What is the Tech Fellowship?
Spotify's Technology Fellowship Program is a development program aimed at hiring engineers just entering the professional tech environment from a diverse set of backgrounds. Participants in the Tech Fellowship program will operate as a team within Spotify for 18 weeks while receiving mentoring, personal & professional development from a broad set of employees to help them reach their full potential and learn what it’s like to work at Spotify.
Each year, the Tech Fellowship Program has focused on hiring candidates who are either self taught, attended a coding bootcamp, or have degrees from community colleges not usually reflected in our talent pipeline. To be admitted to the Technology Fellowship Program, you do not need to have any prior on the job technical experience, but you do have to have familiarity with programming. Our interview process is designed to assess for potential rather than experience, and look for candidates eager to learn as much as possible. Currently we offer the program in New York City and Europe.
EuropeAfter successfully running the Tech Fellowship Program in New York for around 4 years, we have expanded the program to London and Stockholm! In the fall of 2021, we worked with our Freemium Team to take on fellows for an exciting and accelerating program. We have partnered with various organisations to reach a diverse group of talents, and we have combined the STO and LDN programs into one Europe Program where participants can be based in either STO or LDN for the duration of the program.
By The Numbers
80%
participants hired full time6
years successfully running and looking forward to our 7th cycle in 2023100+
Spotifiers contributing as mentors, steering committee members, program managers or technical program leads3
Locations. We operate the program in NYC, Stockholm and LondonHow does the Tech Fellowship work?
Onboarding Phase (3 weeks)
We want participants to feel at home at Spotify so we spend the first 3 weeks doing structured curriculum to ensure they are up to speed on our tech stack, and understand the fundamentals of the tools and resources used at Spotify. Participants attend workshops on technical and non-technical topics including imposter syndrome, Agile methodologies, growth mindset, embracing failure, GitHub, and productivity tips.
Project Phase (8 weeks)
Participants form a squad and work together as a team on a specific project which is often a Spotify feature. This phase is meant to mirror the ways Spotify engineers work as a team to ship a project.
Embed Phase (6 weeks)
Participants are matched with a different Spotify team and embed directly into their feature work and projects. The goal of this phase is to evaluate the Associate Developers’ progress with the intent of converting them into a full time role on the team at the conclusion of this phase.
Full-Time Conversion
The program ends with a party, followed by 1 week paid vacation after which, all participants who meet the expectations for an Associate Engineer are offered full time positions on the team they embedded with.
What kind of support do participants receive?
Right from the beginning participants are paired with mentors from their assigned technical discipline to support them along the way. During the project phase their mentors stay with them to meet regularly for support, including the countless other engineers from the Spotify community. When it’s time to join a new team for the embed phase participants receive an onboarding buddy who helps them adjust to their new squad participating in all team meetings and rituals as any new engineer would.
Who is the Fellowship for?
Are you self taught or did you attend a bootcamp? Do you have a degree from a community college? Then this program is for you. We’re looking for aspiring engineers that have little to no technical job experience who are eager to learn as much as possible.
Not a fit?
See all of our internships and full time positions
Hear It From The Fellows
Erika
Joining the NYC Tech Fellowship 2019 Program at Spotify was truly an amazing experience. After an opportunity to learn full stack web development randomly showed up in my life, I just knew it was exactly what my life was missing. Before Spotify I was working at a local insurance agency for many years while also working as a server part time. What made the biggest impact to me, while being in the fellowship, was the amount of support we received throughout the program. I could feel that everyone involved genuinely cared for our success and growth. Spotify has a great culture for learning and growing, and that is what excites me the most about being here. Learning a new skill and making a career change while working full time and taking care of a baby and a toddler, was scary but it is so awesome to have a company like Spotify see the value in individuals like me and actually implement programs like this fellowship. As a woman, a mother, a Latina, and an immigrant this opportunity is really a dream come true! I find myself feeling so grateful and very excited, I look forward to the growth and new challenges my career in Spotify will bring.Fellowship Testimonials
Mentorship & Support
Mira '16"As part of the Fellowship, I was given the chance to prove myself as an engineer, and was supported and mentored by a variety of talented developers."
Passion
Luis '18"This experience only reinforced my love for programming and now I really can't imagine myself doing something different."
Career Growth
Mesfin '16"Since the Fellowship Program, I've taken the role of road manager to see a project to completion, mentored subsequent fellowship cohort participants and recently took on the role of Delivery Lead/Technical Owner for my squad."
Fail Safe
Rama '17"During the Fellowship Program I was encouraged not to give up easily and say I don't know how to do this because it is ok that we don't know everything. Rather, it would be a shame not to try and learn the unknown things and be scared to try new things outside our comfort zone."
2023 NYC Technology Fellowship Program
Applications are closed
Applications are closed
2022 Tech Fellowship Program - Europe
Applications are closed
Applications are closed
Further Reading
Read more about the history and inspiration for the Fellowship, and get a behind the scenes look into how it all works.
FAQs