producer

campaign manager

partnership manager

manager

production manager

Spotify

Do not come here if you want to grow as an engineer. Do not believe the LinkedIn hype. They are the best at PR and marketing.

It is considered the lowest compensation for engineers in the industry. There is no annual performance bonus, no stock refreshers, and no annual cost of living increase. 
As of August 2023, they no longer encourage climbing the career ladder. The only path to promotion is by waiting for an internal role to open and to apply for the role like other employees. However, they also removed all of the open roles before they launched this new “career enlightenment”. 

It is remote, but most people still go to the NY office.  Unless you are willing to go into the office, you will not be given impactful work and you will not feel included in your day to day work. You are only able to meet your team once every two years. 

There is no technical prowess, and you will become stagnant in your career because you will not be able to learn anything new or be innovative. As an engineer, you are expected to build whatever the designers decide because product knowledge is not strong here. Product managers rely on designers to dictate product direction. You should only come here if you are tired of thinking for yourself, you are ready to retire, and focus on work life balance.

Spotify’s culture is rooted in innovation, collaboration, and a relentless focus on users. At its core, Spotify fosters an environment where creativity thrives, empowering employees to take bold bets, challenge the status quo, and continuously learn. The company embraces a “think it, build it, ship it, tweak it” mindset, valuing speed and experimentation over perfection. Cross-functional collaboration is key, with squads and tribes working autonomously while staying aligned to a shared mission of unlocking the potential of human creativity. Transparency and trust are integral, enabling open communication and psychological safety where ideas can flow freely. Diversity and inclusion are celebrated, ensuring different perspectives shape product and business decisions. Spotify also prioritizes well-being, offering flexibility and supporting a healthy work-life balance. Above all, the culture is driven by passion for music, podcasts, and technology, uniting employees in creating meaningful experiences for creators and listeners worldwide.

I went in as a Quality Assurance Engineer and left an iOS Developer. The amount of learning you can do from within Spotify is enormous. If you learning something new, you can, and there are people willing to help you level up your skill set and tool box. The people there are what I enjoyed the most working at Spotify. Everyone is super smart and they have deep knowledge of what they were hired to do. But, there are too many in leadership positions and some teams suffer from a lack of direction. Also, depending on your manager, Spotify allows you to "embed" with other teams if you wanted to do something new other than the work on the team you were assigned. 

Interviewing here, is difficult. If you want to work here, you have to be the best, or know someone close to the team you want to work on.

Depending on the team you're part of there are inexperienced managers and leaders. If you don't stroke the egos of the right people, your job will be on the line.

The compensation is not competitive and if you want to work at a company that over-compensates with "company culture" to cover the low pay and you can afford to live paycheck-to-paycheck then this is the perfect company for you. 

The company lacks diversity and it's rare that BIPOC employees are promoted to leadership positions unfortunately the majority of the company tends to keep BIPOC employees in lower-level positions.

Also, don't bother working hard because it's not recognized depending on your team. The inexperienced manager that I, unfortunately, had was almost always "loud and wrong" (i.e. speaking in meetings just to speak but never adding value).

What is the best part of working at the company?
The culture and the people. Everyone felt and acted like they worked on a product they cared about and genuinely tried to improve it outside their written job titles.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The visibility of your work. At any given time, you had the opportunity to work on a feature your friends could interact with, which meant the public at large could as well. Knowing you could break a UI element or core feature was always in the back of our heads.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The best I've ever worked in. Everyone on my squad and in the department truly cared about improving the Podcasting experience. We regularly organized get together events virtually and in-person, leading to stronger connections and higher trust between teams.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The benefits and free food. Unlimited vacation days, great healthcare, generous parental leave 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The management is terrible. Poor leadership, passive aggressiveness all around, discrimination via company culture. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Toxic, dog eat dog. No loyalty amongst co-workers and thought leadership is only accepted if coming from a Swedish source/hq in Stockholm. The culture vulturing to appear “woke” is cringey.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
There is either zero direction or extreme micromanaging, and not much in between. Meetings are held for the sake of just having meetings, and people’s job descriptions do not match what they are asked to do.

Their turnover rate when I was there in 2021 was at 50%. You read that right. They lose HALF their staff every year and for a very good reason—you’ll work harder and longer than in most any other job you’ve had, and under chaotic conditions. They sell it as “controlled chaos” but don’t buy it—no one has any idea what’s going on, they don’t care about you, everyone is disposable, all they care about is the bottom line. You’ll get free food and good benefits, the pay is acceptable if a little underwhelming (especially given the workload). If you can make it a year you’ll have that glossy Spotify name on your resume which does open doors, but I’ve never felt more abused by a company in my life, and I’ve worked in some difficult places.

A typical day at work involved collaborating with my team, organizing daily tasks, and solving unexpected challenges. I learned how to manage my time efficiently, communicate clearly, and stay calm under pressure. Management was supportive and open to feedback, always encouraging professional growth and teamwork. The workplace culture was positive, inclusive, and focused on mutual respect and cooperation. The hardest part of the job was balancing multiple priorities during busy periods, but it helped me improve my problem-solving skills. The most enjoyable part was seeing the results of our efforts and working with great colleagues who motivated each other every day.

Pros:
-Great perks like premium Spotify, free food, and alcohol
-Great brand on your resume

Cons
-Long working hours from 7 am to midnight for 7 days a week
-No work life balance
-Management doesn't care about the wellbeing of employees
-No advancement and give false promises
-Frown upon when takes vacation or lunch break (end up losing vacation days)
-All the great party are fake because managers won't let you go so depends on what team you are in

Overall, it's great for someone who wants to work for one year and get the experience then move on to somewhere better. Too much restructuring and mid-management is inexperience. Talents are hired from other great companies but this company has poor onboarding and HR so beware!

It's a great place with great culture and perks.  Employees all enjoy hanging out together and are all friends outside of work.  Mostly everyone on the ground are open minded about meeting new people and trying new things which creates a great lunch environment.  (People often eat together during lunch time and sit with different people)

However because it's managed by leads in a different country, Sweden, it's often times hard to align interests between the different cultures.  Poor managers are allow to remain in senior positions because there hasn't been enough documented cases to see a trend in the poor management.  Communication about changes in the organization from Sweden to the US is often lacking and unclear.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Producer 5 salaries reported	$119,600 per year
Campaign manager 5 salaries reported	$104,600 per year
Partnership manager 4 salaries reported	$120,000 per year
Manager 3 salaries reported	$143,333 per year
Production manager 4 salaries reported	$108,500 per year

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