Skills and work experience are important when we hire people, but the softer side needs to be covered as well. We want applicants to share the same values with those that already work at Skype. This way everyone will feel better.

Skype is definitely not about sitting in a nice office 9-to-5 and getting big bonuses for simple everyday work. Skype is constant change, opportunities, risks, commitment, engagement, teamwork, delighting users, supporting colleagues (not competing with them), taking responsibility, being smart and getting things done. Skype is casual style, informality, tolerating different cultures and different ideas – about synergy, not about compromises. It may seem like a bunch of nice words, but they work for us. That is not always the case with all applicants and that's why it may be wise to list Skype's values as we saw them at our company meeting in January when the whole team had gathered to Pärnu, Estonia.

* We are a startup
* Delight our users
* Be humble
* Be disruptive
* It’s not the big that beats the small, it’s the fast who beats the slow
* Make decisions and take the consequence
* Go make mistakes
* Be honest
* Have fun!

I know, there are probably too many of values according to managing books, and they're not written by a poet. But Skype is not a company "by the book" and we all understand and like these values. And that's probably all that matters.

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