Bureaucratic, for a small team. Poor engineering culture - Software Development Engineer Zillow Employee Review

1.0
Jan 2, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Working within a vertical that can either make or break the entire real estate industry - Extended health, dental, and vision benefits - RRSP matching

Cons

- Not an innovative team (they claim that they prefer to adhere to "tried and tested" methods, but are really just complacent. For instance, the product is not responsive across screens, because one person just does not understand CSS3 media queries) - Lack of transparency from management (tasks being assigned, rather than empowering engineers to offer solutions to business problems that are presented to them through consistent communication from up the chain of commands) - Lack of end-to-end technical ownership - Micromanagement - Uninspiring work - The team didn't quite feel like a startup (hierarchical team structure) - You can't learn much from working in this team - Poor engineering culture (no blameless post-mortems. Reactiveness to problems. Lack of proper team-based learning and development) - Can't look up to management for technical guidance, nor are engineers empowered to make decisions in lieu of management's technical competencies - Personality-wise, everyone in this team seems to lack a sense of curiosity that many startups in Vancouver exude

Explore other reviews about Zillow

5.0
May 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company to work for

Cons

Long hours with low pay

1
3.0
May 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You can make good money here.

Cons

In sales, job can change often. For example: I was making good money and excelling because I am a relationship Sales person. Then they changed it to where you get the sale, and instead of being able to grow that account via that relationship you just broke into, you have to pass it to an account manager and go back to cold/robo calling. You "book" of business you recive to prospect from is a lottery. I received a book of prospects/accounts that most of the were low income, or senior living properties. They don't have a budget and have a line of renter on a waitlist. No way to convince them to spend money on advertising but you still have the same quota.

2
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Zillow Response
3w
Thank you for sharing such a detailed perspective. We understand that frequent changes to roles, account ownership and business priorities can have a real impact on relationship-building and the day-to-day experience in sales. We’re glad to hear compensation was a positive part of your time at Zillow, and we appreciate you being candid about where the model and structure felt frustrating. Feedback like yours helps us better understand how these changes are experienced across teams as the business evolves.
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