Pinterest

There is a truly unique atmosphere at Pinterest. With one of the cofounders being a designer, and the company heavily invested in engineering, it is equal parts creativity and data. As we scale out and grow internationally, the team is filling up with high-talent engineers from Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Google, etc. I came from none of the above.

As an engineer, one of the cool new features of on-boarding is being able to choose what division of the company you want to work for (Platform, Growth, Monetization, etc). The company constantly seeks to foster creativity. For example, I thought of an idea for an automated tool that would save lots of time, so I spent the next week building out a prototype and then demoing it in front of the entire company at our Friday Q&A. Bring your ideas!

But what I love the most is the purposeful lack of holier-than-thou employees. The Bay Area is full of them, and we avoid them like the plague. At Pinterest, you find unnaturally intelligent, yet humble and likable people trying to build a product to make people's lives better.

Of course the pay is competitive, the equity is enticing, and the office is rad.

Sometimes the food isn't that great. On those days, I just eat less and play more foosball. It's competitive.