Uber has made life more exciting for millennials and gen Z, not just because the company is socially conscious and you can catch a ride or order a meal faster than it takes to shower, but because its apprenticeship program promises more than just the opportunity to learn and earn. The Uber apprenticeship program goes beyond paying you to train at one of the world’s most innovative companies; it ensures you don’t have to worry about tuition while an apprentice.
If you want an exciting career in user experience design and data science, you can afford to build your technical skills through a coding bootcamp. The Uber apprenticeship program offers tuition coverage to all apprentices. In this guide, you’ll discover what a typical day for an Uber apprentice looks like and what to expect from an Uber apprenticeship interview. You’ll also find salary structure for Uber apprentices and reviews from former apprentices.
Uber is an innovative mobility-as-a-service marketplace facilitating movement from point A to Point B. It connects individuals to offer or receive seamless rides, meals, healthcare services, freight-booking solutions, and employee travel experiences. As of May 2022, Bloomberg Second Measure data shows Uber has a 72% market share in the United States ride-sharing industry. According to Statista, Uber Eats is the second most dominant online food delivery service. Data shows Uber Eats had a 24% market share in the U.S. as of March 2022.
Uber operates in approximately 10,500 cities across 72 countries, including the United States, Canada, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. At the close of 2022, the company recorded 2.1 billion Trips. It reported that its monthly active platform consumers (riders and eaters) had reached 131 million, and its cross-platform membership program had 12 million members. Monthly active earners (drivers and couriers) grew to 5.4 million at the year's close. In the fourth quarter, active advertising merchants were 315,000.
Uber’s corporate headquarters is in San Francisco Bay Area, California. However, it has 25 offices across the United States & Canada, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. As of December 31st, 2022, Uber had 32,800 employees globally. Fifty-nine percent of its global workforce is 57.5% male and 42.5% female. In the United States, 40.3% of its workers are white, 36% are Asians, 9.3% are Black/African American, and 9.9% are Hispanics or Latinx.
At the close of 2022, Uber Technologies, Inc reported in its investor’s report that it ended the year with its most robust quarter record earning of all time. Revenue for the year ended 31st December 2022 grew 49% year-on-year to $8.6 billion. The company generated $4.1 billion as revenue from Mobility, recording an 82% year-on-year growth. In addition, it generated $2.9 billion as revenue from Delivery, averaging a 21% year-on-year growth, $1.5 billion from Freight, revealing a 43% year-on-year increase, and $500 million as advertising revenue.
The idea for Uber came to Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp in 2008. These founders, who had sold their startups (Red Swoosh and StumbleUpon) for $15 and $75 billion, respectively, attended a tech conference in Paris. One snowy evening in Paris, the friends experienced some frustration securing a cab, so they came up with the idea of creating an app that allowed people to book private rides from their phones. This way, no one would ever have to wait too long for public transport or a taxi service.
Garrett Camp kept working on the idea as a side piece, even after the conference was over and he had returned to San Francisco. In 2009, he bought the domain UberCab.com and invited Kalanick to work on the black car service model. In May 2010, they officially launched in San Francisco with three cars, renamed the company “Uber,” and received seed funding of $1.2 million from First Round Capital. The app quickly became a hit.
After facing resistance in New York, the company expanded to Paris in 2011. In 2013, Uber Drivers filed a suit against the company, requesting to be designated as employees rather than contract workers. Uber agreed to settle the class-action lawsuit in 2019 with $20 million. In 2014, it launched UberPool, for ride-sharing. In August 2015, it expanded into the food delivery service with the launch of UberEATS. Two years before its IPO, the company suffered a sexual harassment suit and agreed to pay $4.4 million to Uber employees who suffered harassment at work.
On May 9, 2019, Uber Technologies, Inc announced its initial public offering (IPO) pricing. In a press release, the company reported t it would price 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock at $45 per share on the New York Stock Exchange under “UBER.” the new price would have valued the company at $82.4 billion, below its earlier prediction of $100 billion and much under the $120 billion Wall Street Analysts predicted. However, it failed to meet up. On May 10, the company opened a sale at $42 per share and close at $41.57, valuing it at $69 billion.
Between 2009 and 2020, the company raised $25.2 billion in 32 funding rounds. Since its launch, Uber Technologies, Inc has acquired 13 companies and made 22 investments. Uber’s recent acquisitions include Routematch Software, Autocab, Postmates, Drizly, and Transplace. In addition, it launched Uber One in 2021. On February 22, 2023, the company announced a redesign of the Uber App, which would include exciting features like a more personalized home screen and a progress tracker.
Between 2021 and 2023, Uber received awards and recognitions from top brands like Comparably, India Workplace Equality Index, Built In, Human Rights Campaign, Military Friendly, Fortune Business Insights, and Great Place to Work for its efforts in diversity, equity & inclusion, gender equality, perks & benefits, work-life balance, career opportunities, ride-hailing, and company culture.
Uber’s mission is to reimagine the way the world moves for the better.
Uber’s core values combine its shared beliefs, the mindset it embraces, its choices, and its actions.
Uber's core values are as follows:
Uber’s business units can be divided into three major sectors: Mobility, Delivery, and Freight. Uber collaborates with partners on each of these business units to ensure the viability of its business model (to facilitate the supply and demand of mobility solutions) and the continuance of its goal (to make movement better for all its stakeholders).
The company generates revenue from unique product and service offerings: Ridesharing: for connecting riders to private drivers (UberX, UberX Share, Uber Confort, Uber Black, Scooters, and Uber WAV); Uber Eats: for connecting eaters to restaurants; Uber Transit: for connecting riders to on-demand public transits; Uber Freight: for connecting shippers to haulers; Uber for Business: for offering tailored rides, meals, and delivery solutions to companies across healthcare, automotive, real estate, hospitality, government, consulting, and financial industries through separate mobile apps.
Uber also generates money from offering Advertising Solutions (Journey Ads, Homepage Billboards, Sponsored Listings, Car Top Ads, Storefront Ads, In-Menu Ads, Sponsored Emails, and Post-checkout Ads) to its partners.
Uber uses complex data to optimize its user experience. Although its user interface may look simple, it is built on complex systems. We can break its original monolithic architecture into many parts (infrastructure and storage, logging, app provisioning, routing, service discovery, development and deployment, languages, testing, reliability, observability, and Mapping) relying on a host of microservices.
According to Stackshare, Uber has 59 technologies in its tech stack. The company uses 22 application and data tools, 13 utilities, 17 DevOps, and seven business tools. Uber’s core application and data tools include Python, Node.js, Java, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Kafka, Swift, GoLang, Objective-C, Apache Spark, Hadoop, and RIBs. Some of Uber's utilities are Google Analytics, Elastic Search, and TensorFlow. Its DevOps comprise Grafana, Prometheus, Nagios, Puppet Labs, Graphite, and Jaeger. Its business tools include G Suite, Asana, Zendesk, and Mattermost.
Uber’s commitment to building career-building apprenticeship programs aligns with its commitment to promoting diversity in the workplace. According to Uber, great minds don’t think alike because they’re a product of diverse backgrounds. To further this claim, the company launched its first apprenticeship program in 2017. Through the help of Kurtis Nusbaum and Josh Clemm, Uber created a software engineering apprenticeship in 2018. The program, which launched with six apprentices, provided non-traditional candidates with a six-month immersive training and mentorship.
Uber’s software engineering apprenticeship seemed to have morphed into a software engineering fellowship and was piloted in January 2022. In addition, the company has launched four workforce development programs within three years. The latest is the data science apprenticeship which was launched in October 2022.
As part of its commitment to promote diversity in the tech industry, the data science apprenticeship will recruit individuals with stem degrees, historically excluded from technology careers, a chance to break into data science. Uber partnered with the University of Maryland Global Campus to provide foundational data science knowledge to apprentices. The college credits earned during this program can go towards obtaining an undergraduate business analytics certificate at UMGC.
Candidates applying to the Uber design or data science apprenticeship program must commit six to eight months to receive classroom and on-the-job training in using some of the world’s most sophisticated technologies and best practices. Upon completing either of the apprenticeships, you’ll be allowed to interview for a full-time role at Uber.
As an Uber design apprentice, your training starts with a free user experience design immersive (UXDI) course at the General Assembly. While at this coding bootcamp, you’ll complete nine weeks of in-class instructions, coaching, and portfolio development before moving on to the eight-month rotational apprenticeship at Uber. This paid eight-month apprenticeship allows you to join a design team led by industry experts, receive mentorship, and collaborate with product design, product management, software engineering, and research and writing teams.
The paid data science apprenticeship program spans six months. In the first three months, the University of Maryland Global Campus will offer live training in statistics, data manipulation, and visualization. In the remaining half of the program, candidates will join the data science team at Uber to build hands-on skills in defining performance measurements, statistical modeling, and consumer product experiment design and analysis. At graduation, apprentices will share their capstone projects as a final expedited interview for consideration for a full-time role at Uber.
General Assembly (GA) will prep Ux design apprentices to build the next wave of software apps, websites, and digital products with simple user interfaces. Beyond providing in-class instructions, advanced design project development resources, and career coaching within nine weeks, the apprentices will receive regular performance feedback to allow them to monitor their progress before moving to Uber to work on impactful projects.
The topics you’ll cover at GA include affinity mapping, user research process, rapid prototyping, usability testing, responsive design, project management, UX writing, HTML & CSS, agile development, product planning, and product development.
This apprenticeship is for candidates interested in using data insights to influence Uber's product and business decision-making by working alongside experts. Candidates with a background in analytics will boost their knowledge of statistics, data modeling, probability, and data visualization. As an apprentice, you’ll also improve your Python and SQL skills. You'll also learn to generate hypotheses, design experiments, interpret results, and measure success using key performance indicators and other business metrics.
Uber's apprenticeship is still in the early adoption phase, so there is insufficient data to base judgment on. However, Uber is committed to helping underrepresented individuals launch tech careers within its company by providing them with the necessary resources. As such, you should expect most apprentices to convert to full-time roles at the end of their respective programs.
Uber ensures its apprentices earn a competitive salary while participating in the program. However, Uber hasn't revealed the actual figure earned by apprentices. Nonetheless, Glassdoor has offered salary estimates for Uber's full-time user experience and data science employees. A full-time UX designer at Uber makes an average of $166,881 annually. The amount includes $108,345 as base salary and $58,536 as additional pay. A full-time data scientist at Uber earns an average of $186,861 annually. This amount covers $125,449 as base salary and $61,412 as bonus pay.
Uber offers a host of benefits and perks to its apprentices. As a data science apprentice, you can look forward to comprehensive healthcare, assistance programs, monthly well-being reimbursements, life insurance, employee stock purchase program, sick leaves, local holidays, voting days off, paid vacations, paid parental leave, flexible work structures, Cleo's benefits program, monthly credits for Uber Rides and UberEats, meals, and snacks. In addition, UX design apprentices can look forward to full coding bootcamp tuition coverage.
Uber Apprenticeship Selection: How Are Cohorts Chosen?
To be considered for the Uber UX design apprenticeship, you must reside in the San Francisco Bay Area and need help launching a tech career. General Assembly chooses candidates based on merit and financial need. Candidates who have applied for and received public benefits and are eligible for EITC in the last two years are favorites for the GA's UXDI course.
Candidates interested in the data science apprenticeship must have a bachelor's or master's degree in a STEM field or two years of experience in a full-time data-based role. As an applicant, you should also have some technical knowledge of SQL, statistics, and A/B testing and a curiosity to learn new technologies and methodologies. Of course, you must be a San Francisco resident and authorized to work in the United States.
Uber Apprenticeship Program Interview: Is the Uber Interview Hard?
Interviews at Uber have a difficulty rate of 2.9. If you’re applying to the data science or UX design apprenticeship, you must start by visiting the Uber Careers page to browse available apprenticeship roles. Depending on the open position, you may be required to submit a resume, cover letter/essay, and portfolio. Once your application has been reviewed and approved, you’ll be contacted by a Talents Acquisition team recruiter or a General Assembly admissions officer for a general discussion about your interest in Uber and the role and how your background and skills suit the open position.
Depending on your response, you may be contacted again to chat with an Uber hiring manager. This session is more technical than the last one. You’ll be asked role-specific questions, so support your answers with factual data. Uber advises candidates to use the STAR (situation, task, action, and result) method when answering questions. The technical assessment may feature a coding challenge, analytics assessment, or portfolio review.
Next are remote interviews with the GA admissions or Uber hiring team. Here, you'll be expected to solve a technical problem collaboratively. Finally, you'll be notified of your acceptance into the program through an email containing an offer letter.
Uber may recruit six to nine apprentices per cohort. For example, in 2018, the company recruited six apprentices into its software engineering apprenticeship cohort. It followed a similar sequence in October 2022 when the company announced it would hire nine apprentices for the first data science apprenticeship cohort launching in January 2023.
Uber Apprenticeship Cohort Frequency: How Often is a Cohort Hired?
Uber recruits new apprenticeship cohorts at least twice each year. In June 2022, the Uber Talents Acquisition team welcomed a new cohort of apprentices into its user experience design apprenticeship program. In October of the same, it called for nine apprentices for its data science apprenticeship cohort, which kicked off in January 2023.
Uber is an excellent company to work for if you're innovative or historically marginalized and can't wait to bring your unique ideas to life. According to employee reviews from Glassdoor, Uber has a 4.0 out of five-star rating for offering flexible work schedules, an inspiring and supportive work environment, good colleagues, and great perks and benefits. However, some reviewers suggest that the decision-making process at Uber needs to be decentralized and that the compensation for some roles needs to be higher. Seventy-six percent of reviewers agree to recommend Uber to a friend, and 79% approve of the CEO.
Getting a job at Uber is easy if you've prepared well enough. Candidates who apply through the apprenticeship program may find it easier to land roles at Uber than those who apply directly to the entry or mid-level positions. In addition, Uber offers four diversity-focused career programs to new college graduates, coding bootcamp graduates, self-taught programmers, returnees, and even veterans. You can apply to the internship, apprenticeship, fellowship, or academy programs depending on your academic and work background.
Is a data science apprenticeship at Uber worth it?
A data science apprenticeship at Uber can quickly pivot you to a high-value career in the data science and machine learning fields. Uber ensures its apprentices receive theoretical and practical training in all core data-related topics. As an apprentice, you also receive ongoing mentorship and feedback from industry experts, allowing you to monitor your progress. You may be offered a full-time role at Uber after your apprenticeship. However, even if you're not, having an Uber apprenticeship on your resume will boost your chances of landing a job in any top technology company.
To land an Uber UX apprenticeship, you must be willing to show the company that your values align with its mission and core values. You must also be able to show how well you're ready to work for Uber through your performance in the General Assembly UXDI course. Only candidates who excel in the coding bootcamp can continue the program with Uber. While you don't need any UX design or tech experience to apply for the General Assembly UXDI course, you should be knowledgeable about the field.
The Uber Careers page and the Uber Blog provide current news about Uber’s work culture, mission, core values, workforce development programs, office locations, teams, company news & business initiatives, engineering tech stack, developer best practices, and product updates.
You should visit the Uber DEI page to learn more about Uber's commitment to promoting a vibrant diversity, equity, and inclusion culture and the various employee resource groups available.
You can get news about Uber's early career programs, which include its data science and UX design apprenticeship programs, from the Uber Job List page.
If you don’t want to track and monitor the Uber apprenticeship program for yourself or are looking for support in an apprenticeship application, you can join apprenticeship.io to learn more and get support to land an apprenticeship program.
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