Spotify Employee Reviews about "stockholm"

Pros

- Get to tackle technical problems within the extremely interesting domain of music / lots of intelligent people passionate about tech, music, and podcasts - Huge emphasis on curbing burnout and keeping people happy and engaged - You get to be at the forefront of an entire industry and to think about how to shape the audio experience for hundreds of millions of people - Beautiful office spaces - Transparent upper management If you're interested in working at the intersection of music and tech--where you can really have a hand in making the audio experience better--there is no better company out there. If your primary concern is money then you're better off working at FAANG.

Cons

- Difficult to work split between Stockholm and NY -- cultural divide/differing mentalities of doing things can cause tension - Disheartening to see cases when profit is prioritized over artist or user satisfaction - Slow upward growth trajectory

Pros

Great work-life balance. You get to travel a lot (hit or miss if you're into that.. personally for me Stockholm gets old) Pay is mid-tier. Still great if you're comfortable knowing most SWE's at other tech companies make more than you. Great insurance, vacation policy, and parental leave.

Cons

With great wlb and autonomy comes some seriously unmotivated employees who take forever to get anything done. Maybe it's because the hiring bar has seriously lowered or maybe it's because there's no bonus structure combined with the fact that Spotify will probably not fire you as long as you push some code and are a fun/nice person. Regardless, at some point, you're going to realize you spend 40 hours a week at work and would like to spend most of it NOT trying to motivate underperforming teammates to actually code and NOT deal with process heavy and debilitating consensus-driven product decisions that get trashed in 6 months because you're re-orged to some other part of the company. Spotify is honestly great if you're a parent or just want to coast because they expect so little from you. That said, if you're ambitious and find satisfaction from actually building great products with hardworking and innovative teammates I'd refrain from coming here.

Pros

- Free food - Trips to Stockholm - lots of activities

Cons

I am getting tired of the constant reorgs. My team had a great vibe and then was suddenly uprooted and hasn’t recovered. Morale is low across the company because of this. I’ve felt stuck in my role without advancement. Unhappy with manager who doesn’t seem to be able to help or provide any guidance on moving forward.

Pros

-Free Breakfast and Lunch Daily -Trip To Stockholm Office -Nice people overall in different teams.

Cons

The team I worked in Micromanaged. Everything was meticulously picked at. I believe if you allow your team to lead the rest follows. You feel like you are walking on eggshells most days. There was always something wrong within our team Office management was horrible. Spotify's culture and values did not reflect within my team. All about protecting management. I love the company Hated the team I worked for HR is highly inefficient, and despite its supposedly progressive policies, it rarely aligns with the interest of allowing people to do the best of their work, and mostly serves the purpose of protecting the management of the organization. On the other hand, as far as you never have to deal with HR, they won't get in your way.

Pros

Unlimited supply of food, drinks, snacks free healthcare work/life balance great social events cool and diverse group of co-workers

Cons

Management focuses on the wrong things. More concerned about people "quotas" then if the actual work is getting done. Hiring is based on these "quotas" rather then just hiring the right person for the job. I'm all about diversity, but when a position that is desperately needed isn't getting filled because the right sex or ethnicity isn't applying and you have a stack of qualified individuals that have applied that's a problem. Not enough room for advancement for those that aren't in Stockholm They sell you this dream that you can do any projects you want and there's a lot of freedom. That all depends on your team. Definitely the opposite for me. Felt stifled. People that have no knowledge about technology are leading technology teams.

Pros

Awesome and fun culture where innovation and growth are encouraged Free snacks/lunches, seeing your favorite artist in the office, cool offsite trips, etc. New employees get a trip to Stockholm to learn about the founding of the company "Cool" factor of working for a well recognized brand, and having it on your resume Impact - you will likely get to work on something that impacts tons of users, depends on what area of the company you work in

Cons

Lack of career growth and clear expectations - middle management is wildly inexperienced and offers little to no guidance on the future of product strategy or employee growth plans. Inefficient Meeting culture - a lot of your time is spent attending an endless cycle of pointless meetings. People aren't judged on the quality or performance of the products they ship, but rather on how well you can play to the politics of the company and schedule as many meetings as possible, or write endless amounts of documentation. Lacking true meritocracy and accountability - Lots of cases of nepotism, favoritism, and politics run rampant. You can get by without doing much if you know the right people and play the political game. Compensation - No bonuses, salary is low for comparable companies and work/life balance can suffer at time due to pressure-cooker environment. HR - lackluster hiring process let's really good candidates slip through the cracks since there is no consistent way of evaluating candidates. HR is incredibly disorganized and the onboarding experience can be improved on.