By Poornima Vijayashanker
If you’re a music lover, then you’re probably already listening to your favorite tunes on Spotify. If you haven’t come across Spotify, then you should certainly check them out! They are one of the hippest startups, reinventing how we discover, listen to, and share music.
Spotify has been built by a team of top technical talent, and I was curious to learn more about what it’s like to work there and what draws top engineers to the company! So I recently sat down with two of the software engineers who work at Spotify: Emily Samuels and Catalina Laverde. Emily works as a data engineer on music recommendations and Catalina is a backend software engineer who works with the ads engineering team.
Emily’s introduction to technology
Emily got her start in technology by taking some computer science classes in high school. Her parents encouraged her to continue pursuing her interest in programming, which led her to major in Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
[quote author=”Emily Samuels”]I liked the idea of applying things I’d learned in other classes to building things. I learned truth tables in math class, but I didn’t understand why they were useful until I learned about if statements.[/quote]
While computer science classes can be fun, internships are just as important, because they give people the much-needed real-world experience they need to evaluate whether the path they’ve chosen is right for them. Emily agrees, and says that her internship at CITI really helped her out: “In college what really cemented my career in computer science was the internships I had. The summer after freshman year I had an internship with CITI. There, I had a chance to apply the skills I’d attained in school to a real project. I knew that programming was something I wanted to continue to do as a full-time job.”
Emily went on to do stints at Goldman Sachs, FactSet Research Systems, and Apple. She eventually came across Spotify.
Emily was attracted to Spotify for a number of reasons. “There are a lot of things that make working at Spotify attractive. One is the technologies we use here (e.g. Hadoop, Scalding, Python, Luigi, and Cassandra). Also, it’s fun to work with an application that I enjoy using. There is also a lot to learn from the smart people that work here. And there are great perks! The concerts in the office are my favorite.”
Another key component to building a product is the culture of the company. Often the culture of the company is reflected in the product. I was curious to hear Emily’s take so I asked her how she felt about the overall culture of Spotify, and she said, “Spotify definitely provides a safe place to try new things and speak up. Spotify welcomes feedback and people are always seeking out new ideas on how to improve the company and our product.
As for trying new things, every year we have hack week, where you can work on your own ideas for Spotify. Some of these ideas are even turned into real projects. Aside from hack week, everyone at the company is always encouraged to come up with ideas for how to improve Spotify.”
We all know the importance of role models, but it’s often hard to come across them in technology. Emily mentions how she was introduced to role models early in her career: “One of the things that inspired me was attending the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing. At Grace Hopper I heard talks from female executives, grad students and others in the industry. It was exciting to see what other women in the field were working on and to have the opportunity to meet so many talented women.”
Of course, what’s a career without a few bumps? We all face them, and these are Emily’s parting words to those who might think they are stuck: “Stay competitive and don’t become complacent. If you aren’t happy in your current position, don’t be afraid to change. Switch teams or switch employers (Spotify is hiring!). Always be willing to learn new things. Change can be difficult, but taking the risk can really pay off.”
Catalina’s introduction to technology
Contrast Emily’s introduction to technology with Catalina’s and you’ll realize there isn’t a single approach to entering engineering or technology.
Catalina initially wanted to study Journalism or Literature, but then wanted a deeper challenge and decided to pursue engineering. She began college in Colombia and after spending 4 semesters studying Systems Engineering there she moved to the US to finish her studies.
[quote author=”Cataline Laverde”]I saw the need for engineers and the big investment being made in Computer Science research. Tech is the center of attention right now and it’s gonna stay that way for a long time.
It’s a field that will never stop challenging you—there will always be something else to learn, something else to see and hack on. I love learning and this career is an ongoing learning experience! For me, that’s a deal-maker.[/quote]
Catalina admits that she wouldn’t have come to the US if it hadn’t been for her mother, who was the only person who supported her decision to move. As an international student, Catalina wasn’t offered financial aid, scholarships, or any other kind of assistance. Yet Catalina’s mother managed to pay it all!
“I still don’t understand how she managed to pay but every time I apologized for the high tuition she said: ‘Just keep learning.’ If that’s not enough reason to be motivated I don’t know what is.”
Catalina’s mother was a strong female role model in her life whose presence has inspired Catalina throughout her life and career.
Catalina does admit that she was a little concerned about job prospects: “Before graduating college I used to worry all the time about the possibility of not getting a job. In my case that meant leaving the country almost immediately. One day I explained my situation to an engineer from Viacom and he said, ‘Just be the best you can be, never stop learning, and the opportunity will present itself’—and it did. Same advice goes to anyone looking for a career in tech.”
After finishing her studies last summer she interned at Spotify and was offered a full-time position on the last day.
Today, Catalina works to ensure that Spotify’s data pipeline is always up and running. The service’s freemium membership attracts a lot of attention, which has led to a 9-figure ad business that is growing rapidly. Hence, it’s important for Catalina to ensure the reliability of Spotify’s reporting and billing.
I also asked Catalina how she felt about the culture at Spotify, and her response was, “It’s an amazing place to work where we all help each other, collaborate, and share our knowledge. People are smart, motivated, helpful, and friendly, and ideas never stop flowing. The most attractive quality of Spotify is its mission. We work on a product that brings music to the world and music is filled with moments. We identify with the company’s mission in the same way a person identifies with a song.”
As companies like Spotify grow, people begin to wonder whether one individual can make a direct impact on the product, but Catalina says, “When we say that everyone has a voice at Spotify we really mean it. Spotify is the kind of company where your ideas will be heard and taken into account every time. We have hack days, hack weeks, tons of retrospectives and everyone is involved all the time. You get to pick the technologies you want to work with most of the time and discuss your strategy.”
Now every time I start up Spotify I’ll know who’s working behind the scenes to bring music to my ears. Thank you Emily, Catalina, and the Spotify team!
If you’re curious to learn more from these two Femgineers, then come out to our next Femgineer Forum at Spotify. Emily and Catalina will share more of their experiences as software engineers and their views on the topic: “Why You Should Speak at Technical Conferences.” The Femgineer Forum is on Wednesday, September 24th at 6pm at the new Spotify offices in New York City. To RSVP, click here.
