Why is Skype hiring

By Riina Einberg on March 2, 2006.

Every now and then someone wonders why Skype needs to hire so many people. According to them Skype is "ready" - the product is out there, we're ahead of competition and - we've been bought by eBay.
Yes, the basic functionality of Skype is ready - you can talk and chat for free across the world, but there is still so much more to do. We're constantly working on the call quality, making Skype work across all platforms from Windows to cell phones, being better at customer support, making Skype available in more languages, helping our partners develop sleeker Skype-hardware and of course cooking new features (like video calls or SkypeWeb) at our Secret Labs. Throw in the fact that Skype has been downloaded more than 250 million times, and ticking, and you'll see why we need to grow from 270 people in 2005 to about 500 people at the end of 2006.

New people are welcome to each of our "old" teams like software engineering, customer support, quality assurance, marketing or telecoms' relations as well as "new" teams that we kicked off just recently. For example embedded team will make Skype work away from your computer and e-commerce team will find more uses for Skype.

Skype currently has offices in London, Luxembourg and Tallinn. In addition to that there are small teams working in the US, Japan, Germany, France, South-Korea, Sweden and a number of other countries. About half the people work in Tallinn, Estonia where most of software engineering, operations and customer support is handled from. A lot of our marketing, business development and product management people are located at our London office and finance people are mostly in Luxembourg. In 2006 we'll continue hiring mainly to these three offices as well as setting up small business development units in countries we don't operate locally yet. Some people tend to spend most of their time in one office, but it's good to be prepared to a lot of traveling when joining Skype.

Many people have asked me if merging with eBay has changed a lot in the way we work. I suppose the answer is both yes and no. Yes, more doors are open to us now and we have found nice ways to co-operate with other eBay companies. At the same time we are the same standalone company that we were a year or two ago. We have grown and will continue doing so, but we will do it in fast and nimble fashion, maintaining our startup culture. Best team, hard work, hard play!

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from my personal experience what skype is looking for is customer service people who simply refuses to do anything intelligent How about turning on the services i have paid for ? you cant leave me a messaage cuase i paid for that too but you dont have workers capable of turning a delivered service into an activated service.

Hi Riina,

I am an Australian citizen interested in a position at the London Skype office, and I have a question about international applicants for job openings at Skype.

Does Skype give preference to candidates from the EU over non-EU candidates? And what limitations are there to Skype hiring international employees?

Many thanks.

Kathy

To: northwith

What service are you writing about and have you tried to get help from http://support.skype.com/ ?

Hi Riina,

I am a Mauritian citizen working in USA and interested in a position in London.
Does Skype provide sponsorship for a work permit to non-EU candidate?
Best Regards,
Irshad

Hi Riina,
I have two simple questions:
- are you planning to open an office in Italy?
- what kind of positions are opened to MBA student?

Best regards,
Antonello

Hello, Riina. Are you planning to enter Russian market officially? I am sure you are aware about
huge potentially interested business audience for SkyPe products here. What missing is focused marketing(IMHO) I think B2B aplications already could be successfully marketed in Russia.

How about emerging market in Ukraine? We have bilingual educational and e-commerce website in Crimea www.gurzuf.com! Extremely interested in marketing Skype because of Ukrtelecom monopoly down there.

To northwith,

"bad" service is not caused by customer support persons - this is caused by general high fraud level and fighting against fraud. Sometimes "good users" suffer because in Internet there are many not so good users also. We try to do our best to not make you suffer, but sometimes this may happen.

Hi Kathy,

please read Leeas entry and my comment - http://jobs.skype.com/2006/04/hot_jobs_and_top_tips.html . In general - everybody is welcome to Skype. London office does not have much limits and probably if you are coming from Australia - it is not hard to live in London, no too big cultural difference. It is more tricky with Tallinn and Estonia - this is more like adventure for couple of years - not just an other job.

Riina

To Irshad,

yes we do. If you are the best candidate and we offer your a job - we will also help with work permit, relocation etc.

Riina

To Antonello,

we have main offices in Tallinn/Estonia, London/UK, Luxembourg and San Jose/USA. We have small offices also In Tokio/Japan and Brazil (~10 persons). And small teams (1-3 persons) in several countries, including Italy. These persons are dealing mostly with business development in senior level which requires quite a unique set of skills. So it may be a bit tricky to land a job with Skype in countries like Italy - but still possible.

Riina

To amtorg,

Our resources are limited, and so far we have no people working solely for the Russian market. But we know its size and opportunities, so this surely may change in the future.

Riina

To vican51,

also - no big plans, we have our reasons.

Riina

Hi Riina,

I will be graduating this summer with a Bachelors degree in International Affairs and Economics from the George Washington University. As a passionate user of skype, it has become my dream to become part of the dynamic skype team. I am interested in business development and marketing positions, but all positions seem to require several years of experience. Are there any entry level positions/programs for recent college graduates?

Thank You,

Austin

Hi Austin,

yes - usually for all marketing positions we need experienced persons.

Riina

Hello all team Skype,
I wish to thank you, because thanks to "Skype". I can communicate with my future employers. It is not obvious that in 10000 kms separates us!

Good continuous.
"Cédric Skyper"

We are india based fresher jobs portal. We want to share our hot jobs in skypee and want to display skypee hot jobs in our jobs portal www.yuvajobs.com

kindly contact us at sapgaurav@yahoo.com to display your hot jobs in www.yuvajobs.com

Hi - I'm a Mac programmer, and I just finished writing the very first NATIVE Mac VIOP system, and I'm looking for a position at Skype. I usually work offsite, and have a very good understanding on how to implement VIOP Systems and integrating it with the Mac's Core Audio system. I've written everything from scratch, and am familiar with a wide array of Codec's.

I've written BOTH proprietary code (Non-SIP), and SIP code, and I would really like to write a Skype-SIP gateway for the Mac. I got started on it, and even written some things using the Skype Plugin, but found it lacked specific API's to allow this.

Anyway, could someone please send me details on how and where I can submit my resume for consideration to be added to the Mac Skype team.

Am I to assume that all SW development takes place in India like most companies? My requested salary will be competitive with what the Indian's work for.

By the way, I found a few bugs in skype, and I even know what to do to fix it. Would you please tell me where I can submit my resume, in case a Mac position might open up in the USA?

You might want your Mac development team to contact me, and I can tell them what to do to fix that bug. It's quite repeatable, as this would very easily establish my credibility as a top Mac Cocoa programmer.

Most of my work has been off-site, where I've been working for a UK company, and am well practiced at dealing with the 8 hour time shift
between Calif and UK.

If there is no position available at Skype, perhaps one of your affiliates might want some help with the Mac Skype API's and plugin.

I found a few bugs in that as well, but the problem lies in the framework, and no source code is available for that section, or I would have fixed it.

John

Hello Riina,

I would like to work with Skype as I know skype and its capabilities and its weaknesses. In fact,it is for me very good in my business and personal usage. I have patronized since 2001, ever since the Swedish brothers have developed it, I have kept on track on what else they are to develop. Moreover, I have just migrated to England and have a strong background in the Mobile Industry. Would Skype be able to have any usage of my skills and qualifications as a Marketing Manager/International Stratigic Business Developer?
I would highly appreciate shall you reply to me at candykocken@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks.

Candy

Hello, i'm from Morocco, My job is a travel agent and tourism organiser. can i find a job in london?thank you in advance

Hello,

I am a U.S. Citizen that is living in Tallinn with my wife and son. I have contacted Skype for employment, but had to change E-Mail addresses since living here and didn't find out about the reply until much later. What is the best means of submitting a CV so that I can be considered for the positions that I have the skills for?

IF you have any ideas my CV is at:
http://www.stormpages.com/draven81/CV.doc

I would really appreciate any help that you can give to me.

Matthew

I'm currently living in Vancouvuer, WA., USA.

I would be interested in a Sales postion with Skype. My background in consultative relationship selling might have a benefit for your growing organization. No problem traveling. How could I submit my resume.

Hello Riina,

great to see this new job blog
I am based in Sweden now, and I wonder if Skype has any wholesale telecoms operations here and if there are any openings in this area.

I have been working for a traditional tier 1 provider in Europe, dealing with wholesale, mostly voice business within Eastern Europe, CIS and Russia.
Would be great to join a dynamic and professional team and apply all the positive knowledge I gained so far ))

Thanks a lot and Merry Christmas,
Olga

Helllow,Riina

I am very Excited from skype offer for jobs.i am experience person age 22 year old i have very good Experices in sales and marketing with you help.

if you have any job in sales and Marketing SO lets us knows,

bilal_biz@hotmail.com

Heartbeat

Hi Rina,
I am a software engineer from India. Currently in Japan on a work permit valid for 3 years. I would like to know about the opportunities in Japan and how i can apply to them.

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