Houzz Employee Reviews about "low pay"

Pros

Incredible co-workers. Have made some lifelong friends. Free breakfast on Mondays, free lunch on Friday Get to wear workout clothes on Wednesdays Stocked kitchen ....I would GLADLY give away all of these for higher pay and job security

Cons

This is going to be long....sorry... Pay: $18.03 per hour($37,500 annually)- overtime is NOT allowed. During the interview process it was communicated multiple times that the average Account Executive would make $70k-$80k with some top performers even getting as high as six figures. Very shortly after being hired it was clear that the average pay was more along the lines of $45k-$55k with top performers in the $55k-$65k range. Any additional office competitions can win you a $5-$100 gift card that usually takes a few months to receive. I know many AEs that have still not received the gift card from the very first competition with their training class. Communication: can simply be stated as over promising and under delivering, or just lying. For example, a 'policy change' in November changed performance plan dates and immediately put roughly 60-70% of the office on a plan. As of todays date, December 15th, I would imagine that nearly 90% of the Phoenix office is currently on a performance plan to soon be pushed out the door. With the recent drop off of qualified leads for the AEs to call, there had been promises that there were brighter days ahead for Nov and Dec with the 'Winter Wonderland' promotions. The only promotions that are offered are a 2nd month free for professionals or a 20% discount for multiple packages(something we could technically already offer). I understand trying to motivate a sales team but over promising on changes that don't happen made the situation even worse. Leads: the leads are currently the biggest struggle for the AE position. We are calling home professionals that have been called a countless number of times over the past 4 years. Many people hang up or yell at you as soon as you say that you are from Houzz. Finding qualified leads is a major issue for Houzz right now and a big reason that the sales department is shrinking so rapidly. IPO: Houzz is gearing up to go public so there are a ton of changes, all at the expense of their employees. Just this week, they notified the Account Managers that they will essentially be dissolving their department. Besides very top performers(so like 5 people) all Account Managers will either need to interview for Account Executive(while they are pushing AEs out the door?), move to the marketplace department, or take 1 months severance pay. They are also changing sales goals in 2018 to increase(WHY?) the amount of sales that a rep will need to make per month to not be put on a performance plan. Even top performers are currently struggling to not be put on a plan and NO ONE is making good money. Also, once you get put on a plan, even if you get enough sales to get off of one, if you ever find yourself having a slower month, you will immediately be put on a final plan. It is clear that they want to cut employees at this time, which is understandable, but the way that they are going about it is incredibly shady and shows that they don't care about their employees.

Pros

Greatest co-workers! I have made life long friends working at Houzz. That being said, the company just got rid of most of their recruiters so who knows what kind of people will be hired next. Lots of food in the fridge, very social environment, catered breakfast and lunch once a week.

Cons

If you are looking for any intellectual stimulation or professional growth this is not the job for you. There are absolutely no exciting positions and mostly all moves are lateral. Out of the 2 years I worked for the company, I have never had a friend excited about their position. If you are looking for a good sales role to build up your resume - this is not it. The sales are extremely transactional and I can say first hand other employers are not impressed by it. Extremely low pay - that is clear from all the reviews. It is saddening how bad the work environment has become but I don’t see any fixing it at this point. Since I have left the roof seems to be caving in. No job is safe as departments are “dissolved” constantly. The pay structure is always changing to the point where you can lose a percentage of your salary at any moment. Goals are not obtainable, out of the 28 people on my team 3 of us had a sales average in line with our sales goal.

Pros

Great people and great middle managers Culture was great pre-pandemic Amazing health insurance Learned a ton from different projects and great mentors I got good pay raises for a few years before it plateaued Ivy acquisition was a strong business move

Cons

Houzz has poor project planning and doesn't listen to the expertise of even their director level hires. Things moved too fast where new ideas would come up and people would work crazy hours to get things in motion instead of scheduling new initiatives for a few weeks out. The upper management often ignores data and they'll make decisions that are contrary to what customers and potential customers have said that they want. Houzz was unwilling to invest in external pro marketing for years and it impacted them in terms of SEO and a slowdown in warm leads - initiatives that my former manager proposed in 2017 didn't get up and running until 2021. Houzz tries to operate on too lean of a team, meaning that often you are the only person that can do your job which makes it nearly impossible to take like a week off any time that isn't around the winter holidays, so it can be hard to travel. Layoffs every year. I got really good at saving my money because you can never feel safe about your job. There was definitely a divide too between the older managers who earned enough to own homes and renovate and younger renters who couldn't afford to participate in the renovation industry and I always felt a little embarrassed to just live in an apartment. My last pay raise was may 2019 and in 2020 they only gave us RSUs. But RSUs can't help me pay my bills today. When they were finally hiring another person for my team with the same title, the pay ranged from $2500-$12500 more than what I made and they were willing to hire someone remote who lives in a lower cost of living area than Orange county. Also the UK team members got way more maternity leave than US team members which always felt like a point of jealousy even though I never went on mat leave myself, and they would get temp workers to fill the gap because they are gone for up to a year but that didn't happen in the US They talked about career pathing in 2017 but it must not have applied to marketing because my manager had no idea what it was when I asked about it, and when I left in 2021 the leveling for marketing was still in the works after being revisited in late 2020.

Pros

Fun culture and team environment

Cons

Low pay and really hard to actually make money unless you're an AE5. The leads are horrible and you have to make 80+ dials a day while getting paid very low. Once you finish ramp-up the support is minimal and they only care about the top reps rather than helping the newer ones.

Pros

Really great for a recent college grad looking to get into tech sales and great coworkers

Cons

Low pay and the products are not very good

Pros

This place looks like a dream and it is, but only for about 2 weeks. The kitchen and the amount of snacks I get to take home is great. You'll meet great people and all of you will be miserable together. You'll go out on the weekends and talk about how unhappy you all are and how you got tricked into thinking you were going to be making over 50k (jokes on us). You can sit there and read a magazine in-between calls, working in a call center can't be that bad. At least you'll have friends.

Cons

Young and cute or tall and handsome, but just graduated from college then come on in. You don't know any better so lets pay you as much as someone at In-N-Out makes. Everyone went to college and paid a lot for their degree, the pay here is poor. Multi-Billion dollar company but they spend all their money on catered lunches, birthday celebrations, and decorating the office. Oh, but they'll try and sell you on the endless possibilities of commission, but be careful a 'cap' on the commission structure might magically appear next month when you didn't have one in the first place. Let's be real the party started in 2014 and we are very late, good luck making it to a management position.

Pros

Houzz has a great work environment. You are surrounded by friendly and intelligent young professionals who work hard and support each other. All the employees at Houzz are very personable and you definitely end up building great friendships! There is a fully stocked kitchen, and there are catered lunches on Fridays.

Cons

Despite all the raving reviews Houzz's organization definitely needs to change. There is a huge lack of communication between managers and employees and often times it takes a few weeks to receive an accurate response to a question. On top of that there is a lot of micro-managing which creates a lack of trust between managers and employees. Every decision is funneled through to one major decision maker so although the company is growing rapidly, there is no real change and your career is stagnant. There is no long term growth within the company and all the positions including 'promotions' are equivalent to entry level positions. Houzz also creates a facade where it seems as if everything is going great, but it is discouraged to address certain issues and your concerns are usually met with rebuttal. The base pay structure is very low and the commission structure is also very inconsistent. When you reach out regarding specific details about your paycheck, the inquiries often go ignored.

Pros

The work environment is amazing! We do fun things like Workout Wednesday (you can wear workout clothes), monthly birthday celebrations, fun themed lunches for holidays, etc. Opportunity for growth. Good benefits. PTO and sick days are comparable to most work places. The work-life balance offered by Houzz exceeds most companies. Houzz also has a fully stocked fridge with snack foods and drinks everyday which is super nice!

Cons

The base pay is very minimal. You do have the opportunity to make that up in commission bonuses. My goals/pay have changed within my role; creating a lower bonus opportunity which is unfortunate. Very fast pace which can be overwhelming at times.

Pros

Free food. Nice office. Co workers are great. Two weeks PTO (no sick time). Apple products and new office space

Cons

Where to begin. The level of micromanaging has reached an all time high. They have now implemented a computer system that tells you when you are allowed to get up from your desk for a break or for lunch. Morale is pretty low as anyone in upper management is negative and un approachable. The customer support team is heading down hill fast. Customer experience is extremely important to Houzz business model and the way they have things going, quality of customer support will continue to decline. My advice to anyone applying: do not be fooled by the fancy office and free food. It is a show. What good is free food when you are not able to get up from your desk when you want to get it? This is becoming a highly micro managed call center with negative attitudes and the pay is also very low. Save yourself the trouble

Pros

Freedom with great potential growth

Cons

Low pay and hard to make sales