My six months at Netflix

It’s been a whirlwind of six months since I joined Netflix. In the first three months alone, I attended two new-hire events and one org offsite across three different cities. I met and worked with many spectacular colleagues. I joined a hack project and led UI engineering for a significant launch. Another three months later, I’m finally starting to feel at home, yet I’m all the more excited about the projects on the roadmap.

The first few months at a new job are usually a big drink-the-company-Kool-Aid-from-a-firehose time, especially when it’s a highly regarded “dream company” for many and you’re surrounded by fellow new hires who are just as excited to be there. So yes, I might still be in my honeymoon phase. But maybe because of that, I want to capture my first impressions, both as a reflection and a reminder to my future self of this early excitement.

The Netflix culture

I’ve worked at only a few places in my career so far, and the first couple were a small government agency and an even smaller university lab—not exactly the “company culture” type of places. But I am sure most companies talk big about unique company culture in big meetings and on their websites.

Still, I find Netflix’s obsession with its culture unusually refreshing. Yes, there is the famous Netflix Culture Memo, but it goes much deeper. From the job interviews to new hire events to 1:1s with peers and managers to all-hands and town halls, I hear Netflix culture mentioned again and again. Most importantly, everyone takes the culture seriously, an essential ingredient to keep any culture alive.

An important piece of Netflix culture is trust. Everyone respects each other as capable and “unusually responsible”, as professionals and adults. And this trust is reflected institutionally.

Time off at Netflix is a great example. Instead of asking managers for approval to take time off, we simply inform our team and other stakeholders—just make sure work stays on track. In fact, there isn’t even a fixed holiday schedule. Everyone is expected to exercise judgment in taking time off to avoid burnout and stay productive. In any given week, someone’s out, but no deadlines are missed because of it and no one’s forced to pick up the slack or skip vacations.

Entertain the world

For most tech companies, tech is their main product. For Google, it’s search, cloud platforms, productivity apps, etc. Similarly, for Microsoft, it’s cloud platforms, productivity apps, and enterprise services. For Meta, it’s social platforms. Even at Spotify, despite its undeniable cultural impact on music, the Spotify app as a platform is the core product. Netflix is different. Its main product is entertainment, and original content is the driving force of its business.

I really appreciate that tech plays a supporting role at Netflix, instead of taking center stage. The star of the show is the content—Netflix originals, in particular. Netflix cannot win by tweaking algorithms or entrenching itself into another business’s infrastructure. It can only win by consistently producing great content. I love celebrating the success of KPop Demon Hunters, Wednesday, and other Netflix shows, something I could not experience during my time at Spotify. (Spotify Wrapped came close, but not quite the same.)

At the same time, tech gets the credit it deserves as a critical enabler of the business. It’s never treated as a mere cost center, a necessary evil. Great tech is exactly how Netflix brings its content to the members and compels them to come back for more. I think there’s something about this business structure that incentivizes its tech to stay honest and focused while still taking part in celebrating the company’s success at entertaining the world.

The thrill of what’s next

It’s easy to feel motivated at work when the business is doing well, which makes Netflix Ads a great place to be. In only a few years, advertising has quickly become an important new revenue stream for Netflix, with clear growth potential. Netflix Ads is rapidly gaining adoption, delivering strong results, and is strategically positioned within the company for further success.

This is a welcome change of pace for me. I’ve met some of the best engineers I’ve known at Spotify, but its advertising business hasn’t seen the same level of momentum recently, perhaps due to certain structural challenges. Spotify’s freemium model is designed to convert free users into paid subscribers, and as an audio-first, “background” app for most users, Spotify cannot command premium prices for its ad inventory. While Spotify Ads continues to innovate, its performance has been somewhat mixed in recent quarters.

Coming from this background, it’s particularly refreshing for me to be part of a celebrated and ongoing success story. The morale is high, the momentum is palpable, and the massive ambition and challenges ahead feel exciting rather than daunting. I feel inspired and thrilled to be part of what’s next for Netflix Ads.