Airbnb

Airbnb is one of the defining companies of the last 15 years — they built an entirely new category of travel accommodation from nothing, survived a near-death experience during COVID (which eliminated almost all of their revenue overnight), and came back leaner and more focused than before. The post-COVID Airbnb is a more disciplined company: profitable, smaller than its 2019 peak, and more intentional about what it builds.

Brian Chesky's influence on the culture is pervasive and distinctive. His return to first principles — including a famous memo about returning to craft, in-person collaboration, and "founder mode" — has shaped the company's current operating philosophy.

Who they're hiring

Airbnb hires in engineering, product, design, data, and operations. The company has been leaner since the COVID restructuring, so hiring is deliberate. Key areas:

• Product engineering — the host and guest apps, search and discovery, booking and payments
• Platform and infrastructure — the systems running one of the world's largest two-sided marketplaces
• Trust and safety — fraud detection, identity verification, dispute resolution systems — a critical function for a platform with real-world transactions
• ML and data science — search ranking, pricing optimization, demand forecasting, personalization
• Design — one of the strongest design teams in the industry

Design deserves a separate mention. Airbnb has one of the most respected design organizations in tech, and Chesky's background as a designer himself has kept design central to how the company builds.

The process

Standard for a mature consumer tech company:

1. Recruiter screen
2. Technical screen — coding (for engineers) or portfolio review (for design)
3. Hiring manager conversation
4. Onsite loop — 4-6 rounds covering technical depth, cross-functional collaboration, product sense, and Airbnb's specific values
5. Offer

The values interviews at Airbnb are meaningful. They specifically probe for their core values: "Be a Host," "Champion the Mission," "Be a Cereal Entrepreneur" (referencing the Obama O's story), "Embrace the Adventure." These aren't checkbox questions — interviewers are assessing whether you actually embody these in how you've worked.

For design roles, the portfolio review is rigorous and focuses on the quality of your decision-making, not just the visual output. Airbnb will dig into why you made specific choices.

What the culture is actually like

Airbnb's culture is distinctive and has a strong identity. The mission — belonging anywhere, the idea that a stranger's home can feel welcoming — permeates how people talk about the work. It's one of the few tech companies where the mission isn't abstract; people who travel and have had a transformative Airbnb experience connect to it viscerally.

The current culture under "founder mode" is more in-person than before. Chesky has been vocal about the value of physical presence for creative work, and while Airbnb remains headquartered in San Francisco, the expectation for key roles is increasing proximity.

The culture prizes craft — good design, thoughtful product decisions, and work that reflects genuine care. This is a place where people obsess over details and where "good enough" is harder to get away with than at a pure-scale company.

There's also a humility that comes from the COVID experience. The company almost didn't survive and the team knows it. That creates a specific kind of groundedness — an awareness that nothing is permanent and that what you build has to genuinely serve users.

What they look for

Mission alignment. Airbnb is serious about hiring people who believe in the mission. This doesn't mean you need to be an Airbnb superfan, but you should be able to articulate why helping people travel and feel at home in new places matters — and mean it.

Product craft. Airbnb builds products that millions of people use for some of the most meaningful experiences of their lives (travel, first trips abroad, meeting new people). The bar for product quality is high, and people who approach their work with that weight tend to excel.

Host mindset. One of Airbnb's core values is "Be a Host" — the idea of making others feel welcome, being generous, putting guests first. This shows up in interviews. They're looking for people who collaborate generously, help others succeed, and approach interpersonal dynamics with care.

Two-sided marketplace experience. Airbnb runs a complex two-sided marketplace with hosts and guests, each with different needs and incentives. Engineers and PMs who have thought about marketplace dynamics — trust, supply/demand balance, pricing — engage with the real problems more quickly.

Design at Airbnb

If you're a designer, Airbnb is one of the three or four best companies in the industry from a design culture standpoint. The design team has produced some of the most thoughtful product work in consumer tech, the design system is taken seriously, and design has real influence over product decisions.

The bar is genuinely high. Portfolio reviews will go deep, interviewers will ask hard questions about your choices, and the team you're joining has been doing exceptional work for a long time. If you're a strong designer who wants to work at a company that takes design seriously at the highest level, it's worth the preparation.

Things worth knowing

Chesky's "founder mode" is real. The current Airbnb values in-person collaboration, fast decisions, and founder-led intensity. This is a more demanding environment than the pre-COVID Airbnb in some ways. If you're looking for a relaxed, process-heavy big tech environment, the current Airbnb might surprise you.

San Francisco presence matters more than it did. For senior roles especially, the expectation of being in SF regularly has increased. Pure remote for key positions is harder than it was during the 2020-2023 period.

The business is profitable. Airbnb turned profitable post-COVID and has maintained it. This is unusual among its peer group and means the company isn't under existential financial pressure. The equity story is less "will this company survive" and more "what is the upside of a stable, profitable consumer platform."

International is a real part of the product. Airbnb operates in hundreds of countries. The engineering and product challenges of building for a truly global user base — payments, regulatory compliance, localization, supply and demand in diverse markets — are real and interesting.

Should you apply?

Airbnb is a strong fit for people who genuinely care about travel, believe in the mission, and want to work on consumer product at a level of craft that's rare in the industry. The culture is distinctive, the product matters to real people, and the design and engineering quality is high. If those things resonate, it's one of the better consumer tech companies to join.