Demo Tape

Engineering Apprenticeship Program

At Pandora, we believe people thrive and succeed when their work aligns with their passion. We recognize that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. In order to put our beliefs into practice, we have built the Demo Tape apprenticeship program for aspiring engineers with non-traditional educational backgrounds.

See Current and Upcoming Opportunities

This program is designed to provide an entry into the software engineering career path for people without four-year computer science degrees, but with software training from community colleges, coding bootcamps, online courses, self-directed study, etc.

About Pandora

At Pandora, our mission is to “change the way people listen by creating experiences tuned to the moment you're in.” We provide listeners with personalized experiences in whatever form they choose - ad-supported, ad-free subscription, or full on-demand subscriptions. We also enable musicians and spoken word creators to find and reach their audiences by providing tools and insights about their listeners.

If you’re excited by this mission, are motivated to pursue a career in software engineering and do not have a university degree in computer science, this program could be for you.

How it Works

Applicants are required to have a basic understanding of object-oriented software development. Required knowledge and experience with specific languages, tools, and frameworks varies for each cohort depending on the technical area of focus.

Applicants will also be evaluated on traits such as innovation, persistence, resourcefulness and learning mindset.

Pandora partners with local organizations to facilitate the apprenticeship, process and screen applications, provide custom technical and social-emotional skills training, and for some cohorts to serve as the actual employer of the apprentices. Each apprenticeship cohort focuses on a specific area of technology and will consist of two phases.

Phase one participants will gain free access to technical learning resources across technologies needed to succeed as an apprentice. Phase one may vary in length for each cohort but will last anywhere from 1-6 months. Applicants will also have access to support staff at our partner organizations who can answer questions, provide feedback, and discuss progress.

Upon completion of phase one, apprentice candidates should be prepared to discuss their experiences learning the new technologies in an interview setting, and how what they’ve learned aligns with their interests, passions and strengths. Based on these discussions, Pandora and our partner will select the apprentices to continue on to phase two.

For cohorts with a shorter phase one, phase two may include one month of additional paid training. The heart of the program is the opportunity to work for up to six months as part of an engineering team onsite at Pandora. During this time, apprentices will either be direct temporary employees of Pandora, or temporary employees of our partner, placed on a contract assignment at Pandora. Details of each cohort vary; see the links for each opportunity below for more details. Participants will have the opportunity to do real, valuable work while also learning about the technology and the associated development processes. Apprentices will receive mentoring and regular feedback to help them build their skills.

Upon completion of phase two, apprentices are eligible for consideration for open roles at Pandora that may be a good match, subject to availability. It is a goal of the Demo Tape program that all participants gain experience that will be useful in pursuing their career goals, whether or not it’s at Pandora.