Zipcar Reviews

Pros

Environmentally conscious with a global mentality Incredibly talented engineers always willing to share knowledge Constantly evolving tech Friendly people Flexible work arrangements

Cons

I truly cannot think of one...

Advice to Management

Keep it up with the transparency, it helps us to feel like we're all part of the same team rather than minions running in a wheel.

Pros

Transportation provided, but at a price. Unlike the parent Avis Budget, you get to drive either a body damage car or old vehicle. Avis Budget get weekly cars, mostly high end SUV's. Different treatments , working under one umbrella.

Cons

Horrible salary, on low end. Health benefits thru Aetna is horrible, and I have the best plan. Aetna will avoid to pay for anything, high contributions and deductibles. ZipCar managers walkbon egg shells, non thinkers , who micro manages. Will make you do their work. They solve problems with creating more docs. The company is frugal, hardly any overtime.

Advice to Management

Let your employees work without micro managing their time. Have consistency when you talk. Give people a decent wage vs the competition. Grow some courage, stand up for your team. Don't be to Andy about overtime, it is needed. It's not coming out of your pocket. STIP should be given to entire team, not just break the backs of everyone, so the managers profit. There is no I in team

Pros

Work from home option, good people, and good location.

Cons

Product is too old, new features are rolled out too slow, and constantly changing product requirement.

Advice to Management

Keep the startup mentality and go lean.

Pros

It's a great place to be if you have no skills. They'll eventually give you a job you're completely unqualified for, so if your last job was operating a Tilt-A-Whirl, you might end up running operations.

Cons

Shrinking business and decaying service quality, with no strategy to reverse it, no leadership from the top, and unqualified people in critical positions. Low pay, unrealistic goals, and no real chance of full bonus. Accountability is selectively applied to those who deliver, and ignored for those who repeatedly fail. Problems are ignored so that one person can have less anxiety.

Advice to Management

First advice is to actually take advice. Second is to maybe take less than 12 weeks of vacation per year. Start there.

Pros

You get to work for a know consumer brand + work on real problems.

Cons

- Pay structure : Very low as per current market. - Toxic culture: It starts from key people in leadership positions. Few are highly incapable of their roles. This implies to lack of domain knowledge hence the work load is transferred to the worker bees who are ill paid and ill treated. A culture of bullying each other and not attacking the problem. The frustration is passed on leaving no room for growth and... innovation. - Favoritisms: The place has very high attrition so the hiring is pretty much an ongoing task. Their is no reason to flaunt the hiring as it’s the result of people leaving or being laid off. As a result you might end up working for a boss who didn’t hire you. You will be down played irrespective of your skills/work and their new hires will be star employees. Leadership is also driven by biases for people than ideas. If you can appear tough you will be assumed to have domain knowledge. Humble and hard working people will struggle.

Advice to Management

- Make hiring especially at key positions robust. Test for domain knowledge rather than just a rough attitude. Get the person interviewed by your most knowledgeable person (irrespective of designation). Few wrong people on top can (and are) destroying the culture. They are hiding their incompetence with their know it all attitude. - If you get strong and meaningful feedback act on it. Maybe initially few hard moves... however create use cases that people can look up to. - The problem is lack of innovation. That will only come from your people. Treat them equal and develop an appreciative culture. Giving recognition gift coupons is once a quarter however your culture will reflect in conversation and communication. - Be respectful to past leaders/people. As leaders you are being watched. When we see you standing and mocking a leader who left, we lose our faith in you. Maybe you didn’t get along or maybe the leaving person was not good however your conduct as a leader needs to be graceful. Just having a team doesn’t make you lead one.

Pros

work life balance is great, most managers are really empathetic human beings. real work, solving real challenges in the consumer mobility space = exciting times.

Cons

management seems unhappy with engineering output. they keep trying to hire more people, faster, but that isn't going to solve the problem of doing too many things at once. too confusing.

Advice to Management

you can't be what you can't see: is anyone successful here? highlight people who are successfully solving problems and help engineers see who they should emulate.

Pros

Great people working on a worthwhile mission.

Cons

Starved for funds by parent company keep Zipcar from being able to compete with Uber, Lyft or Amazon.

Pros

The work-life balance is pretty good.

Cons

Wages are low compared to other companies. Zipcar has done multiple rounds of layoffs through the years and has expected the remaining staff to pickup the work off the employees that were laid off.