Duolingo has just over 500 employees, according to Jocelyn Lai, global head of talent acquisition.- Lai said Duolingo's culture comes from two qualities: caring and quirkiness.
- To land a job at the growing company, candidates should also be an expert in their craft, she added.
If you've seen Duolingo's TikTok account then you know, Duo, the company's giant green owl mascot, is quirky.
Job seekers should be taking note.
According to Jocelyn Lai, global head of talent acquisition, quirkiness is one of two core traits — along with caring — she and her team look for in Duolingo job candidates. Together, she says, the two traits embody the company culture they've been building over the past decade.
First launched in 2012, Duolingo went public earlier this year and now has offices in Pittsburgh, Seattle, New York, Beijing, and Berlin, with workers operating on a hybrid schedule. When Lai joined the company nearly three years ago, it had around 100 employees. Today the language-learning platform expects to close out the year with just over 500 employees, Lai said.
While job seekers will be able to find a variety of roles on Duolingo's careers page, Lai said the company is always looking for workers for its "core product function groups" — engineers, product designers, product managers, and marketing managers.
"We've been really fortunate where every single team has grown at Duolingo," she said. "It's funny when people are like, 'Are there specific roles that you're looking for?' It's like, every role."
Embrace your quirkiness
Sometimes quirkiness comes down to the smallest details. When Lai received a panda sticker for completing Duolingo's in-office COVID-19 test, she wore it with pride.
"I got the panda, and at most companies I've worked at in the past, I'm going to be professional and put it on the right side because that's where most people put it," she said. "But I was so proud about my panda sticker I stuck it right in the middle of my chest."
Quirkiness is also at the heart of Lai's favorite interview question: Why Duolingo? She wants to see where candidates go with it.
Lai gave her own response as an example, saying she grew up bilingual (speaking English and Mandarin), but forgot a lot of her Mandarin since her spouse only speaks English. Duolingo helped her build back her skillset.
"We're not looking for people to fit in here," she said. "What can you bring to the table? Both in thinking and challenging ideas and looking at a problem that we've all been trying to figure out in a completely different lens."
Despite the company's quirkiness, the talent team is still looking for highly skilled talent. For Duolingo, that means looking for candidates with a "level of craft," meaning heightened precision or mastery. Designer candidates, for example, should know Figma, a graphics editing and design tool.
"That's kind of a non-negotiable that we have," Lai said. "Are you an expert in your craft?"
Demonstrate that you care
Growing companies have a tendency to lose their culture, Lai said, which is why Duolingo is "stubborn" about hiring people who care deeply across three levels: the company, each other, and Duolingo's learners.
"We hire people who just care a lot, and in so many different dimensions," she said.
Hiring is a two-way street, however, so Lai and her team start interviews by showing how the company cares as well.
Duolingo's application includes a name-recording feature so the hiring team can ensure they're pronouncing applicants' names correctly; it includes a section to specify one's pronouns; and in order to remain equitable, the interview team asks the same questions of every candidate, Lai said.
"We actually do look at every single application," Lai said. "Which blows my mind, but in a good way. We recognize that the people we're looking for, they can be hard to find, so we can't leave any stone unturned."
If the application is strong, the candidate will be passed on to what Duolingo calls a "first chat," so that both parties can learn more about each other. This call is followed by two technical interviews and then a final "on-site" with six interview sessions.
Once an offer is extended, to help show the candidate more about Duolingo's culture, the talent team will often ask Luis von Ahn, Duolingo CEO, to hop on a 30-minute Zoom call with the candidate — a request Lai said he has never refused.
"Whether it's an intern or mid-level career individual, or experienced hire, we care about bringing these people in," Lai said. "So that's where I think candidates can ask themselves in that moment when they get the offer, 'What is the experience that I have right now with the company?'"