Pros
- Unique and inspiring culture that focuses on creativity, building new skills and experiences and really celebrating individuality - You'll never work for a company where users love the product more; Pinners LOVE Pinterest - Opportunity to focus on the bleeding edge in the space (ads, consumer product, design, etc.), everyday - Urban campus setup. All the benefits of a large tech company, conveniently next to CalTrain / in SoMa.
Cons
For context, via consulting / FTE roles I have worked at over 15 companies in a 10 year career. Pinterest was, by far, the most political, disorganized and lost organization I've ever encountered. My comments are more for the Ads team, than the core experience group--but each week/month/quarter brought an endless stream of reorganizations, reprioritizations and re-buzzwords. It's a product that has a very clear fit and need within the marketing landscape--but is forever mired in internal resource fights, personality clashes and confusion. One day you're chasing what Facebook just did, the next what Google just did, the next what we talked about 6 months ago but no one can seem to remember. Every week starts out with identifying organizational misalignments. And rather than spend your week building toward something. Thinking about where to go next. You'd spend your week fire-fighting the crisis of the day. If you're looking to expel a lot of energy managing political cycles that never seem to go anywhere, this is the place for you. I learned more in two years at Pinterest than I did anywhere else--It was one of the most diverse and challenging roles in my life. But I'll probably look at it as the worse epoch in my career. When I worked there, every time I interacted with another alum--they'd always start with, "Is it still crazy?" My answer was always Yes.