Zillow Reviews

Pros

This company does a great job at being open and honest to employees when it comes to finances, employee satisfaction and overall "health" of the organization.

Cons

Lack of work/life balance and pay isn't as competitive as with comparable companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees work HARD and should be given more recognition/reward for the work they do.

Pros

Zillow has a spectacular location in a downtown Seattle highrise with a very nice view: http://condodomain.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/zillow-view.gif The laid back work atmosphere is comparable with many small startups and encourages innovation. The benefits are also competitive; comparable to those offerred by much larger companies. There are also lots of cool amenities in the workplace, like air hockey, ping pong, Xbox 360, free soda, red bull and a stocked kitchen. It can be a very rewarding place to work if you report to the right manager. Most of the employees are friendly and it is a genuinely fun place to work.

Cons

New managers are not given any sort of training, and can be very ineffective and "sell out" under pressure instead of trying to act in favor of their own employees. Also, requirements for advancement are ambiguously worded which senior management leverages to avoid giving deserved compensation and recognition. Only the people in high profile positions will be recognized for their accomplishments. Program Management is totally unstructured and requirements are often very poorly defined.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat all employees respectfully.

Pros

Management is very accessible, if you have a question they are ready with an answer. They also work hard to build bridges between teams and helping communication both on their team and across to members of other teams. Also, the biweekly happy hours where you can kick back a beer, play an impromptu game of ping pong and chat with upper management are pretty sweet.

Cons

It is still a pre-pubescent start-up with all of the awkwardness and imperfections that implies. Sometimes we try a new path, and it doesn't work, sometimes our process has a few blemishes. Always thinking on your feet and anticipating the next hiccup can drain the energy and move focus from long term projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Let us know we are doing a good job, create some laughter and excitement around the work place. Also, it's great to reach for the stars, but always picking goals that we cannot achieve is disheartening.

Pros

Fantastic people, fun atmosphere, interesting technical challenges, easy to advance through solid performance. Zillow is on its way to taking a big slice of the online real estate pie, which is only increasing in size. They have a lot of talented engineers who understand what it means to work hard, play hard. Their business philosophy of handing useful information feels like a noble goal to work toward.

Cons

Chaotic work environment can lead to excessive stress for those who don't thrive on it. It can be difficult to push individual ideas and inventions into serious consideration relative to the vision of senior management or more pressing business needs of the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Some of the biggest successes on the site were not the result of Senior Management's original visions. Embrace the vision and fresh ideas of the engineers when determining the site's future directions.

Pros

I get to work on cool projects. There are fun, smart people at Zillow and I contribute and learn from them. Zillow is a fast pace culture, but there is good work/live balance as well. Kind of out of the first stage of a startup, but still a lot going on and still very early stage. My manager helps me understand why what I work on is important and how I can grow in my career and help the company succeed.

Cons

Sometimes projects get started and changed midstream. This can be frustrating at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep investing in the people.

Pros

good junk food, nice office location and view, friendly people

Cons

commute, startup pressures, no IPO in sight

Advice to Senior Management

more avenues to exit, get bought or go IPO.

Pros

The location is phenomenal -- offices are in downtown Seattle on floors 46 and 41 of the Wells Fargo building. Most people have views of Elliott Bay or Mount Rainier. The product (real estate), which has not moved ahead in any way, is like an open canvas, waiting to be explored. There are so many ways to innovate in this industry that it's mind-blowing to think about the myriad opportunities and business direction coming ahead.

Cons

There are certain groups that have a hard time at Zillow -- namely, design. We've had a lot of turnover in that group. But, I think it's a matter of finding the right people who are a good fit here, rather than hiring just on talent. Lots of designers come in here and want to make their mark. I don't think this is the place to make your mark, if you're a designer. You just need to get the designs out as quickly as possible.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire talented people, but make sure they fully understand the exact day-in/day-out expectations of them and their work.

Pros

The working environment is the number #1 reason to work for Zillow. Common areas and stocked kitchens are a close #2.

 The work hard, play hard mentality of this company as a whole is like none that I have ever seen (This is my first time working for an internet company). We work some long hours, for sometime weeks in a row. The company provides dinner for teams that stay late hours, and there are great parties after great successes. Zillow employees, are very well taken care of.

Cons

distance from home, is the only downside for me, in working for Zillow.

Advice to Senior Management

Another of my favorite things about this company is, Upper Management will hangout in the common area's talking with employees. They also do not look down on the other employees, this includes the CEO, and President.

Pros

Great people whom you can trust to do their job well, great opportunity in an industry that can use innovation, and strong shared sense of mission to fulfill consumer needs. I feel lucky to work with this quality of colleagues on this kind of business opportunity with this redeeming a project.

One other thing -- transparency on strategy and performance to the whole company. This company is pretty unique in the degree to which everyone can know what's going on and how we're doing.

Cons

Things move fast -- you have to be comfortable living with the foot on the gas. As start-ups go, this is run as a survivable business. We're not on a forced march to IPO, leaving bodies along the path -- we have fun, people can take vacations. The people need to work long hours with some regularity, as we ship a lot of stuff, but certainly not every day.

The culture is straightforward, which can feel blunt and even harsh. Personally, I appreciate a culture where everyone (at every rung of the ladder) can say what they think -- as long as they back it up with data or rationale. There is little beating around the bush, which means things get done faster. Sometimes the bluntness involves less tact than it could, but hey this is a tech company.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on developing mid managers, and helping mid managers train and develop their reports. We have smart people in some positions without a lot of management experience. Sometimes execs assume that smart people can automatically manage well. Some execs could also think about managing people more, not just projects and features. We do have some good execs on this front, but not all.

Pros

There are too many reasons to choose from, but my main best reason to work for Zillow is they truly care about their employees, and realize that Zillow is what it is because of the team of employees at Zillow. Beyond that, its the day to day enjoyment of working with a great team from tech to business, who really enjoy being there.

Cons

People who are not familiar with a start up not realizing how wonderful life at zillow is!

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work!!