock options
- Required experience: 5 to 7 years
- Required education: Bachelor’s degree in economics, data science, computer science, or statistics
As a senior data scientist, you will generate insight for Spotify’s podcast. You will analyze user engagement with content, define success strategies, track performance, and create data-based recommendations.
Your primary roles include conducting big data analysis, extracting insights from data, and using this data to make decisions. You will also be responsible for assessing creative development and talent acquisition. The role requires that you have plenty of experience in visualizing data and navigating large data sets.
Senior Data Engineer – Personalization
- Salary: $80,000 to $100,000
- Benefits: Paid Sick Leave, Paid Holidays, 401(k), Stock Options
- Required experience: N/A
- Required education: Bachelor’s in data science, computer science, or statistics
This New York-based role requires you to focus on technical designs and helping Spotify personalize its features. You will also be tasked with driving optimization, testing, and tooling to improve data quality.
This is an excellent position if you have previous experience working with high volumes of heterogeneous data. You should also have experience in data modeling, data access, and data storage techniques.
What Does It Take to Get a Job at Spotify?
The company hires over 1,000 people each year in its 40 offices worldwide. The diverse and fast-paced environment entices many job-seekers to send in their applications or resumes. The company offers a great opportunity to learn, grow, and advance in your career.
You don’t have to know anyone at the organization to land a job. If you have the necessary skills to perform a particular task, there is a good chance you’ll get hired.
When you apply, ensure that your skills, experience, and talent are clearly outlined in your resume and cover letter. Remember that landing a career at the audio streaming platform will require you to have a background in music.
The company currently has many positions open in data and analytics, user experience, business development, business support, sales, product development, engineering, and IT. Most of these jobs are entry-level and require a bachelor’s degree.
Getting hired by Spotify is not as difficult as you may think. Their hiring process is thorough, but it is necessary for a leading music company like Spotify. During the process, make sure you put to use everything you know about writing a CV and be sure to prepare for your interview.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.
