Apprenticeships are a great way to launch or grow your dream career without prior industry experience. To most people, the best part about apprenticeships is that it offers candidates the convenience of earning an attractive income whilst developing in-demand tech skills. To others, apprenticeships allow you to build valuable relationships and acquire industry-recognized qualifications, boosting your employability.
Pinterest apprenticeships are no different. If you're looking to launch a career in the tech industry, particularly software development or product management, you should consider applying for a Pinterest apprenticeship program. In this guide, we’ve curated a list of the top Pinterest apprenticeship programs, cohort details, hiring process, reviews, and salaries to get you started.
Pinterest Snapshot
Pinterest is a “visual discovery engine” for creatives, hobbyists and businesses to discover or share new ideas, inspiration, and strategies by posting images or videos called pins to pinboards. Today, more than 240 billion pins have been saved on Pinterest, and each pin generates an average of two site visits and six page views - making Pinterest a key player in eCommerce today. 48% of social media users report using Pinterest to make a purchasing decision. Pinterest is the 3rd most popular social media platform in the United States behind YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, averaging over 400 million active monthly users. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with over 2,200 employees and branch offices in major cities like New York, London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Dublin, Detroit, Portland, Seattle, and Sao Paulo.
The company we know today as Pinterest initially started in 2008 in the middle of the financial crisis as an incubator called Cold Brew Labs by entrepreneur and former Googler Ben Silbermann (on LinkedIn, interview with _______), architect, designer and collector Evan Sharp (on LinkedIn, spotlight on LA Times), and a former investor Paul Sciarra (on LinkedIn, interview with ______ ).
The team landed on a product originally called Tote, focused on personalized mobile shopping and digitizing paper mailed shopping catalogs. For over 3 years, the team churned through software developers and tinkered with a variety of product ideas before creating and popularizing a grid layout for adaptable and infinite vertical photos, now called a masonry grid.
The masonry grid would go on to become one of the most influential user interfaces of the decade - inspiring every company of the era to have a Pinterest-like board feature.
With those initial signs of a viral user experience, the team began experimenting with ways to save and share anything on the web, instead of focusing only on shopping and catalogs. It was this visual storytelling layout that began to stick with users who saw Pinterest as an alternative to building and curating a blog, especially moms.
Around 2011, the company started achieving 40-50% month over month user growth while still in private beta, and became one of the top 10 largest social sites at the time. In July of 2011, they hit 10 million users. With this traction, Pinterest raised a $10 million Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners and a few months later raised a $27 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $200 million valuation.
From these earliest days, Pinterest was heavily influenced and ultimately led by experienced executives from Facebook and Google including Divya Silbermann (Ben’s wife and the 1st HR employee at Facebook), Tim Kendall (formerly ads and monetization at Facebook), Barry Schnitt (formerly marketing and communications at Facebook), Don Fall (formerly operations at Facebook), and most recently their new CEO Bill Ready (formerly commerce and payments at Google). A culture of professionalism, care and kindness would differentiate Pinterest from many of its Silicon Valley peers for years to come.
During the 2012 American Presidential campaign, Ann Romney and Michelle Obama joined Pinterest on the campaign trail. That year, Pinterest tested a new monetization strategy through a product called Skimlinks - re-wrapping all the affiliate links across the site as Pinterest powered links, essentially commandeering all affiliate income on the site. Unsurprisingly, this caused an extreme uproar and got rolled back immediately. Pinterest wouldn’t make another monetization effort until 2014.
In 2013, a young, recent Stanford graduate and Pinterest Software Engineer named Tracy Chou published a viral article requesting transparency from tech companies about the diversity of their engineering organizations. Shockingly, hundreds of companies both large and small followed her lead. She would go on to be profiled in Vogue and Forbes 30 Under 30, further promoting and evangelizing the Pinterest brand as a leader in women’s empowerment and inclusion.
By May 2014, Pinterest launched their monetization strategy called Promoted Pins and did $300 million in revenue within 2 years. By March 2015, the company hit 100 million users and a $11 billion valuation. In 2017, they hit $472 million in revenue, shifting the company focus to international growth and monetization, after largely saturating the United States Pinterest user market. By 2018, those efforts paid off with $756 million in revenue. Today, over 50% of pinners reside outside the United States.
Pinterest went public on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2019 under the symbol “PINS”. It raised $1.43 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) at $19 per share, leading to a $10 billion valuation at that time.
In 2020, not long after its IPO, Pinterest's reputation and culture as ‘the sweetest company in tech’ came crumbling to the ground. After the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Pinterest hosted internal events and posted a public statement in solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests and to support Black Pinterest employees.
In a series of Twitter threads, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, two Black former members of the Twitter policy team detailed their horrible experiences dealing with terrible bosses at Pinterest without support.
By August, former Pinterest COO, Françoise Brougher published a detailed firsthand account of further discrimination and retaliation. In the end, Françoise Brougher settled her discrimination suit for $22.5 million, according to the New York Times.
Pinterest pledged a further $50 million in response to a shareholder suit by the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island alleging an internal failure to address discrimination and retaliation.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pinterest’s share price sank as did monthly users, culminating in the resignation of co-founder and long-time CEO Ben Silbermann.
In 2022, Pinterest launched a popular Creator Fund and a Creator Rewards program in the United States, offering $25,000 in financial and logistical support to new creators from underrepresented groups, and compensating creators for creation of original content and reaching engagement goals.
Today, Pinterest focuses on its TikTok rival video Idea Pins, its live shopping feature, Pinterest TV, and it’s new iOS app catered towards Gen-Z, Shuffles.
Similar to the growth and marketing strategy of Spotify Wrapped, Pinterest summarizes and predicts annual trends with Pinterest Predicts, showing up everywhere from BuzzFeed to The Today Show.
Pinterest was founded to bring everyone the inspiration to create a life they love. Pinterest is on a mission to help people discover the things they love and inspire them to go do those things every day.
All of Pinterest’s actions are guided by its five core values:
Pinterest has made itself an indispensable middleman for most e-commerce businesses and entrepreneurs. As a visual discovery engine, it influences purchase decisions for users who primarily use Pinterest to discover new ideas or plan for future goals. Pinterest leverages the need of consumers looking to discover the new and businesses that offer the new and trending. In addition, through its “promoted pins” ad strategy, sellers don’t only advertise their products but can include a CTA so sales can occur directly on Pinterest.
Like most social media companies, Pinterest makes money from advertisements and brand promotions. However, Pinterest offers Individuals and companies the opportunity to boost their brand exposure and convert leads into quick sales through setting up Pinterest Ads called “promoted pins”. Using Pinterest Ads Manager, brands and businesses can create, manage, and report on their Pinterest campaigns.
According to Stackshare, teams at Pinterest usually use Python, React, Java, MySQL, Redis, Golang, NGINX, Amazon Route 53, SparkPost, Bitbar, Docker, Webpack, Varnish, Xcode, Slack, Jira, G-Suite, Asana, and Zendesk.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Snapshot
Pinterest built its 1st apprenticeship out of the need to increase diversity and innovation in the company. Pinterest launched its first apprenticeship program in 2016 to help candidates with non-traditional backgrounds build engineering experience. In 2021, the program expanded to include building product experience across three roles. Pinterest kicked off with three hires, Madelyn, Joe, and Mason.
According to diversity specialist Abby Maldonaldo, Pinterest apprentices–particularly those from minority groups, receive mentorships, support, industry experience, and the possibility of converting to full-time engineers. In addition, the company works closely with Paradigm in setting up the Inclusion Labs initiative to develop training programs and onboarding tools for the apprentices.
Apprenticeship programs at Pinterest usually last up to at least one year, but there are no guarantees on the length of the program. At the end of the 12 months, apprentices may convert to full-time employees, depending on their apprenticeship track and performance.
This apprenticeship program is for candidates passionate about learning to code, have experience communicating and collaborating in a professional environment, and are proficient in at least one programming language. Pinterest offers them a variety of learning and development opportunities and allows them to collaborate with their mentors in tackling high-impact projects.
Product management apprentices collaborate with Pinterest product managers and design, research and engineering team members on high-stakes projects. They help in developing product vision, goals, and strategies. In addition, they drive insights through experimental analysis and take part in learning and development opportunities. Ideal candidates are self-motivated and passionate about solving user problems using adept decision-making and analytical skills.
Product design apprentices collaborate with product designers and critical product management, research, and engineering team members on high-impact projects. They learn about the design process and navigate the challenges of being a product designer at Pinterest. Besides having impressive problem-solving skills, candidates usually have experience with design tools like Sketch, Figma, Photoshop, or illustrator.
UX research apprentices collaborate with researchers and key partners from engineering, product management, and design teams on high-impact research projects. They use qualitative research methods to uncover product trends and user needs. Ideal candidates typically possess problem-solving skills, a genuine interest in and knowledge of quantitative research methods, and curiosity.
Usually, most apprentices in a cohort become full-time employees during or after their apprenticeship program has ended. For instance, after the first cohort in 2016, all three apprentices converted to full-time engineers, working in mobile release, product engineering, and web team. Indeed, Pinterest has upheld the hiring, given its recent success nearing its 2025 global hiring goals.
Yes, Pinterest apprentices are paid competitive salaries for their contributions to the company. Beyond receiving salaries in line with their employee counterparts, apprentices receive monthly professional development stipends for the duration of their program, medical and health care benefits, and flexible paid time off. Glassdoor estimates the total pay for software engineers at Pinterest to be $15,166 monthly and $181,987 annually.
Besides the competitive compensation packages, Pinterest apprentices can look forward to benefits such as flexible and generous vacations and holidays, paid end-of-year holidays, and mental and physical health benefits. Pinterest also provides apprentices with retirement plans that include tax savings, family building benefits including egg freezing, paid parental leave, and adoption support.
Other benefits include fitness programs, office snacks and meals, perks and discounts, and personal and professional development resources.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Hiring Process
Pinterest Apprenticeship Selection: How Are Cohorts Chosen?
The selection process typically favors candidates from minority groups. This selection is in line with its global hiring goals. Pinterest encourages candidates who face barriers to breaking into tech, particularly women, Black/African American, Latine or Hispanic, Alaskan Native, American Indian, LGBTQ+, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, to apply for its apprenticeship programs.
At the end of 2021, 30 percent of its global engineers were women, and 16 percent were from minority ethnic groups.
The first cohorts had academic and professional backgrounds in economics, finance, and architecture. Subsequent cohorts previously had careers in environmental sustainability, music, brand consulting and photography. Typically, apprentices are self-taught, career switchers, or hold non-tech degrees from colleges and technical certificates from coding bootcamps.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Application: Is the Pinterest Application Hard?
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Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Interview: Is the Pinterest Interview Hard?
The Pinterest apprenticeship hiring process starts like most job applications. First, Interested candidates must fill out online applications that include submitting a PDF file containing their portfolio and resume and answering a set of short questions or coding challenges if they apply to the engineering apprenticeship, according to Glassdoor. Then, those whose applications fit the requirement are contacted for a phone screen with a team lead.
Expect qualitative questions about your experience, interest in joining Pinterest, and how your ideal apprenticeship program benefits you. The final interview will evaluate your skills related to your desired apprenticeship program. It is usually on-site with your prospective team members. The interview session may include a portfolio review, technical evaluation, and communication interview.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Offers: Are the Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Salary and Benefits Negotiable?
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The first apprenticeship cohort at Pinterest was three. However, Pinterest has since expanded its apprenticeship cohort size and programs in line with its global hiring goals to include 15 engineering apprentices as of 2022 and eight product apprentices as of the same year.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Cohort Frequency: How Often is a Cohort Hired?
Pinterest apprenticeship cohorts are recruited every year to four apprenticeship tracks. The engineering apprenticeship track accepts applications within the first few months of each year. If you're interested in any of the three product apprenticeship tracks, you should prepare to submit your application in the Spring of each year.
Pinterest Apprenticeship Program Press and Media: Are There Any Articles or Videos About the Pinterest Apprenticeship Program?
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Yes, Pinterest is a good company to work for within or outside the United States. According to employee reviews from Glassdoor, Pinterest has a 4.1 out of five-star rating for having good company culture, employee best interests, good working environment, significant benefits, competitive salary, and good coworkers. Eighty-two percent of reviewers agree to recommend Pinterest to a friend, and 81% approve of the CEO.
Yes, Pinterest apprenticeships are remote by choice. The introduction of PinFlex in 2022, a model which offers autonomy and flexibility to workers, defined remote work for Pinterest employees. The PinFlex model allows you to choose whether to work from home or at a Pinterest office based on your work demands. For autonomous work, you can work remotely.
However, celebratory events and collaborative work may require working with the team at an on-site location, with all expenses covered.
Pinterest employees are paid a competitive salary and benefits package, although the company has not reviewed the actual amount. Glassdoor estimates that Pinterest apprentices earn an average of $181,987 a year. This figure includes basic pay, and other monetary benefits apprentices are entitled to during this period.
No, it is not hard to get a job at Pinterest. Pinterest offers interested candidates, particularly those without a formal tech background, a seamless way to become full-time employees at the company through its apprenticeship programs. As long as you're passionate about the tech industry, hold values which align with the company culture, and are eager to learn, you won't find it challenging to land a job at Pinterest.
Stay In Touch with Pinterest: Are There Any Company Blogs To Follow?
The Pinterest Careers Blog is the official website for Pinterest product apprenticeship news, including news about the product apprenticeship cohorts, available jobs, and life at Pinterest.
You should also look to the Pinterest Engineering Blog on Medium to explore stories for apprentices, interns, and employees at Pinterest.
This page covers all things apprenticeships and employee development programs at Pinterest. For more information about Pinterest's inclusivity and diversity efforts, you should visit the Pinterest Newsroom.
Applying to the Pinterest Apprenticeship Program: How do I know when to apply?
You can get news about Pinterest apprenticeship programs from the Pinterest Careers website.
If you don’t want to track and monitor the Pinterest apprenticeship program for yourself, or are looking for support in an apprenticeship application, you can join apprenticeship.io to learn more and get support to land an apprenticeship program.
Learn more and sign up today.
https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/the-pinterest-ipo
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4255230-what-to-know-pinterest-ipo
