Christian P. Pewitt Blogs: How To Get A Job At Spotify

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

How To Get A Job At Spotify

Spotify hires about 1000 new workers each year; and CEO Daniel Ek says that he's asked how to get a job at the music streamer so often that he tasked the Human Resources Department to write a guide, "How To Get A Job At Spotify".

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I quite often get the question on how to get a job at Spotify. So our HR team wrote a post about it https://t.co/emuWs68F1L
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) April 1, 2017

How to get a job at Spotify

Would you like to be a Spotifier? There are certainly openings, right now we hire about 1000 people every year. We are growing in more than 40 offices all over the world.

Before we start, you should know that our environment is extremely diverse, fast-paced and ever-changing. At Spotify, all kinds of talented people work together and make wonderful things happen. And we love that. We learn and grow and get better every day, because that’s where the magic comes from and because that’s who we are.

If you are now thinking “Yes, that’s me too! I’m the one you’re looking for!”, here is a blog post just for you. Here is how to get a job at Spotify:

Be great at the job we want to hire you for

This is absolute key. Sometimes I hear people saying that “you have to know someone at Spotify to be able to land a job there”. This is false. While we do appreciate when Spotifiers share jobs to their networks and recommend great people, referrals have to go through the same recruitment process as other applicants. Once you are in the process, everyone is assessed the same way.

But we do get a lot of applications. And many of them come from mindblowingly awesome people. We are in the very humbling and fortunate position of pretty much always having many excellent candidates to choose from. So while knowing someone here is definitely not a prerequisite, being great at what you do is.

Have a little patience

We will look at around 350.000 résumés this year. That’s a lot of résumés. Most of them come from people who have put a lot of effort into their applications. So we need to give each application the attention and respect it deserves, and sometimes that takes a little longer than we (or you!) would like. Not hearing back very fast doesn’t mean we don’t care about you, it means we care about giving every résumé a fair chance before we make up the shortlist.

Focus on what you are great at

Sometimes we get 15 or 20 applications for different jobs from the same person. And while we do appreciate the love that comes with that, it also makes us wonder if you really know what you want and what you are good at? Only apply for the job where the job description makes you excited, and where you really think you are a great match!

Make it easy for us to see how great you are

Oldest trick in the book, but it’s still true: Make your résumé to the point and easy to read. Don’t hide your best achievements and most interesting qualities behind piles of less important information. A short summary (bullet points put into context) of who you are as a professional as an intro on your resumé is always helpful. Also make sure that your application is in English.

It’s more important to stand out in your résumé than to have your résumé stand out

Sometimes people get really creative with their applications. We’ve gotten résumés in the shape of raps, music videos, and playlists. We get them delivered with cupcakes or through social media campaigns. Someone once sent us a disco ball to explain who they were. All this creativity makes us smile, and feel warm and fuzzy on the inside which is nice. But you should know that it doesn’t make any difference in the process. Once in the process, everyone gets treated the same. And to get in the process you need to submit an application where we can read who you are, what you can do, and where you want to get to. No more, and no less.