Twitter has become one of the most influential social networks in the world. But what’s it like to actually work there? While experiences can vary across teams, here’s an inside look at the typical life of a Twitter employee at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
Table of Contents
Morning Routine of a Twitter Employee
Most Twitter employees start their day at the San Francisco headquarters between 8-10 AM. However, with hybrid and remote arrangements, many now have flexibility with their start time. The company has moved towards an asynchronous work culture to accommodate varied schedules.
When Twitter employees badge into the building, they’re greeted by Twitter-branded decor and open work spaces designed to spark creativity. Those working remotely log into Twitter’s systems and prepare for the flurry of meetings and decisions characteristic of the company.
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Daily Standups of a Twitter Employee
- Many teams at Twitter hold standing meetings around 9:30 AM and 9:30 AM, where team members quickly discuss progress on goals and plans for the day.
- In engineering teams, standups usually involve going around and having each engineer report items they are working on or challenges they face.
- The format is more flexible for non-engineering roles but focuses on aligning plans and getting on the same page.
- Standups usually last up to 15 minutes so people can dive into their daily workload.
Handling the Queue of a Twitter Employee
- Employees in roles like developer relations, client services, user operations, and support have inbound requests that build up overnight from users and partners worldwide across time zones.
- The first hour of the day is often spent processing the latest tickets, queries, and issues to clear the queue before new items arrive.
- Customer support agents have SLAs (service-level agreements) to respond to a certain volume of support tickets within a timeframe.
The Engineer Experience
Hundreds of engineers make up the product, platform, and infrastructure teams responsible for developing Twitter and keeping it running smoothly. They write billions of lines code, monitor site performance, improve page load speeds, and launch changes.
Engineers often spend their time:
- Coding new features in languages like Java, Python, Ruby, Scala
- Reviewing code written by other engineers
- Debugging issues surfaced through testing
- Optimizing performance bottlenecks
- Improving infrastructure efficiency with virtualization, containers
- Reducing costs by optimizing memory, storage resource usage
They also participate in design reviews to offer input on technical limitations for proposed products.
A Feature Engineering Story
For example, engineers recently worked on building Twitter Circles – a feature to let users create groups to Tweet to. This involved:
- Using React to construct the front-end components for users to add circle members
- Developing back-end in Java and Ruby on Rails to store circle data
- Storing circle membership in Cassandra database built for scale
- Handling permissions and privacy to control circle content access
- Scaling infrastructure across regions to handle traffic spikes
- Writing integration tests to validate correct behavior
- Monitoring performance in production using DataDog
- On-call support to resolve launch issues
The rapid pace of development at Twitter keeps engineers on their toes!
Policy Development
Policy experts craft Twitter’s rules and resources to counter abuse, manipulation, and misinformation. Their goal is to serve the public conversation while protecting user safety.
Responsibilities include:
- Writing and revising policies like Twitter Rules and media policies
- Creating policy training materials and courses
- Developing processes to detect rule-breaking content at scale
- Advising product teams on building safer experiences
- Analyzing platform data to identify policy gaps
- Promoting voter registration and election integrity
- Advancing algorithmic choice and transparency
- Fostering privacy-protective standards
Staying on top of emerging harmful trends and regulations takes continual effort. Policy teams set milestones every quarter to enhance Twitter’s approach.
High-Profile Policy Example
For example, in 2021 Twitter policy experts had to quickly develop guidance for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation as the virus evolved globally. This involved:
- Track emerging anti-vaccine sentiments and conspiracy theories
- Consult health authorities and experts to separate truth from fiction
- Craft clear rules labeling vaccine falsehoods as misleading
- Create policy pages explaining COVID moderation approach
- Develop machine learning models to detect anti-vax rhetoric at scale
- Make verification policies more stringent to stop misuse
Policy work requires deep analytical skills, collaboration with outside experts, and adaptability as events unfold.
Feature Development of a Twitter Employee
- Engineering managers conduct backlog grooming meetings with their teams to prioritize features and improvements that need building based on requests from different stakeholders.
- During large stretches of heads-down development work, engineers spend their day coding in languages like Ruby, Scala, and Java to bring the backlogged products and updates to life based on specifications.
- There is a big focus on iterative development, where features are rolled out in phases and refined based on testing feedback and usage metrics.
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Testing and Quality Assurance of a Twitter Employee
- Before new features can launch or code can be shipped, it goes through rigorous QA testing done manually or using automated frameworks.
- QA testers on staff try to break features and flows in creative, unexpected ways to identify bugs. Their reports are sent back to developers.
- Engineers work in sync with a QA team for product launches to rapidly fix issues based on their findings until release deadlines.
Meetings and Collaboration of a Twitter Employee
- Since employees across different functions need to sync up constantly, meetings are a daily fixture at Twitter. Engineers collaborate with product managers, designers, QAs, and more.
- Video calls and screen sharing on apps like BlueJeans facilitate constant remote collaboration between people on different floors or continents.
- Impromptu in-person meetings at desks or conference rooms are also common to workshop ideas, whiteboarding or discussing directly.
Testing New Features of a Twitter Employee
- Before launching publicly, employees get early access to try out new initiatives the company is developing to provide feedback.
- There are also dedicated focus groups that demo product prototypes and are observed or interviewed for detailed user feedback.
- Trying new features helps employees understand what users may experience when changes roll out. It’s valued input.
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Lunch Breaks of a Twitter Employee
- Twitter provides free gourmet catered lunches and an array of snacks/drinks for employees from around noon to 1 PM1 PM.
- Long tables foster community, where new hires can meet colleagues from different departments.
- Many employees also visit the cafes, food trucks, and restaurants around the SF office during lunch.
Team Brainstorms of a Twitter Employee
- Creative thinking is encouraged, so spontaneous brainstorms happen often. Whiteboards get a lot of use!
- For larger initiatives, teams hold structured ideation workshops to think outside the box.
- Hackathons are also a tradition where employees form groups to prototype inventive concepts over 24-48 hours rapidly.
Continued Development of a Twitter Employee
- Employees are encouraged to keep honing their skills by taking LinkedIn Learning courses on coding, design, management, etc.
- Internal tech talks from visiting industry experts are also common. Lunch ‘n’ learns to share Twitter’s own engineering best practices.
- Tuition for advanced degrees and certifications related to one’s role are also subsidized and supported.
Company All-Hands of a Twitter Employee
- Once a week, the CEO and leadership address all employees in offices and remotely to share company news strategy and answer questions.
- All-hands also celebrate employee milestones, highlight team accomplishments, and feature guest speaker talks.
- The format keeps all employees aligned with top priorities and what divisions are working on.
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Afternoon Tea Break of a Twitter Employee
- Around 3 PM3 PM, employees take a short break to socialize and recharge over tea, coffee and snacks before powering through the last part of their day.
- Informal social interactions during breaks help build camaraderie and friendship between coworkers.
- The variety of high-end teas and coffees is always a popular talking point.
Wrap-Up and Handoff of a Twitter Employee
- Most engineers, designers, and program managers use the last 90 minutes of their day to wrap up outstanding tasks, send updates, file tickets, and hand work off to other teams in different time zones.
- Customer support and corporate employees may also spend this time preparing for meetings or calls scheduled the next day.
- Work is passed on seamlessly across locations like Tokyo, London, New York, and Singapore.
Evening Commute of a Twitter Employee
- Employees start wrapping up work and heading out of the office around 5:30–6 PM5:30–6 PM unless staying late to finish something urgent.
- Those with longer commute times via public transportation try to leave earlier to beat the worst rush hour window.
- Some employees visit the gym, restaurants, or bars around the neighborhood post-work before heading home.
- Late nights and weekends are common during launch periods, requiring all hands on deck.
While no two days are the same at Twitter, this reflects a typical productive day for many employees with a mix of collaboration, development, creativity, and execution. The fast-paced, innovative environment also comes with fantastic perks, benefits, and opportunities for growth. Working at Twitter remains a coveted gig in tech for good reason!
Recent Twitter News (as of December 2023)
It’s been a turbulent year for Twitter following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition and ensuing chaotic product changes. Here’s a quick snapshot of recent chatter as context for those working within the blue bird’s walls:
- After mass layoffs, Twitter rolled out the paid $8 subscription model Twitter Blue allowing users to verify their account with a blue checkmark. Spambots and impersonation surge across the platform.
- Advertisers pause spending over brand safety concerns related to content moderation and verification policy issues. Twitter’s stock and revenue sank over 70% year-over-year.
- Twitter reinstates some previously banned accounts like Donald Trump after polling users. Global policy teams evaluate political speech policies.
- After the ultimatum to work “extremely hardcore,” 50-25% of the remaining employees chose to exit the company rather than revamp Twitter’s systems.
- Musk continues prematurely releasing significant platform changes and conducting company business publicly through his personal twitter account.
- Critics consider whether twitter can sustain productivity and site reliability given its engineering exodus and turbulent restructuring.
The coming months remain uncertain but will surely bring new challenges and viral moments inside twitter HQ. For now, the site’s future rests on the teams debating policy, stress-testing systems and charting product strategy day-by-day. Their efforts ultimately work to attract new users, empower healthy discourse and unlock twitter’s still untapped potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions about being a Twitter employee after reading this guide? Check some answers to common FAQs below:
