Pros: For the most part, I enjoyed my time at Zillow. They are concerned about career growth, creating an environment of impactful work and inclusion.

Cons: Constant org changes provide an opportunity for you to work for the wrong manager/director. In my case, it ultimately ended my career.

Pros: Most people are welcoming and are fantastic to work with. Management, however, leaves a lot to be desired. My team had great people with whom I still maintain great relationships after my termination. The work was interesting, and I found great satisfaction in learning new things in a new sector. I did enjoy many things about my time at Zillow.

Cons: Onboarding was rough, as the team had little to no process for the work. The app for which my team was responsible could not be run locally, which caused all code testing to be done in a QA environment shared among multiple teams. The inexperienced (seven months in the role) and ill-suited team manager was incapable of providing solid feedback, even when directly asked for it. There were three new engineers added to the team after I joined, and she had the habit of assigning the most difficult tasks to each new hire. We discussed this as a team and finally were able to advocate for the final new hire, a junior engineer, so that they would have a more confidence-building experience. The manager seemed only able to provide correction for even the most minute mistakes, and never, in my experience or observations, provided any guidance or coaching to any member of the team. This culminated in several team members not being able to successfully navigate the work under her leadership, and she ultimately terminated two of us.

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: A 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 the company's more pressing business needs.