Software Engineer Interview Experience - Brooklyn, New York
March 21, 2014
Positive ExperienceGot Offer
Process
Some Etsy employees found profile work online and were very interested. They arranged to fly in for an interview at their Brooklyn, NYC headquarters. They paid for the flights and hotel and offered additional compensation for taxis in the city.
Everyone I met was very interested in my interview and offered a warm welcome. The interview was multi-part, and I spoke with various engineers and HR representatives from both the team I was being considered for and other teams throughout the company.
Questions were drawn from real-world problems, not puzzles or computer science tricks. They provided food and coffee throughout the day.
Overall, it was the best interview experience I've had so far, with people genuinely interested in my previous work and how I could help their team.
Questions
Asking open-ended questions about the company or how I would change their current products was difficult due to the limited information provided on how they are already built or work.
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 10 interview experiences for the Etsy Software Engineer role in Brooklyn, New York.
Success Rate
10%
Pass Rate
Etsy's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in Brooklyn, New York is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Positive50%
Neutral10%
Negative40%
Candidates reported having good feelings for Etsy's Software Engineer interview process in Brooklyn, New York.
Etsy Work Experiences
5.0
I'm Lucky That I Can Say "I Love My Job"
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Brooklyn, New York, United States
November 9, 2017
Pros: As an engineer, I love Etsy's culture of curiosity. While industry-standard best practices are of course important and are the standard for good reasons, it never hurts to explore and experiment with alternative approaches. Having experienced Etsy from an inside perspective for over a year now, I can definitely attest to the increased freedom, benefit, and satisfaction from exercising the curiosity culture in my day-to-day work.
As a human and just from the "I want to work so I can live my life" perspective, Etsy's benefits, culture (not necessarily just engineering culture), work-life balance, and many other aspects hit the spot for me. Etsy is definitely a people-oriented company, and while all the initiatives and projects ultimately reflect that people-oriented mindset, it also reflects nicely in the company culture for employees, too.
Cons: Purely as an engineer, there's just one relatively minor point. Having started as a small startup back in 2005, there are definitely remnants of a bygone era of "wild west coding" at Etsy.
New code that gets churned out nowadays is honestly fine, but it's not entirely rare to come across a codebase that has a lot of legacy code in it still.
With some of the shakeups in the past half a year (as of November '17), there have also been some re-orgs, and while it was overall positive and a great change in my opinion, naturally there are still some kinks to be worked out.
That said, I want to keep it clear that the above two points are actively being worked on, at least within the teams I interact with. They're just points to keep in mind given recent events.
4.0
Culture shifting for the better
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Brooklyn, New York, United States
November 9, 2017
Pros: Etsy has a great mission.
People genuinely care about each other.
The company attracts a strong and exceptionally diverse talent pool of junior engineers.
It is still a surprisingly small team, so it's possible to make an impact.
Cons: It's time to get serious. The engineering org is far behind other companies of its size.
There are few senior engineers with experience from outside Etsy. Low-quality work abounds but is never acknowledged. This does a disservice to both the business and the individuals. Management infighting certainly does not help.
2.0
Prepare to have your benefits lessened every few months
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Brooklyn, New York, United States
March 4, 2024
Pros: You get a $25 gift card on your anniversary.
Cons: Senior management clearly has no coherent plan to steer the ship in an inspiring direction.
- 5.0I'm Lucky That I Can Say "I Love My Job"Software Engineer • Current EmployeeBrooklyn, New York, United StatesNovember 9, 2017Pros: As an engineer, I love Etsy's culture of curiosity. While industry-standard best practices are of course important and are the standard for good reasons, it never hurts to explore and experiment with alternative approaches. Having experienced Etsy from an inside perspective for over a year now, I can definitely attest to the increased freedom, benefit, and satisfaction from exercising the curiosity culture in my day-to-day work. As a human and just from the "I want to work so I can live my life" perspective, Etsy's benefits, culture (not necessarily just engineering culture), work-life balance, and many other aspects hit the spot for me. Etsy is definitely a people-oriented company, and while all the initiatives and projects ultimately reflect that people-oriented mindset, it also reflects nicely in the company culture for employees, too.Cons: Purely as an engineer, there's just one relatively minor point. Having started as a small startup back in 2005, there are definitely remnants of a bygone era of "wild west coding" at Etsy. New code that gets churned out nowadays is honestly fine, but it's not entirely rare to come across a codebase that has a lot of legacy code in it still. With some of the shakeups in the past half a year (as of November '17), there have also been some re-orgs, and while it was overall positive and a great change in my opinion, naturally there are still some kinks to be worked out. That said, I want to keep it clear that the above two points are actively being worked on, at least within the teams I interact with. They're just points to keep in mind given recent events.
- 4.0Culture shifting for the betterSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeBrooklyn, New York, United StatesNovember 9, 2017Pros: Etsy has a great mission. People genuinely care about each other. The company attracts a strong and exceptionally diverse talent pool of junior engineers. It is still a surprisingly small team, so it's possible to make an impact.Cons: It's time to get serious. The engineering org is far behind other companies of its size. There are few senior engineers with experience from outside Etsy. Low-quality work abounds but is never acknowledged. This does a disservice to both the business and the individuals. Management infighting certainly does not help.
- 2.0Prepare to have your benefits lessened every few monthsSoftware Engineer • Current EmployeeBrooklyn, New York, United StatesMarch 4, 2024Pros: You get a $25 gift card on your anniversary.Cons: Senior management clearly has no coherent plan to steer the ship in an inspiring direction.
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