Pros
You will experience a very laid back environment. There's little work to be done, so a lot of time is spent goofing around. There are free snacks and drinks. There are half a dozen company sponsored parties a year. Many of the employees are very happy to be apart of Zappos, so the energy is refreshing. Job security is good.
Cons
Zappos is in Las Vegas, so make sure that's a city you are comfortable with. I enjoyed living there, but met many employees that didn't like the heat, or didn't like the culture, etc. Vegas is no SF or NY. Only work here if Las Vegas is one of your favorite cities. Zappos hires and rates employees based on a combination of culture and merit. This leads to very strange dynamics at the workplace. It is one of the roots to their problems. The culture is heavily promoted, but it doesn't feel genuine -- it feels like a psychological experiment. If you've read Tony's book or see news pieces done on the company, it'll seem like most employees are fairly happy. But in reality, Zappos knows that negative energy is contagious and enforces disciplinary measures on downers. On the other hand, the happiest of employees are promoted or given raises. Just a standard reward-punishment system -- promoting happiness. Unhappy employees keep their complaints and frustrations to themselves. Only in small groups have I heard more honest comments. In public, it's difficult to tell who's carrying a genuine smile. It's advisable to not say rude things about the company. The fact that culture is just as important as technical skill when hiring, combined with the fact that technical people sometimes aren't the most social and the already weak talent pool in Vegas leaves a pitiful engineering department. I rather not go into what happens when engineering is weak. Just don't expect to learn anything at this company. Promoting from within is common because very rarely does someone go to Vegas for a marketing spot, for example. The starting point for most Zappos employees is on phones. After a certain period of time, all employees are free to apply for other positions like merchandising, marketing, and even engineering, and then work up from there. They are nice people, but it's a headache to deal with unqualified people. I remember being frustrated with the business at previous companies, but Zappos is on another level of incompetence. Are you used to user stories, requirements, lifecycles, or even business people that at least know the domain? Then don't come here.
