What do folks think of the outlook at Spotify in this current climate. Lots of roles open but not sure of the risk..
We are hiring but at a slower pace. It's only obvious with the circumstances.
Yeah I’m concerned about spending time going through the process for then the role to freeze/layoffs etc. but I guess that’s the risk with this climate
Totally depends on the team Imagine if the EOY target was to hire 100, now it's 75. As an employee myself, there's no way to know who would fall in the 75 or 25 If someone is starting the process to interview, as of now there's no freeze for that role. @cap1
Any company that is not turning profit is a risk. Spotify is also one of those. I don't see them loosing subscribers (I certainly am a user and use it everyday and don't see it as cost). I am pretty sure they will turn a profit next year if they can weather the storm.
I think their priority even today is growth at the risk of profitability. If we wanted to be profitable, we could just stop expanding into new markets and areas (audiobooks, news, etc), but it's obvious that they want growth > profitability for some time
I don't know the internal strategy you know that better than I do. But what I can tell from user experience, while focusing other verticals and growth Spotify dropped the ball in terms of user experience. That's a little bit concerning. I sometimes spend couple of minutes even to accomplish basic stuff (where is that private session switch, how can I remove artist, song from showing up in recently played...)
Thanks for sharing! Timely article Are there ways to know which departments/teams are less at risk than others?
They announced a hiring slowdown today, so I would be wary
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/spotify-spot-to-slow-hiring-plans-cites-economic-uncertainty
The original plans were super ambitious. I’d say current bar is healthy. Maybe even 50% freeze would be better