HOW TO GET A
JOB AT NETFLIX
Careers, Hiring Process, and Salaries
Learning how to get a job at Netflix is actually more straightforward than you might think. You will need a strong work ethic, rich work experience, and technical and interpersonal skills. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to land your dream job working for everyone’s favorite streaming company.
Netflix Background
Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded Netflix in 1997 and started offering online DVD subscription services in 1999. This allowed customers to select and order movies, at which point physical DVD or video cassette copies would be sent to them via snail mail.
Netflix started patenting its algorithms based on a technique that allowed customers to specify what they wanted to rent. The algorithm showed what a customer had rented before and picked movies most likely to be watched based on what they had previously watched.
In the early 2000s, Netflix started to change its business and patenting models in response to innovations in Internet streaming technology. By 2007, Netflix had online subscriptions and streaming available. By 2016, it had a strong customer base in over 190 countries.
Currently, Netflix has over 200 million subscribers worldwide. The company now offers more than 1,000 original titles to its customers.
What’s It Like to Work at Netflix
Netflix ranked 11th on LinkedIn’s 2019 list of the best companies to work for in the United States. The company is still growing and currently has 5,700 people employed in the United States alone. Netflix employees enjoy a wide range of company benefits, from affordable healthcare to free Netflix streaming accounts.
On Glassdoor, a review of Netflix by a former company director said that the company has a culture of open, honest communication and emphasizes inclusivity and psychological safety. The former director also commended employees for their maturity and high emotional intelligence.
What Employees Say About Working at Netflix
Many past and current employees have enjoyed the work environment at Netflix. In particular, they pointed out the company’s compensation and benefits packages, the engaging nature of the work, and the opportunities for learning. In return, the company attributes its excellent business performance to the effectiveness of its team members.
Netflix Work Environment and Culture
Netflix’s company values play a major role in maintaining a steady, comfortable work environment for its workers. The managers use a non-traditional management style, making it the employee’s responsibility to finish tasks and achieve meaningful results. You won’t be micromanaged at Netflix, but you will have to work hard and be evaluated on your output.
Netflix’s hiring practices are based on a modern approach of evaluating an applicant’s benefit to the company as opposed to evaluating education and previous experience alone.
Netflix Careers: Job Requirements,
Salaries, and Descriptions
Every day, thousands of new subscribers join Netflix’s online streaming platform, which creates many new job openings within the company. Below are some job opportunities to consider, all of which were current at the time of writing. Each job listed is accompanied by an estimated salary, education and experience requirements, and a job description.
Senior Software Engineer, Data Abstraction
Salary: $400,951
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 5 to 7 years in software engineering
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
Netflix’s Data Abstraction Team provides world-class storage solutions, such as caching and databases. Developing the online platform and improving data abstraction is the responsibility of a Netflix software engineer in this role.
Marketing Manager and Creative Strategist
Salary: $203,963
Level: Senior or mid-level
Minimum Experience Required: 8 to 10 years in consumer marketing
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
The position is based in Los Angeles. To be a manager, you must love entertainment and the Netflix brand. Besides being organized and able to think strategically, you must have excellent communication skills. You’ll be working in tandem with the IT, programming, and sales teams to create effective marketing campaigns.
Product Designer
Salary: $339,599
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 8 to 10 years in product design
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
In this position, you must demonstrate your ability to work in a fast-paced environment while producing noteworthy UX and UI designs. It is essential that you have experience with authoring and management tools. Being a good communicator is also a key requirement for this position.
Senior Financial Analyst
Salary: $156,186
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 5 to 7 years in profit participation, royalties, talent deal management, and content distribution
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
The role of a financial analyst is to analyze and interpret financial and legal documents and data. This is to ensure compliance with production service agreements, unions, and guilds.
Senior Quality Assurance Engineer
Salary: $172,598
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 8 to 10 years of experience in public relations
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
The Senior Quality Assurance Engineer oversees the activities of the quality assurance team. To ensure the success of the company’s products, they are expected to prepare, evaluate, and improve test documents, processes, and procedures.
Senior Data Scientist
Salary: $176,649
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 5 to 7 years in data analysis
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
The role of a Netflix Senior Data Scientist is to design, analyze, and interpret experiments that influence decision-making on personalization algorithms. You will identify opportunities to improve the company’s algorithms by performing proactive data exploration to understand user behavior.
Full Stack Developer
Salary: $85,618
Level: Mid-level
Minimum Experience Required: 5 to 7 years of experience in programming
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
Your role as a full stack developer will involve working with data scientists to develop interactive web applications. These applications provide valuable insights into the user interface and possible directions for the creation of new content. The ability to work with big data and related technologies like SparkSQL is a huge plus.
Senior Information Security Engineer
Salary: $203,636
Level: Senior
Minimum Experience Required: 2 to 4 years in data analysis and finance
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
An information security manager must be knowledgeable in technology, business, and information security. You will provide information to relevant stakeholders, implement security measures, and review metrics to make sure Netflix is making smart infosec investments. Your insights will be used to set new standards for security.
IT Operations and Support Specialist
Salary: $58,580
Level: Mid-level
Minimum Experience Required: 2 to 4 years of experience in IT, desktop support, or system administration
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
This IT support specialist position involves interacting with company users in multiple ways, including through tickets, email, Slack, and video conferences. All incoming internal technology issues and requests have to be prioritized, resolved, routed, and scheduled on a daily basis.
Business Intelligence (BI) Architect
Salary: $200,637
Level: Mid-level
Minimum Experience Required: 2 to 4 years in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and BI tools
Education Required: No minimum degree requirement
BI architects help Netflix develop a cohesive financial data solution, the goals of which are to integrate all aspects of the business, adapt to changes in the company’s system landscape, and ensure that all relevant stakeholders get the most out of the data. Your job as a BI architect will be to analyze data models and optimize data structures.
How to Get
a Job at Netflix
If you want to land one of the positions above, you will need to be passionate about your career and about Netflix. During the job interview process, recruiters will look for evidence of your talent and your interest in entertainment and technology.
Is It Hard to Get a Job at Netflix?
Yes. It takes hard work and strategic thinking to land a job at Netflix, and you will need to impress these qualities on the hiring managers during your job interview. A culture of self-motivation underpins the company’s rapid expansion, so a good mix of skill, experience, and dedication will be extremely beneficial.
Netflix Hiring Process: How to Apply for a Job at Netflix
You can apply for a job directly on the Netflix website. The most important piece of the job application is your professional resume, which should effectively and succinctly demonstrate your education, work experience, and relevant skills. Your experience and education should meet the requirements of the position you’re applying for.
After submitting your application, you will go through a lengthy hiring process. You’ll be interacting with hiring managers and other Netflix employees, all of whom will play a part in assessing your fitness for the role. Below is a step-by-step rundown of the process.
1
Phone Interview
Netflix’s hiring process always begins with a 30-minute phone interview. Before the call, you’ll receive a copy of Netflix’s core values and an overview of the company culture. A Netflix representative will ask why you’re interested in working for Netflix at this stage of your career. The caller will ask about your work history and briefly discuss your relevant skills.
2
Phone Interview with the Hiring Manager
A few days after your initial phone call, you will receive a second call from a hiring manager or an engineering manager. You will be asked technical questions about your background and about what programming languages you know. You may also be asked about your resume, specific experience you have, and your knowledge of Netflix’s culture.
3
On-site Interview Panel, Part 1
You will then participate in four face-to-face interviews, each of which will take about 45 minutes. Interviews are one-on-one and two-on-one. Make sure you are prepared for whiteboard challenges and questions that allow you to show your skills and relevant work experience.
Hiring managers are more interested in how you think and solve problems than what your answers are. So, you may be given a test of your technical aptitude even if the interview is for a non-technical position.
4
On-site Interview Panel, Part 2
Three 45-minute sessions make up the second half of the interview process. The HR department, the hiring manager, and the engineering manager will take turns interviewing you. HR and the hiring manager will focus on behavior and culture while the engineering manager will ask more technical questions.
5
Decision
If you’re successful, Netflix will offer you a job between one and two weeks after the on-site interviews. A hiring manager will contact you when the offer is sent to discuss salary, stock options, start date, and other items related to your onboarding.
What Should I Study to Get a Job at Netflix?
Netflix is a large company with a wide range of career opportunities across many departments. An undergraduate degree is not usually required, but you will need to show that you have the education and skills to do the job. For tech openings at Netflix, you should study software engineering, data science, information systems, or product management.
Can a Coding Bootcamp Get Me a Job at Netflix?
Coding bootcamps are a great way to get programming knowledge, skills, and expertise in a short amount of time. Their programs can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months. If the Netflix job you’re applying for demands coding skills, a coding bootcamp can get you the skills you need to be attractive to the hiring team.
How to Get a Job at Netflix FAQ
How Long Does It Take to Get Hired at Netflix?
Netflix usually offers a job within one to two weeks of the on-site interviews. This allows enough time to have internal discussions and draft an offer letter. At the appropriate time, the hiring manager will contact you to discuss the details of your contract.
Do Netflix Employees Get Bonuses?
In contrast to many large companies, Netflix does not use a bonus scheme. Instead, it offers higher base salaries. This approach has paid off for the company, which has found that employees prefer guaranteed income over the uncertainty of bonuses.
What Should I Wear to a Netflix Interview?
Candidates at Netflix are usually told to dress in a business casual style. However, this means different things to different people. Wearing comfortable clothing that gives you a professional appearance is the best approach.
Does Netflix Hire Remotely?
Most Netflix teams do not typically use remote workers. One exception is Open Connect, Netflix’s content delivery network (CDN). For more information, contact a recruiter.
