Netflix Careers: Everything You Need to Know

Netflix Careers: Everything You Need to Know
About Netflix

Netflix careers span a wide range of roles: engineering, marketing, content, facilities, finance, legal, customer service, business development, productive creative, and more. The company started as the first online DVD rental store globally with only about 925 titles and 30 employees in 1998.

By 2000, there were 300,000 subscribers, and the company was using the USPS to deliver and retrieve its rental DVDs. At that time, it was losing money, though, and made an offer to Blockbuster to sell for $50 million. This offer was turned down. Fortunately, around 2002, Apple experienced a surge in laptop sales, which increased demand for video content, and Netflix enjoyed a boost as well.

Only five years later, Netflix had delivered one billion DVDs and was shifting towards on-demand video. Online streaming did turn out to be a good bet, and by 2013 the company had around 29 million streaming customers. This figure increased to 137 million by 2018. Headquartered in Los Gatos, CA, today, the video rental company has about 5,500 employees total, approximately 2,000 at HQ.

 Fortunately, we have slightly over 1,000 Netflix employees on our Blind platform, so we can share some unique insights into working there.

Netflix Interview Process

Netflix interviews for experienced professionals have 7-10 rounds for non-tech roles and 5 rounds for tech roles (Netflix interview process)with a mix of situational, behavioral, and hypothetical. Each interviewer had a different style and asked similar questions differently. (Netflix Interview Process [Non Tech])

Having a referral can be advantageous, so once you have determined where you want to work and in what role, you can reach out to your personal or professional networks, including on LinkedIn. If you don’t have many connections on this professional networking site, it’s probably a good idea to build them up. You could also ask for a Netflix referral on Blind as this user did.

        When and where does Netflix hire

Netflix is hiring all year round for experienced professionals and twice per year for campus recruiting. Most of the roles are at Netflix‘s hubs in Los Angeles and Los Gatos, California, and its offices in,  New York, New York, Salt Lake City, Uta, Washington, DC, and Toronto, Canada. As a global tech giant, there’re also offices in South Korea, Spain, and other parts of the world.

Netflix Interview Experience Shared by the Professionals on Blind
    1. Recruiter screen,
    2. Hiring manager interview
    3. on-site part 1 – portfolio review and then whiteboard challenge
    4. On-site part 2 – 3 hours of discussions with team and directors. (Netflix final round)

“My last loop of interviews at Netflix was open conversation. They didn’t seem to have a question bank like Facebook, Amazon, or Google interviews. Most of them asked about the culture deck and opened up the floor for me to ask a lot of questions.”  (Netflix final round)

“The whole Netflix interview process ends up being around 10 interviews. The final round is supposed to be behavioral questions with directors. I’ll update after my final round of interviews.” (Netflix Interview Process [Non Tech])

“My Netflix process started with a call from an old colleague who’s there now asking if I’d be open to leaving my current company to join them. The next step was scheduling 2 hours of video interviews consisting of 4 back-to-back 1-on-1 conversations with different members within the division and a recruiter.”(Netflix Interview Process)

“Got all the way to interview onsite for Netflix interview. All-day marathon of interviews with different team members (literally saw the sun go down) to end with a “No, thank you.” Never discussed salary.”(Netflix initial interview)

“I’ve interviewed candidates who got to the panel stage of 4 back-to-back interviews and didn’t pass that stage to the HR business partner stage. It’s not likely that they push multiple final candidates to the HR interview stage. I can’t say for sure, but I know it’s a really good sign. (It was my exact process before getting the offer 2 days later.”(Netflix Strategy Interviews)

How to Prepare for Netflix Interview

According to a former Netflix HR employee, what Netflix looks for in job candidates is problem-solving ability, reliability, and work ethic. Another factor is how well you researched the company before the interview. It would probably also help to be a customer and like the service well — even better would be to like it to talk about why you do in the interview.

From a user-generated poll, nearly 50% of candidates who failed the interview for Netflix jobs agree that the interview is easy, while 20% of them would love to try another time after the freeze period. (Netflix Interview)

Netflix Interview Preparation Tips Shared on Blind

“If the team has engineering blog. Read that closely.”(Netflix Interview Process)

“Ask your hiring manager about what to expect for the interview technically. Mine was all practical engineering questions stead of leetcode BS and quite enjoyable overall. Also, please take some time to review the culture deck and write down what you like about it and what you’re unclear about or dislike.”(Netflix Interview)

“Another thing I just remembered that helped me: be comfortable talking about a project you led from both a non-technical and technical standpoint. You can be rejected if you fail the product interviews.”(Netflix Interview)

“Netflix is not LC. The technical round will have a lot of discussion on your current and past projects and just 1-2 SQL/python questions. You just need to yourself in the interview and explain how you solved typical DE problems in the past.”(Netflix Interview)

Netflix Salary

The average annual Netflix salary is $182,607, according to Blind Netflix company page. For software engineers, it is $256,246.

  1. Software Engineer: $120,000 – $600,000.
  2. Data Scientist: $250k-$750k
  3. Product Management: $160,000-$650,000.
  4. Program Manager: $155,000-$550,000
Netflix culture

Netflix has a philosophy that emphasizes people over process and the following values: judgment, communication, curiosity, courage, passion, selflessness, innovation, inclusion, integrity, and impact. Some companies have values but may not follow them; Netflix says it does. Specifically, having such values is to support a ‘dream team’ perspective where Netflix employees can be at their best.

Netflix doesn’t have the same level of perks as Google or Facebook, but it has some free meals, dogs allowed at the California campus, coffee machines, snacks, refrigerators, and a  movie theater.

What are some advantages/disadvantages to Netflix careers?

Netflix culture has been established to be both demanding and rewarding. Various news reports have come out calling the company culture one of fear because of performance expectations, voluntary departures and some firings. If you don’t want to work in a high-performance culture, Netflix might not be a good fit.

The analogy of a pro sports team has been used to describe working at Netflix. Pro sports teams succeed by having some stars and team players who operate at a high level. If you aren’t that competitive, you might not like working at Netflix, or if you don’t want to adhere to its culture.

If you are young and want to ease into your work life, such a culture could be a rude experience. 

Another potential disadvantage depends on the location. The Bay Area is one of the most expensive housing markets in the US, and Los Gatos is one of the most costly towns. Many tech workers in the Bay Area can’t afford to buy a home, so you will probably be renting if you are located in Los Gatos. In Los Angeles, housing is more affordable, but it’s costly there too. If you are a younger adult, a Netflix career may be a good resume builder for a while, and then you could move to a part of the country where you can buy your place.



How diverse is Netflix?

Netflix is a leader of the tech companies when it comes to women — about 47% are female, much higher than in companies like Facebook or Google. When it comes to race, Netflix is not exceptional: 5% are African-American, 7% are Hispanic, 24% are Asian, and 49% are White.

What is it like in Los Gatos?

Los Gatos is a small town with a population of about 30,000 west of San Jose. It’s one of the most expensive areas in the South Bay and is next to Saratoga. Los Gatos has a small downtown and various parks, so the overall effect is green and clean. The location is not rural at all, but it’s very near protected forests and mountains. There is much less traffic in such a small town than in San Jose, with less noise and cleaner air. The average rent is $2,970, according to RentJungle. The median home value is $1.9 million, according to Zillow.

How is Los Gatos traffic?

The traffic in this part of the Bay Area is dense enough that if you worked at the Netflix headquarters, you would want to live very close by. Commuting from San Francisco would be far too hard, but it might be possible from San Jose. If a person’s happiness decreases the longer the commute is, they will want to stay close to Los Gatos.

If you are interested in Netflix careers, do you have a Netflix account and use it frequently? If you are passionate about the service, that will shine through if you get an interview and most likely support your application.

 

Check out Blind Blogs about other companies’ career:

Facebook Careers: What You Need to Know

Airbnb Careers: What You Need to Know

Apple Careers: What You Need to Know

Uber Careers: What You Need to Know