What I knew before visiting Netflix
Intro & Expectations
Netflix, our final visit, was one of the visits I was looking most forward to. As a lifelong fan of movies and TV shows, I was interested to see how Netflix developed from a mail-based DVD service to an online streaming giant. I was also curious as to how Netflix gets certain titles as opposed to other such titles. Of all the places my class was visiting, this was arguably the place I was most interested in working for in the future.
Visit
We were greeted by UMD alum Andrew Park who was an engineering major. As an engineer at Netflix, he was in charge of updating the platform and assuring that all is running smoothly. He seemed to be genuinely happy about his job at Netflix and that seemed to rub off on his presentation.
One of the things that struck me as shocking was just how cutthroat an atmosphere existed at Netflix. Park made it sound unforgiving, often times saying the phrase, “Netflix would rather have an engineer put in 20% effort but get 100% work done than one who puts in 100% effort but gets 95% of the work done”. To the class, this seemed very unorthodox compared to the rather loose, freewheeling culture that the Silicon Valley are generally had. Netflix was clearly all about the bottom line; if you did your work well, you get massive perks. If you don’t impress completely, you’re fired. While Netflix does have a nice four-moth severance package, it seems that employees are constantly under scrutiny to perform. Park often repeated that Netflix wants a "Dream Team", not a family. This essentially means that they want you to be candid and expressive, but will gladly eschew you if the results are not there. No sympathy will be given to nice personalities.
At Netflix, employees are given virtually as much vacation time as they want, so long as they get their work done. In theory, somebody could take 6 days off a week, but on the one day they show up to the office, get all their work done. Netflix also makes it a point to only hire the best of the best when it comes to engineers. Engineers must have the highest degree of education, and at least 10 years experience. So, when some engineers do get fired, it does not doom their career, for being chosen to work at Netflix in the first place is a significant sign of your talent level.
Post Visit Actions
I connected with Park on LinkedIn. While I was hoping to get more of a marketing perspective of Netflix, it was still interesting to hear about the culture within the company. I had heard that Amazon was a cutthroat environment, but Netflix seemed even more competitive. I don’t think I could work at a place in which every little action was a representation of my progress and job status. I want stability in a job, and the constant teetering on the edge of unemployment at Netflix would frighten me.
Key Takeaways
- Started as a DVD delivery service
- Pioneer in streaming online material
- Has begun developing original content for the platform
Intro & Expectations
Netflix, our final visit, was one of the visits I was looking most forward to. As a lifelong fan of movies and TV shows, I was interested to see how Netflix developed from a mail-based DVD service to an online streaming giant. I was also curious as to how Netflix gets certain titles as opposed to other such titles. Of all the places my class was visiting, this was arguably the place I was most interested in working for in the future.
Visit
We were greeted by UMD alum Andrew Park who was an engineering major. As an engineer at Netflix, he was in charge of updating the platform and assuring that all is running smoothly. He seemed to be genuinely happy about his job at Netflix and that seemed to rub off on his presentation.
One of the things that struck me as shocking was just how cutthroat an atmosphere existed at Netflix. Park made it sound unforgiving, often times saying the phrase, “Netflix would rather have an engineer put in 20% effort but get 100% work done than one who puts in 100% effort but gets 95% of the work done”. To the class, this seemed very unorthodox compared to the rather loose, freewheeling culture that the Silicon Valley are generally had. Netflix was clearly all about the bottom line; if you did your work well, you get massive perks. If you don’t impress completely, you’re fired. While Netflix does have a nice four-moth severance package, it seems that employees are constantly under scrutiny to perform. Park often repeated that Netflix wants a "Dream Team", not a family. This essentially means that they want you to be candid and expressive, but will gladly eschew you if the results are not there. No sympathy will be given to nice personalities.
At Netflix, employees are given virtually as much vacation time as they want, so long as they get their work done. In theory, somebody could take 6 days off a week, but on the one day they show up to the office, get all their work done. Netflix also makes it a point to only hire the best of the best when it comes to engineers. Engineers must have the highest degree of education, and at least 10 years experience. So, when some engineers do get fired, it does not doom their career, for being chosen to work at Netflix in the first place is a significant sign of your talent level.
Post Visit Actions
I connected with Park on LinkedIn. While I was hoping to get more of a marketing perspective of Netflix, it was still interesting to hear about the culture within the company. I had heard that Amazon was a cutthroat environment, but Netflix seemed even more competitive. I don’t think I could work at a place in which every little action was a representation of my progress and job status. I want stability in a job, and the constant teetering on the edge of unemployment at Netflix would frighten me.
Key Takeaways
- “We’d rather have a person who completes 100% of a task with 25% effort than someone who does 95% with 100% effort”
- You can take as much time off as you need as long as you get the work done
- It is a dog-eat-dog environment, where only the best are hired and retained.