I want to work for 1Password as a software engineer. What tools/languages do I need?

xfitkitten
xfitkitten
Community Member

Hello

I want to work for 1Password as a software engineer. What tools/languages do I need to be proficient in/with to be seen as an asset? I'm starting from the ground up so no detail is too small.

If there are areas/languages that 1Password is/will be expanding into I would love to know that as well.

TIA for any and all input/information.

Current 1Password for Mac family subscriber!


1Password Version: Mac 8.7.1
Extension Version: Chrome 2.3.8
OS Version: macOS 12.4
Referrer: forum-search:Job Openings

Comments

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member

    Since the 1Password core is written in Rust that might be a good start.

    Check out https://1password.com/jobs/

  • Hey @xfitkitten, love the question! There's a whole range of stories around how people got started at 1Password, so hopefully some others can chime in. But to share my experience at least...

    I'm a developer on the Browser Experience team. I started around five years ago with a keen interest in both web development and security - at that point I was mostly coding in JavaScript. From there, I've slowly got more familiar with Rust and Go, two other languages we're using a lot these days. These are both languages I hadn't touched before 1Password so being able to learn about new technologies is definitely more important than knowing everything out of the gate!

    If I could give any advice, it would be to pick a language that interests you and build things with it! That sort of tinkering can be one of the best ways to get in to development and once you know one language, it's easy to pick up more. We have a bunch of open source projects at https://github.com/1password/ if you're interested to see some of what we do - contributing to those or other projects on GitHub is great experience.

    Last but not least - being passionate about 1Password is always a plus. It sounds like you have that down!

  • kiltandcode
    kiltandcode
    Community Member

    Hey @xfitkitten!

    Like Oliver, I also work on the browser experience team at 1Password. I'm actually fairly new to the company and joined as a senior developer quite recently. That's really great you want to work at 1Password and are reaching out for some advice!

    We use quite a few languages and frameworks at 1Password. The ones I'm currently using are TypeScript and JavaScript and I'm excited at the possibility of jumping into more. I would recommend learning a language you enjoy using and that interests you, first of all. Languages, and especially frameworks, come and go in the software industry, and you may use different ones throughout your career. So becoming proficient in one and learning the core foundations of that language will help as you begin to learn and use more languages and frameworks in the future.

    When you do decide on a language or framework to use, working on a side project in that language or framework will really help. You'll be able to learn the language or framework faster, and it'll also show a potential employer how passionate you are!

    Good luck in the future,
    Steven.

  • xfitkitten
    xfitkitten
    Community Member

    @kiltandcode, @oliverdunk, and @XIII -

    Thank you all so much for not only taking the time to reply but providing such great info. I have some experience with JavaScript and I like it but I'd like to try another language to get a feel for the differences. Looks like Rust or Go will be the ones to try out.

    I am 100% going to check out the open-source projects on GitHub! Thanks for that. I decided that having an actual company as a target as I learn will help to keep me motivated, focused, and on track. I already love 1Password and after reading all the great reviews on GlassDoor I knew it would be my carrot.

    Thank you again and I'll keep you posted as I progress.

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member

    Nice to see some responses from 1Password developers!

    Being a software developer (that has worked for start-ups and multinationals, so both ends of the spectrum) myself, I'm quite interested in what it's like to work for a company like 1Password (Are you more a start-up or a multinational? In particular with the recent growth)

    Some random questions that come to mind:

    • What does your day typically look like?
    • What do your agile ceremonies look like?
    • Do you get a laptop to work on from the company, or is it BYOD?
    • Does your IT department install software (VPN, Antivirus, etc.) on this machine or do you still have (some) control?
    • Can you work from any country? (Or only countries where 1Password has legal entities?)
    • Can you work part-time?
    • How often do you meet colleagues IRL?
    • How do you communicate online? (Slack/Teams/...)
    • How much time can you spend on designing/coding? And how much time is spent on meetings?

    (let's hope 1Password is not as secretive as Apple and are allowed to say something about this)

  • ivan.p._1P
    edited June 2022

    Hi @XIII, chiming in to share my experience as well!

    I've been at 1Password for 6 months now and I work as a developer on the Rust Core. My focus is largely on lower level integrations with things like synchronizing the local database, optimizing unlock flows, or investigating and fixing crash reports. I typically spend most of my time working with code, doing code review, or occasionally pairing up with a colleague to exchange information or work through some implementation. Design related meetings come and go based on whether I'm working on a new feature; they're usually more prevalent during design and taper off when we focus on the implementation phase.

    Communication: since everyone is remotely distributed we use a lot of asynchronous communciation. Mostly Slack for chatter/questions, though developers will leave code review comments which come in as email. Besides that we'll have occasional (synchronous) team meetings on Zoom. Larger meetings are also usually recorded for anyone who'd like to catch up later or had to miss them for any reason. The time spent in meetings highly varies from person to person and what they're working on, but I personally see a few hours of (scheduled) meetings per week. I haven't met any of my colleagues yet because I joined during the pandemic and we haven't had a safe way to meet up in larger groups. I know in the past there has been company-wide retreats as well as other opportunities throughout the year to gether as a team/org and work together. There's definitely an interest to have in-person meetings in the future, but with the current uncertainty around travel those have been on hold for the immediate term.

    Employment: we do have folks working with us from all over the world. The process is definitely more streamlined in countries that have a legal 1Password entity, but I know there are ways to employ people living outside of those areas!

    Agile/Dev process: from my particular vantage point project planning is agile in the spirit but not in the "ceremony" sense. Overall things are flexible/fluid where different folks might be working on different projects and as work winds down they start working on something new. Things aren't quite week-long "sprints" where we have no idea what we're doing in a few days, but they also aren't waterfall-plan-the-next-year-in-advance either. IMO it's a nice balance :)

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member

    Thank you for that insight @ivan.p._1P!

  • DenalB
    DenalB
    Community Member

    Interesting discussion here. Looking forward to reading more from the daily work of an 1Password employee. πŸ‘πŸ˜‰

    I'm not a developer. I'm a technician and supporter in my company. But from time to time I'm looking at the Careers website if there is an interesting offer... 😁

  • XIII
    XIII
    Community Member
    edited June 2022

    This new 1Password blog series might be interesting to all wondering what's it like to work at/for 1Password:

    https://blog.1password.com/meet-katie-davis/

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