Quang, Android Release Manager: Learnings from Start-up to Today

‍What do you remember about your first few months at Tinder?

It was fun! A little chaotic, but fun. It was nerve wracking because it was a small startup, and there’s a lot of attention when you’re part of a small company—there were only 20-something people. A lot of work, a lot of late nights. We didn’t really leave. But it was fun. We were just working on projects, because we didn’t have any revenue features. Everybody wore many hats. Now you have whole departments, whereas back then you were kind of on your own. It was a lot of hands-on work and you really had to know what you were doing.

What is the most interesting professional experience you’ve gotten to have here?

Everybody worked really hard on Tinder Plus, and as our first revenue product that whole experience stands out to me. We really didn’t know what to expect! I was responsible for testing everything on the backend, which meant I had to understand the whole product from the code side. We launched Tinder Plus with a party that was held at an airport hangar. Pretty much the whole company went. 

How would you describe how the company and the product have evolved throughout your time at Tinder?

We have important processes now, which we didn’t really have back then. These days, you go through PMs and have launch readiness meetings, and you get a lot more questions to answer. It’s harder to initiate a product, but that’s good. We need that security and legal and a lot of eyes on a product. We can leverage all of our pods to be as efficient as we were with 20 people back then. 

How have you yourself evolved throughout your time at Tinder?

I’ve learned a lot and changed positions, though always in QA. In terms of what I’ve learned and experienced, that’s how I’ve evolved. Working from a startup to a multi-billion dollar company is a life changing moment for me. I’ve always been an engineer, and now I’m in more of a management role. 

What makes you proud to work at Tinder, and what does it mean to you to be able to say you’ve worked for the same company for so long?

When you wear that Tinder T-shirt in public, you get a lot of attention. I’ve been able to bond with strangers who approach me. There have been a lot of challenges but it’s been very exciting. 

What would you say to the version of yourself that just started working at Tinder?

Enjoy the moment, and appreciate all of your time!

What advice do you have for the newest members of the Tinder Team?

You’ll learn a lot these days because there are a lot of teams. There’s a lot of opportunities, especially for students who have just graduated. You can pick and choose where you want to start and expand from there. QA, automation, manual, security, DevOps, IT ops. There’s a lot of room for growth and you’ll learn from the best of the best. You’ll hone your skills right off the bat. Even after six months you’ll know so much more than what you started with. 

Finish this sentence: “Remember that time when…”

…we stayed until 5am to fix a broken feature that was launching at 7am? But we did it!