Spotify reviews

3.9

78% would recommend to a friend

(268 total reviews)
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Daniel Ek

78% approve of CEO

64% positive business outlook

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268 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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4.0
Mar 16, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

*Extremely* skilled colleagues, perfectly healthy work/life balance, calm Swedish environment (it's totally fine when people come late or leave early for a proper reason), no insane deadlines, very knowledgable management and Product Owners. Cool and colorful office, free snacks and drinks, occasional music events with live bands performing. Tons of learning opportunities and technological challenges - you can switch a team and learn something new that you've always wanted. Free Spotify Premium on top of everything else :)

Cons

Open-sourcing tools built isn't in DNA of a company. Consequently, very few teams do so, it's just of low priority for everyone so people never really get to this. Visiting conferences may require some bureaucracy and talking about why you go, why is that important for a company, and who you go with. And there's a limit of 3 conferences a year which may be discouraging to some. High volume of written communication, be prepared for your Slack client and Gmail inbox to practically explode of incoming messages from your colleagues and other departments. Catching up on emails is essential to stay in loop but I never liked doing it as generally I consider "email time" a waste. Company doesn't encourage remote work and doesn't allow it for long periods (even occasional WFH may be a problem). Too much relies on face-to-face communication so being out of the office makes one disconnected from a team. Low pay, at least in Stockholm. Senior Engineer salary is only enough to keep one's family afloat so the expectation is both parents are employed. Rent prices are very high in Stockholm (10-15K SEK a month) and lot's of single people rent tiny 30-40m apartments. Relocation package exists but it is lower compared to other well-established companies of a similar fame.

3.0
Oct 20, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Beig surrounded by the most passionate people in the world without doubt helps in performing well. The company attracts top notch talent that is inspiring to work alongside. Great learning opportunities and technical challenges.

Cons

Incredible growing pains. Teams with proven track records of failures still being put in charge of mission critical projects. Lots of inexperienced junior managers. Unusual number of games and political plays at middle management level. Salaries not competitive for the employee calibre the company wants to attain. Average perks. Very poor stock option program, with RSUs reserved only for senior management.

2.0
Feb 18, 2014

Horrible management practices

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- great people at the non-director level, everyone is open-minded and passionate about their jobs - great culture and office

Cons

- the HR team structure is ridiculous and the people in management roles does not have strong values (they talk the talk but would not walk the walk and will not stand up to do what is right and fair) - the compensation and performance management structure does not make sense (salary reviews are not tied to performance)

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