This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Stewart, a 28-year-old brand marketing manager at Tinder, based in Los Angeles. His identity has been confirmed by Business Insider. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
I started as a design intern at Tinder in the UK in 2021, and from there, I sort of weaseled my way up. Now I’ve been with the company for almost five years, and I work out of the Los Angeles office.
I applied during COVID, when it was hard to get any job. So I was sending out a lot of applications.
I was a very active Tinder user at the time, so I feel like that gave me an edge. I really knew how it worked, and showing that I had insight into the product helped.
This is how I turned the job into a full-time role:
I was eager to learn
Being based in the UK gave me a slight advantage because the European team was smaller and that gave me more visibility. So I tried to make the most of that opportunity. I was super eager to learn from the people around me.
Something unique about Tinder is how un-hierarchical it is. To this day, I feel no nervousness walking up to the CEO and asking a question. They really care about everyone’s opinion, and they’re not pretending to know more about Gen Z culture than anyone else.
The more I was exposed to that, the more it emboldened me to put in a one-on-one with the senior director of a team, just to learn.
I definitely felt nervous at first, but framing those conversations as a learning experience — and approaching them with curiosity — helped. So, if you can, whether that’s a one-off Slack or a team meeting, you should try to be curious.
I pitched my own role
During my internship, I made it a priority to ask questions, get to know other departments, learn how everything worked, and offer support where I could. Over time, that helped me build trust and get a clearer sense of where I could make the most impact.
While I was there, a lot of the teams in Europe needed designers, and I got requests from all over the continent — in Spanish, French, and German. At the end of my internship, I was supporting a lot of people in the region.
It became clear that I was filling an important gap in the organization. I also knew that if I left at the end of my internship, several initiatives I was supporting would lose continuity and momentum.
So after my internship was over, I actually put forward a request about what I thought the company needed, based on the gaps I saw in the business. My mindset was that the worst thing they could say was “no,” and I was already leaving anyway. So, I might as well give it a shot. Perhaps a little boldly, I scheduled time with a general manager to present the role, explain the business need I had identified, and make the case for why I should fill it.
The role I originally pitched was called “creative marketing associate.” It focused on developing and executing creative concepts across Tinder’s digital marketing and social channels.
They appreciated the initiative, and it ended up being accepted — so that’s how I bulldozed my way in. Later that month, I was told the headcount had been approved and that they wanted to bring me on full-time.
My role has grown significantly. Now I lead some of our largest global brand campaigns and partnerships, collaborating with top creative agencies to develop strategy, build marketing plans, bring campaigns to life, and oversee productions around the world.
While the position I have today is quite different from the one I initially proposed, it was built on the same foundation. Pitching that role created an opportunity for me to stay with the company, deepen my experience across marketing and creative disciplines, and ultimately grow into broader brand leadership responsibilities.
