Pinterest is the relatively new social media tool that has gained a following from millions of users. Whether you’re looking for design inspiration, study tips, recipes, craft ideas or new things to shop for, Pinterest has the ability to find what you need.
But behind the successful website is a team of employees designed to continually improve the site and your experience.
Tracy Chou, a software engineer at Pinterest, says that she wakes up everyday excited to go to work. "It’s a very collaborative work environment where people are always respectful and diversity is a big strength of the whole team," she explains. The company’s strengths come from having employees coming from diverse and educational and work experiences and using their past experiences to build a successful product.
Users of Pinterest might be surprised to find that all of the people responsible for the behind the scenes work — ranging from the marketing team to the software engineers — are also involved in many creative things outside their work. It makes sense that the employees who first started the topic ideas delve in their own blog writing, photography, fitness, cooking and more.
Living the dream
The work environment is set in a cozy warehouse in San Francisco where desks are assembled in pods. Desks are designed to be both sitting and standing-friendly to benefit their creative counterparts whose minds and bodies are always on the go. Privacy is hard to come by but employees say with a good pair of headphones and a driven imagination, any kind of work is possible. There are also lots of couches, nooks, and tables to sit at around the office. The setting becomes even closer knit through daily-catered lunches and additional snacks throughout the day and a dinner that is served weekly.
Perpetuating culture
At Pinterest, the company’s culture is just as important as the company’s success and as business goes, that balance is usually hard to come by. Employees value each other in addition to the users of Pinterest that they spend their time working for. Design and marketing are recognized and appreciated as much as engineering and coding.
As a general consensus, employees feel that they are not bound by their job title. Everyone is eager to help out someone else in need and even if they work in research, they’ll lend a hand in illustration. Pinterest also understands self and family wellness and is accommodating to employees no matter what their situation by allowing for schedule changes and working from home.
Another Pinterest employee, Abby Maldonado, who graduated from Cornell in 2014, works as a University Programs Specialist. Her job responsibilities include traveling and recruiting interns from universities to work at Pinterest in addition to contributing to Pinterest in any other way she can. Abby is an example of a current employee with a diverse background. She had past experience working at Cornell as well as for Google and IBM. “I was recruited by Pinterest and a few other companies when graduation grew closer," she explains, "in the end I chose Pinterest and I am very happy with this decision and all of the opportunities it has given me."
Pinterest may seem like a far-off dream job, but it could be the fit for you if you have creative ambitions. The company fulfills lots of roles from marketing, design, layout, engineering and much more. If you're interested in this or other opportunities with high-demand, be sure to gain experience in your related field in high school and college, and have confidence and perseverance when the time comes to start job searching and interviewing.
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