Spotify reviews

- A lot of engineering policies and practices seem to be taken directly from FAANG companies. It seems at times that the decision makers really just wanted to work for FAANG instead. - Teams are chasing metrics with their portion of the Spotify app. This comes at the expense of the holistic user experience, which has degraded quite a bit IMO. - Promotion policy is a bit heavy-weight, especially at the Staff level. It's better to just apply and interview externally at that point. There seems to be no transparency or avenue for feedback on packages. It's also significantly easier to get hired as a Staff engineer than to be promoted to one. - The culture seems to have taken a hit ever since the company went public. This makes sense, as they are beholden to the shareholders. - Compensation needs to be re-evaluated. Equity refreshers do not happen unless you are promoted or explicitly asked about. Cost of living increase is also well below inflation.

Unskilled managers, very junior hires with little or no experience are given responsibility on the basis of how popular they are. Extreme nepotism in certain departments, where hires and promotions are only secured if you participate in social events. Open, widespread and obvious mistreatment (lack of opportunity, unequal pay, name calling, etc.) of people of color; just take a look at the number and quality of people of color that have left the company in the last few years. Some people are hired despite being completely disrespectful to others in prior companies and lacking total empathy or soft skills.