In this article, you will learn about Canva Careers:
- What is Canva?
- What is working at Canva like?
- What are Canva Remote Policy and Hiring Locations?
- Which creative team could you apply for at Canva?
- What does Canva hiring process looks like?
- How long does Canva hiring process take?
- What is the standard Canva Interview Process?
- What do Canva salaries look like?
What is Canva?
Founded in 2010 by Melanie Perkins, Canva was born from a frustration with the learning curve required to design anything online. When she was 19, Perkins and her partner (Obrecht) were college students in Perth, Australia. They were making a little income by helping teach other students how to navigate complicated design programs offered by tech giants such as Microsoft and Adobe. They quickly noticed the learning curve required to design something basic.
"People would have to spend an entire semester learning where the buttons were, and that seemed completely ridiculous,” Perkins said. “I thought that in the future it was all going to be online and collaborative and much, much simpler than these really hard tools.”
They created a yearbook design company, that grew successfully - and grew organically into the idea of creating a one-stop-shop for design services.
After 100 venture capitalists' rejections for funding and no Silicon Valley connections, Melanie Perkins finally raised $3 million in 2013 to stack the first bricks of building an online web-based platform and bring online design tools to the masses.
10 years later, Canva is valued at $26 billion (the most of any female-founded, and women-led start-ups), operates from 7 locations, and hires more than 2500 employees.
In 2021, Canva counted 100 million users per month, 1 billion in revenue, and has been long profitable and cash-flow positive - rare species in the venture-backed tech scene. 😊
Not only are they growing exponentially, but they’re also staying on top of recent trends. Last year, they unveiled an upgrade (Visual Worksuite) that includes a virtual copywriting assistant: Magic Write. It harnesses the power of OpenAI’s GPT-3 to generate text for users’ documents, based on their prompts—everything from meeting agenda bullet points to marketing briefs.
What is working at Canva like?
Of course, the first thing we do to learn more about the working culture at a company like Canva is to read their career site, values, and perks. However, the true value lies in unsolicited and sometimes anonymous feedback for former or current employees - and a great place for that is Reddit.
Every comment I stumbled upon highlighted that besides the perks, and salary offers, what sealed the deal was the company culture designed around calm, balanced workloads, deep respect for your off-time, and mentoring.
Here are a few cultural principles that make Canva a good place to work at:
- Every team is like a start-up. While it has grown to a corporation size, the company remains flexible by empowering every team to be its own start-up. "Our structure of small, empowered teams enables everyone to be nimble and move quickly," Melanie Perkins says.
- Good and seamless communication is essential to founders. Throughout the week, each team catches up on the daily progress of benchmarks they want to hit. On Fridays, each team at Canva convenes for a company-wide standup meeting to share progress, lessons, and takeaways.
- A shared goal: be a force of good. As presented in a personal note from Melanie Perkins to Canva's community, the company’s overarching mission is a simple 2 step plan: to become one of the most valuable companies in the world and to do the most good they can. For many people who want to feel useful, and search for social impact in their jobs, Canva’s team makes an effort to move the needle on this topic.
- Work-life balance and employee growth: From parental leave to an epic recharge where you can take 1 month off, or flexible working hours which lets you organize your workday the way you need or want to, Canva sets the condition for you to do your best creative work.
What is Canva Remote Policy and Hiring Locations?
Canva is a global team with hubs in 8 key locations. Canva is hiring from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Austria, The Philippines, and the Czech Republic. While the team has flagship campuses in each hub, you have the choice of where and how you work through a flexible work policy. That means if you want to do work from the office (if you're near one), at home, or a bit of both, it's completely up to you.
Which creative team could you apply for at Canva?
Canva is a +2000 team operation, but every team operates like their own little startup working together towards a common goal. This model is great to foster creative work, taking up space to share ideas, and feel a sense of belonging. If you’re interested in joining a creative team at Canva, you could apply for one of the following:
- Canva Design Team
- Canva Marketing Team
- Canva People Team
- Canva Engineering Team
- Canva Product Team
- Canva Operations Team
If you’re curious about joining the teams working on Canva AI Visual Worksuite, harnessing OpenAI GTP3, they currently hire more than 19 jobs across product, engineering, and design teams to work on this topic.
What does Canva hiring process looks like?
Canva's hiring process is designed to help the team get to know you and you getting to know the team. Throughout the process, they will share insights into the kind of work you’ll be doing at Canva, the team you’ll be joining, your coach (leader), and what it’s like working at Canva. The most important thing to remember is to stay yourself. The team wants to see who you truly are!
How long does Canva Hiring process take?
Generally, Canva hiring process takes 4-5 weeks from the initial conversation with the recruiter to the final decision. However, keep in mind that each role and level can be different, and while the process can take some time, the recruiter's team updates you along the way.
What is the standard Canva Interview Process?
While each role, level, and specialty is different, Canva interview process happens in four main steps:
- Round 1: Zoom call. During this call, someone from the Talent Acquisition team will have a chat with you about your aspirations and experience and they'll share more about the role and Canva’s culture.
- Round 2: First Interview. This will either be with your potential coach (leader) or someone you’d work closely with in the role. They’ll give you more insight into the team, what your day-to-day will be like, and the impact you will be able to have.
- Round 3: Take home challenge. They’ll send you a brief with the details of a challenge to complete in your own time and present it back to them. Different people work in different ways, so this step of the process is to show who you are and how you work. This is an opportunity to showcase your thinking but also get a sense of the type of work you’d do in the role. In this step, Canva wants to see your personality and authentic self shine.
- Round 4: Final Interview. You’ll meet with a number of people you’ll be working closest with and will take them through your findings from your challenge. You’ll also answer some behavioral questions aligned with their 12 skills framework. These questions are based on real-life scenarios, so be ready to have examples of your previous experience ready to explain your thinking. Most importantly, this is another opportunity for you to ask any questions you have!
How to nail your Canva Interview Process?
Throughout Canva interview tips, and feedback from former employees and the talent team, here are the main 5 advice to nail your interview process:
- Get creative with your approach: Keep in mind that Canva receives a high volume of applications for each job opening. Making sure you embody a creative approach throughout your application process is highly appreciated by the team. You can send a video, or a visual in your application, you could even write a short story on starting your journey with Canva. Provide the right information but don’t be afraid to stand out.
- Be yourself: don’t force yourself into a box. While the hiring process is competitive, one of Canva’s core values is to expand the team’s horizon and creativity through culture, experience, and path diversity. Don’t be afraid to apply, and show who you truly are.
- Familiarize yourself with Canva: playing around with the product is key to nailing your interviews. It seems natural that you tried, or often use the product before considering joining the team.
- An ownership mentality and growth mindset are crucial: Every team behaves like a small startup, contrary to similar big companies. This means it requires taking responsibility, advocating for yourself, prioritizing growth, and doing your best creative work!
- Come prepared to the interview and ready to ask questions: Canva’s talent team often recommends the following method to answer questions effectively, called the STARR method:
- (S)ituation - setting the scene and giving context
- (T)ask - Describing the task, including challenges and expectations
- (A)ction - Explaining thought process, what you did and how you did it
- (R)esults & (R)eflection - What was the outcome? What were the key takeaways?
What do Canva salaries & benefits look like?
Canva strives to provide competitive, market-informed compensation whilst ensuring internal equity within teams in each hub. Canva usually shares salary ranges in job descriptions to inform applicants, after reviewing several of them across different departments such as Canva Design team, Canva Product Team, or Canva Marketing team, here are the salary ranges we found:
Canva Careers in the US:
- Product Marketing Manager Job in the US: $137K to $219K
- Head of Social Job in the US: $73K to $118K
- Product Manager Job in the US: $87K to $137K
- Global Head of Performance Marketing in San Francisco: $227K to $347K.
Canva Careers in Australia:
- Data Analyst in Australia: A$120k to $145k
- Product Designer in Australia: A$113k to $138k
Canva Careers in the Philippines:
- Graphic Designer in the Philippines: ₱171K to ₱533K
- Art Director in the Philippines: ₱528K to ₱720K
Canva also offers other benefits such as:
- Equity packages
- Health benefits plans
- 401(k) retirement plan with company contribution
- Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers
- An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your well-being, social connection, office setup & more
- Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and support you personally
