Zillow Employee Reviews about "work life balance"
Updated Nov 19, 2021
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
- "The company will consider input from all levels and fosters a great work life balance." (in 108 reviews)
- "Poor Management specifically forecasting future of the business/projects/new ventures." (in 59 reviews)
- "Senior leadership made some very poor choices in allowing the Zillow Offers biz to continue on." (in 58 reviews)
- "Upper management seems adamant about providing the best work environment for their employees and has put forth much time and energy into this matter." (in 18 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Zillow and is not affected by filters.
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Reviews about "work life balance"
Return to all Reviews- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Great People, Questionable Leadership
Apr 3, 2022 - Senior Applied ScientistRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
- Direct management in my experience is often great - People really care, even if morale recently took a large hit - Hired fantastic ICs, some managers are really good as well - Work-life balance is great; I often feel supported to do what I need to do to be successful at work - Remote-positive work is great
Cons
- Accountability and root cause analysis of what lead to ZO are completely missing - All-Hands are used to talk about warm & fuzzy things, not about where we are, where we need to be, what data is there to support that we're going int he right direction - Leadership that oversaw ZO is still there to a large degree, not clear what the take-aways are - Skip-level leaders are often times not very technical which hinders their ability to critically discuss crucial data that's used to make important business decisions
Continue reading - Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Great company with great culture
Feb 2, 2022 - Software Development Engineer IIRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Nice benefits and a great culture. The work life balance is good and it's clear the company actually values its employees.
Cons
Stock has been a bit low since the ZO wind down, but other than that, everything is running smoothly.
- Former Employee★★★★★
Started Off Great, Ended Poorly
Sep 25, 2017 - Anonymous EmployeeRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
- Benefits cannot be beaten - Diverse cultures across teams was great to experience - Compensation was good - Cross pollination was insightful
Cons
- Difficult to have a work life balance when you're asked to work unreasonable amount of hours - No room for career growth or opportunities to learn from past mistakes - There were many cases of miscommunications/poor assumptions made of team members. This led to many cases of office politics, gossip, and poor efforts on management to handle.
Continue readingThank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to hear that you felt your experience on your team ended poorly. I'd be open and interested to hear more about your specific team experience, if you'd like to contact me directly -- amy @ zillowgroup Best -- Amy (COO)
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Consider yourself lucky if you work here
Mar 3, 2014 - Engineer in Seattle, WARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Leadership has done a great deal of things right and I applaud them for it. Culture has still been very good despite *insane* growth. The work life balance is generally has gotten a lot better since the startup days. Probably a lot better than many other tech companies in the area.
Cons
I miss our company ski day, but luckily vacation scheduling is flexible for those pow days
Zillow Response
CEO (Spencer Rascoff)
Thank you for your review! I miss our ski day also! Maybe I should have brought it back this year. To be honest, I sort of forgot this year -- doing too many things, and it didn't occur to me. True, attendance the last time wasn't great, which is why I think we cut it out. Anyway, I'll think about it going forward. Thank you!
- Current Employee, more than 5 years★★★★★
Remote work is great along with the culture
May 10, 2022 - Senior Software Development ManagerRecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Zillow has a very inclusive culture and strives to create a great working environment for its employees. The company will consider input from all levels and fosters a great work life balance.
Cons
The transition from start up mind set to mid-large size business is still going on in the tech org. This means there are some areas for growth, but it is great that everyone can get involved if they want to pursue that.
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
Questionable leadership and VERY questionable decision making
Nov 19, 2021 - Program Manager in Seattle, WARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
work life balance is pretty great not gonna lie....its pretty easy to coast by months without doing anything actually. Pay used to be competitive but not so much anymore. If I leave (which I am planning to), I'll miss the WLB the most.
Cons
leadership is awful in all orgs from the conversations I've had, nepotism is real and everywhere, managers are mangers from tenure, NOTHING to do with actual leadership skills. My current manager I've had the manage-up the whole time, she is only a manager from tenure - which makes sense because her manager is also a manager from tenure, its a systemic issue at Zillow and it's not going to change anytime soon.
- Current Employee, more than 1 year★★★★★
Pros
I love the collaborative energy here. They really care about their employees. They survey the entire company to see what we would like to get added to the long list of benefits. I have great Co-Workers that are helpful and fun. Also, I love the fresh fruit that comes twice a week. They care about work life balance and know the importance of having fun at work and away from work. I come from a large software company so I went from feeling like a small cog in a large machine. I had an office with no windows and no sense of team in a very 'office political' environment. Here I am an important member of a team with a great view.
Cons
Would love to see Zillow offer in-house child care. This is the one area I think we could improve on.
Zillow Response
CEO (Spencer Rascoff)
Thank you for the great review. I really appreciate it. It made my day. In terms of in-office child care, that is something we have thought about but I think the last time we evaluated it we decided it was too complex from a regulatory standpoint (i.e., the licensing and other legal stuff made it too hard). We decided that there are a few nearby options which work well enough (e.g., Bright Horizons around the corner) so that was probably good. As we continue to add more people though, I'm sure we'll revisit it. I, for one, would have loved to have had my 3 kids in the building while I was at work, so I definitely get where you're coming from! (And while we're at it, I hope someday to be able to convince our Seattle building owner to allow us to bring dogs to work, like we can in our other offices.)
- Current Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
I feel lucky I get to work here.
May 9, 2014 - Development Manager in Seattle, WARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
Smart people, unlimited problems to solve, ability to innovate quickly and test new ideas. You are encouraged to think and go big instead of simply iteration on the existing product. The work life balance is very good for a company that is growing this fast.
Cons
The development effort moves fast and spec light so if you want a detailed spec to code to this isn't your company.
- Former Employee, more than 3 years★★★★★
not a real tech company, PM/sales/banking/MBA culture dominates with lots of politics
May 3, 2020 - Anonymous Employee in Seattle, WARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
My decision to join Zillow was heavily influenced by ratings/reviews here, months after joining I realized its internal environment is not always same as the public image Zillow maintains on media or this platform, may of my colleagues expressed similar opinions. I gave it one star simply because I am a tech person disappointed by Zillow. But certainly there are people with other preferences enjoying Zillow. So my review is not to complain but trying to list some pros & cons from an internal view for job seeking candidates, so hopefully if you do decide to join Zillow, you have a realistic expectation about what you are getting into. It's just my two cents and I try to be objective here: (1)for most org, work life balance is awesome, considering the salary. I have seen some few teams with high pressure/work loads, if there is politics or you need to deliver important projects, but for most teams work load is not heavy (2)the salary could be very competitive if you have previous big tech companies working experience or elite university degree on your resume. (3)For most teams, the hiring standards it very high, I have observed a strong favor towards ivy-league & top universities (4)Zillow is a MBA/sales& marketing/PM culture dominating company instead of technology & start-up spirit dominating company. If you are coming from banking/consulting/sales/finance background, but want enjoy the salary & work-life balance of tech company, Zillow could be the best choice for you in Seattle. Actually I also found people from above background tend to stay at Zillow longer than people in engineers/tech/science, probably because other big four consulting companies/banking/sales positions in Seattle couldn't offer a better package. This eventually could cause some disadvantage for people in engineers/tech/science, as I will mention in the Cons part. (5)Work life balance make it perfect to raise family if you have kids or are planning to have. Lots of ex-employees from other big tech companies choose Zillow due to this, at the same time they can get a better pay. I never seen so many pregnant people in other companies, the maternity leave is also very generous. (6)Good for young people. If you are fresh graduate just starting your career, Zillow is a decent choice to put on your resume. Many social events, snacks, candy wall, game room, parties. It's like a fraternity with many elites from elite schools. (7)Location in Seattle is perfect, the building has awesome view. In summary these are following type of people I found successful & enjoy working at Zillow: - elite schools - Project management/banking/consulting/sales/marketing - stay here for family, kids, work life balance - fresh graduate starting career
Cons
- Company's major revenue sources are driven by sales/platform traffic instead of technology innovation, mostly coming from agent advertisement and potentially instant offer. 10+ years after started, Zillow was still lacking of core innovations/engineering products that generate stable revenue. Google has PageRank, maps, chrome, Android and many others, Microsoft has windows/office/cloud/Bing, Amazon started with platform but later has AWS and Alexa. Zillow is still like Expedia mostly relies on sales & business strategies, and maybe acquiring more companies. - Engineering spirit & tech innovations are below industry standard. There is not enough innovative/engineering/research products that supporting revenue generation. Mostly innovations are just auxiliary parts added to Zillow website/platform, make it more user friendly. This make the situation ridiculous sometimes, on one side this company claim it's tech company, many hack-week initiatives, but most projects/research/engineering product delivered are just adding icing on the cake. I have seen many projects not delivered on time, but there is no consequences simply because they don't matter that much. Politics of ownership happens all the time, simply because capable/talented people are not essential to keep the ball rolling. On the other side, sales & business strategy orgs could be stressed out to meet KPI. In reality when a start-up pass the organic grow period, it will get saturated after a while. - Many leaders are not tech-driven or young, but they joined Zillow at a good time when it was small. Later on as Zillow expanded, they got promoted due to seniority, not because their ability/merits. For security purpose, to keep their positions, they also hire even younger managers or employees and adding layers and layers beneath them. Then soon you found for such a small/mid size start-up company, the number of leaders are overwhelmingly high. You are either in a meeting/social events or on the way to a meeting/social events. - Not so diverse here. Zillow is dominated by elite and aristocracy. To make up for it, there are also lots of diversity hires or promotions due to diversity consideration. - You have to know the right leaders, and fit in their styles to climb up. Again deliver results doesn't always get rewarded, it really depends on whether your leaders are confident and competent, or your leaders are insecure. - Your credits of hard working could be easily taken by some slackers. If you are not happy with that, - Turnover for tech talent is high. When I was at Zillow, there were a chart showing percentage of employees joined the company after you. I found many Zillow employees left the company in 1.5 - 2.5 years. In around 2 years or so, I was ahead of >50% of company employees(partially due to expanding), due to several reasons mentioned above. - Zillow could FIRE PEOPLE WITHOUT WARNING, IMMEDIATELY. Under the shining surface of vivid, young, vibrant, caring, tech-start up image of this company, you will see a culture very different if you stay long enough. During my not so long tenure with Zillow, I saw 4 of my colleagues terminated all of a sudden, additional 2 terminated but they were not colleagues I had direct working relationship with. The politics here could be scary sometimes, leaders were in a hurry to mute the disagreements & conflicts. Please consider this carefully if you rely on the salary here for a stable income or for visa sponsorships. There is no PIP or similar plan which provides you several months of cushion time.
Continue readingZillow Response
CTO
Thank you for your time working with us at Zillow and taking the time to write this lengthy review. We take this and other feedback seriously and will share this with our leadership team. I appreciate you calling out many of the positive elements to the work experience and culture at Zillow. We have an incredible group of employees who care passionately about our business, customers, and each other. You highlight opportunities for certain subsets of our employees, however, we have many examples of opportunities for advancement and career growth across all levels of experience and tenure with the company, not only entry-level or from elite schools. I respect your perspective, but have to disagree with your comments on innovation. I and many of my coworkers are quite proud of the technology innovations that have fueled the growth in our product adoption and usage, and the growth of our business for the past 15 years. That innovative spirit on our engineering teams is what's at the heart of the products we released more recently, including our new 3D walkthroughs and remote touring, online closing services and remote notary, personalized home recommendations, new methods for home selling, online rental application and landlord tools to name a few. We have a wide variety of engineering teams across a broad group of businesses. One of the advantages of working at Zillow is the ability to move between teams and broaden one’s experiences and impact. For any existing (or past) employee reading this review, please know that you can reach out to me or anyone in your management to discuss feedback and ideas you have for improving anything we are doing at Zillow. You will find a listening ear and an open mind to all you have to share. Our HR business partners are also available to assist if you find a more comfortable approach. To this reviewer, thank you for the contributions you made and having been part of our team. I wish you the best in your next endeavor. – David Beitel
- Former Employee, more than 5 years★★★★★
Visionary leaders, but now with added layers of management as the cost of growing the company
Jun 12, 2014 - Manager in Seattle, WARecommendCEO ApprovalBusiness OutlookPros
The top rate talent for co-workers is the norm. The ability to have ownership of projects makes the work meaningful. They create a culture of high expectations and reward accordingly. Work/life balance is important and they do a good job of balancing that for the employees.
Cons
I enjoyed the start-up ethos the company displayed in the early days, but after becoming a public company the level of bureaucracy increased to a point where innovation was slowed down
Zillow Response
CEO (Spencer Rascoff)
Thank you for the feedback. As you probably know, I work very hard to make sure the company moves fast and that we remain every bit as nimble and innovative as we were when we were a 20 person startup. If you ever have suggestions on processes we can improve (or remove), you can always email our alias for that (or email me directly). It looks like you are a former employee, so if you ever want to send me any feedback on how to improve things, please feel free to do so. Thank you!
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