Saturday, November 23, 2013

Working at Twitter

I find myself interviewing a lot of people for positions at Twitter. In my time here I've been on panels for Product Management, Business Development, Engineering, Product Counsel, Country Director, Brand Strategy, Data Scientist, Corporate Counsel, Media Partner Manager, Business Operations, Program Management, Corporate Development, Marketing & Communications, Procurement, Finance, Product Specialist, and likely a few others—I've interviewed hundreds of people in all.

Most of these interviews are 30 minutes. I try to leave five minutes at the end of each for a candidate to ask me questions, and the one I most often get is "what do you most like about working here?".

The answer I give comes in two parts.

This is the big thing for me even though it's not even Twitter, Inc., which makes the ultimate product—it's Twitter users who make Twitter the experience so educational, addictive, moving, thought-provoking, hilarious, informative, and entertaining. To be a part of the team which enables something so amazing, though, is a tremendous source of joy and pride.

But there's also this:

It was February this year that Twitter acquired Bluefin Labs. A few months later I was talking to Deb Roy, one of its founders, and as a new Twitter employee at the time he shared with me the observation that “credit flows very freely at Twitter”, with the result that the organization is less political than most.

That resonated with me, and I've thought a lot about it.

It's not that Twitter, Inc., is devoid of internal politics but it is the case that—in my experience at least—it's a uniquely collaborative environment where credit is shared willingly, genuinely, sincerely, and amazing things are accomplished as a direct consequence. It's refreshing and energizing to work at a place with such a unified sense of purpose and, for the most part, lack of ego.

 

If the above sounds appealing, join us! As of today, there are 260 open positions at Twitter worldwide.