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Wonderful, progressive workplace

Software Development Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Zillow for 2 years
July 11, 2014
Seattle, Washington
5.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Great environment and culture. Company fosters individual growth. Lots of perks and morale events. Z-speaker series! We've had Arianna Huffington and Vicente Fox come give talks, for example. Transparency. Free snacks, free lunches at the end of the month and on days where there are events. Great work/life balance. Fair, competitive compensation for engineers. Engineering teams are committed to moving forward and fixing issues with both code and process, rather than band-aiding things.

Cons

Growing rapidly, which is great, but things do change a lot. Sometimes it takes a while to catch up to them.

Snacks rotate too frequently. Don't get too attached to anything, because it might be gone the next month.

Lots of domain knowledge is required to move through the codebase very effectively. This can be a little intimidating for new hires and can extend ramp-up to several months if your work touches multiple areas on the site. Don't feel intimidated to ask someone, though, because we've all been through it, fully understand, and are working to improve it.

Advice to Management

Monetary bonuses based on seniority rather than gift bonuses in December.

Perhaps fewer all-hands meetings? It's great to learn what's going on in the company, but sometimes they're just a few weeks apart, and they can be a little redundant.

Bring back the popcorn.

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