Pros
Flexible hours. Free sodas and snacks plus coffee machines filled with Starbucks coffee for espresso and such. Gym, serve yourself store, free lunch on the regular, having beers at the desk every now and again is okay. Performance contests, camaraderie, and a good culture. The culture shift will take some time, but it’s a refreshing culture compared to my last few jobs. Zillow is very open to giving insight to “the little people” regarding things that no other company does in my experience. They share updates on progress and special projects that I don’t think many other companies do. It’s nice to get the kind of communication from the top that we get. Really makes you feel like your work matters because of a shared vision and goals. Forward thinking company that strives for acceptance and inclusion. New benefits seem to be very good. Rolling out this and next month. First peek seems good. Lots of change since being bought by Zillow, this is a pro and a con but mostly a pro. They have completely revamped the training and put forth a lot of resources for newbies. Apparently you were thrown into the fire before and that’s definitely not how it feels now. Still a work in progress but it’s definitely progress. Pay is still being worked out through transitioning the old pay scale vs the new pay scale. New includes a larger base and then unit based commission. Looks great, but I don’t think anyone is positioned yet to come close to hit the higher end of the structure. That will take some more progress, but it’s a work in progress for sure. There’s new tech and man power coming down the pipe to support the ambitious pay scale. Probably won’t be here as soon as I’d like but I feel like working through the changes will pay off for those that stick around. It doesn’t seem realistic to hit the top end of the scale currently. I trust that the coming changes will change that. We shall see.
Cons
Change. It’s never easy to deal with change, but you can tell the end goal is going to be good. I’m in a unique position to have seen the old vs the new. I understand why the old are afraid of the new and both sides have great arguments, but the new is going to win so it’s probably best to acclimate to the change or move on. There’s plenty of places doing it the old way. If you come to ZHL from this year and forward than you’ll never know the difference. The other con is growing pains but it’s a work in progress and it’s happening at a pace that is as acceptable as it could be. This kind of stuff won’t happen overnight. It sucks but in the grand scheme of things. Really there’s not much cons at all. As a LO you need to work two 8pm shifts a week and 8 weekend hours a month. That might be a con for some, but to me it’s not because I can choose when those days happen. And if you want to be successful a 9-5 schedule isn’t going to work so that’s a con if that’s what you’re expecting but I don’t care about that. The flexibility in your schedule is more than enough to compensate for that.
