Generosity of spirit

Generosity of spirit is a phrase we use at Etsy to express our belief that knowledge and experience should be shared. This concept started as a principle in our engineering team and has since taken root all over the company. We model generosity of spirit by freely sharing knowledge and talents with co-workers, open-sourcing code and programs, and offering our learnings to other organizations.

Etsy School

One of the most beloved manifestations of our learning-focused culture is Etsy School—interactive classes taught by employees for employees. Anyone is free to teach a class on any topic, and dozens of classes have been offered over the years, including knot-tying, fabric dying, herbalistic medicine, juggling, and Python programming. Etsy School’s grassroots structure creates a unique opportunity for employees to share their talents with co-workers, collectively contributing to one another’s professional, mental, physical, and spiritual growth.

Lunch ‘n’ Learns

Nearly every week, people across the company sign up to present a Lunch ‘n Learn on any work-related topic they choose. These events are leadership opportunities for presenters and learning opportunities for the whole staff. They’re so popular that employees tune in from all over the globe (and for those participating in person, many are standing-room-only). Examples of past topics include: “Responsible Manufacturing,” “Labor Economics,” “Machine Learning at Etsy,” and “All About B Corp.”

First Push

As part of our commitment to ongoing learning, we teach the art of writing code to any employee who is interested. In 2013, we introduced the First Push program, which teaches employees with non-technical backgrounds how to deploy code to Etsy’s website. The program helps participants get a better understanding of our platform’s foundation, and how and why changes are made to the site. It also gives our engineering team the opportunity to share their craft with their peers.

For more information about our First Push program, check out this post from our Code as Craft blog.

Code as Craft

One of Etsy’s governing principles is valuing craftsmanship in all we make and do. The code in which the site is written is a craft in its own right, and we take pride in openly sharing our knowledge with the programming industry. Our dedicated blog, Code as Craft, covers the tools we use, our approach to engineering, and experiments that have succeeded and failed. Since the blog launched in 2010 many engineers across the company have contributed, publishing 20-30 posts per year.