Graduate Careers at Groupon

Groupon is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in the world and as it expands its daily deals into more and more cities, is constantly looking for new employees. Recruitment is ongoing, so be sure to keep checking the Groupon jobs website for roles you’re interested in.

The Groupon Graduate Programme

Groupon runs a three-month graduate programme at its London office on an ongoing basis, with flexible start and end dates. For the three months you’ll be working full-time in one of these six departments: Editorial, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, After sales, Finance and Research & Development. You’ll have introductory training at the beginning, but from then on your training will mostly be on-the-job. If you have a successful three months then you may well be offered a permanent position within the department; Groupon are keen to keep their graduates on.

Interested in taking part? You need an excellent academic background, good communication skills and commercial awareness, as well as a readiness to work in the fast-paced environment that is Groupon. Applying for the graduate programme itself is simple. The graduate roles are subject to an on-going hiring process and involve sending off an online application form via Groupon’s dedicated career site. Here you will have to attach your CV and a convincing covering letter. Groupon also allows you to include your LinkedIn profile with your application, so it’s worth ensuring this is up to date.

If you are successful, you will be invited for a face-to-face interview. Depending on the role, the interview will last around 45 – 60 minutes. Questions will focus on your experience, skills and motivation to undertake the graduate programme. Groupon helpfully has a blog with tips from HR on the interview process so it’s definitely worth your time to read this before any interview you may have with the company.

Groupon Profile & Stats

It’s official – Groupon is the fastest growing company... ever! Launched in October 2008, Groupon became the first business to amass $1 billion in sales in less than 18 months. And the secret to its unrivalled success? Providing daily localised deals on the best stuff to do, see, eat and buy across more than 260 different markets worldwide. Having charged into 88 US cities and 35 countries, Groupon now offers its deal-of-the-day to more than 33 million registered users.

Groupon grew out of an online community project called ThePoint.com, which organised group action and fund-raising around a ‘tipping point’ of required participants. With $1 million seed money from his former employer, Andrew Mason began by offering group coupons for half-price pizzas in a restaurant on the first floor of his Chicago office. The rest, as they say, is now history.

Put simply, Groupon presents audiences with substantial discounts on a product or service. However, a deal is only valid if the number that registered for the coupon passes a predetermined quota – hence the company name, amalgamated from ‘group’ and ‘coupon’. If this minimum isn’t met, the registers’ credit cards aren’t charged; if it is, then the customers benefit from massive discounts. The benefit to the vendor isn’t, as you might expect, the short-term financial rewards – Groupon will often share the resulting revenue 50/50 – but what they do get is exposure for their business. 

Groupon’s online coup d'etat was only made possible by providing high quality products. The company breaks into new markets only after identifying successful businesses first – as Groupon’s website states, ‘we only sell stuff we want to buy’. After shortlisting companies on the basis of outstanding reviews, Groupon’s sales team takes over; they make their approach, explain the model and promote the deal using social networking sites such as Facebook.

Another factor in Groupon’s rapid growth spurt is acquisitions. In 2010 alone, Groupon merged with European-based MyCityDeal, South American ClanDescuento, the Singaporean Beeconomic.com, Japanese service Qpod.jp, Russian site Russian Darberry.ru, and India’s SoSasta.com. Each new addition is rebranded and assimilated into the Groupon machine.

This momentum initially seems at odds from the background of its founder, Andrew Mason. Relaxed, 29 years old, a music major from Northwestern University; facts that don’t immediately paint a picture of a prodigious business magnate. In fact, until he was 25, Mason thought he was “going to be a rock musician”. But he states, “it wasn’t about being a rock star; it was about being part of a counterculture”. This attitude and freshness translated seamlessly into the business realm; Mason even plucked performers from the Chicago improve-comedy scene to put together witty sales pitches to out manoeuvre competitors. And it is this approach and humour that has helped Groupon strike a chord with its market of young, educated, and predominantly female customers. Yet a company can only maintain success by keeping its customers happy. Groupon prides itself on treating customers ‘the way [it would] like to be treated’, and therefore makes sure it distances itself from the ‘sneaky, shrouded conditions’ that could so easily blight a growing company’s reputation. And so far, the evidence suggests Mason has more than achieved this.