Pros
Vision - In a tech hub like Seattle there is an excess of great ideas in a very central location and Zillow is no exception to that. The idea itself was grand "creating the worlds largest and most vibrant home buying and selling platform" but it takes the will to think big in order to make a company worth investing in, Zillow has done just that Flexibility - When something isn't working Zillow's leadership team is not afraid to retool and rework it's original plan. This is an underrated trait of any company in my opinion because it means that you'll have to admit being wrong, which isn't as easy to do for some C level execs. Leadership - speaking of the leadership team: Spencer Rascoff, Jeremy Wacksman, Stan Humphries, Rebekah Bastian, Lionel Lee, Jas Thind, Amy Bohutinsky and the numerous other fantastic, qualified names I've left out on this list are outstanding. They are the engine of this well oiled machine and the company's success is a function of their ability to simply do the right thing. Autonomy - there a few sub points to this one for me including how I'm compensated (which is excellent) but I feel everyone should be trusted to do their job, that mean's not being micromanaged or harassed in any way. Zillow has a knack for putting its money where its collective mouth is and employing people who they know fit the culture and then trusting those people to do their job the right way by giving them all of the resources necessary. Excellent. I could keep going but I'll cut it short
Cons
The Grind - I'll admit, when you're a company as large as ours it can be easy to lose sight of the purpose of your day to day at times. We have high expectations to deliver and at times that can mean doing a lot in a short amount of time with little understanding of who it benefits, it's a numbers game and at times that can make Wednesday afternoon at 3pm a drag. Distractions - I used to work for a start up and even then it was hard to keep my email, Slack notifications, distracting open office chatter, and myriad of calendar invites to a minimum so that I could simply work and Zillow is no different. In fact, I would argue that the size of the company makes said distractions a bit of a headache, definitely something to consider if you, like me, struggle with simply staying focused on the task at hand.
