There are a lot of typical tech company problems and some that are unique to Zillow.
- Hours: expect to work 50-60 hours, not 40
- Not family friendly
- Turnover is high even for tech
- Firings are common
- Fast turnarounds with lots of churn on work
- Teams are overextended and sometimes, unhappy
- Lots of production, not a lot of creative work
- 4-6 hours of meetings a day leaving little time to design
- Too many meetings. This is a big one. Here is the typical approval process: A project will need to be approved by your manager (very typical and necessary), then in a separate meeting, pitched to your mgr's mgr (no problem), and in a separate meeting, pitched to your mgr's mgr's mgr (am I in the movie Office Space? Why can't this be in the same meeting?), then pitched to stakeholders all in the span of 2 days and incorporating all mgr feedback along the way. This happens about 3 rounds a project and never happens in the same meeting. After that, it's simple math. You must schedule 4 separate meetings for each of the 3 rounds of feedback, that's 12 meetings for a month long project. Let's say you are assigned to 6-10 projects. That's conservatively, 72 meetings for 6 projects a month divided by 20 working days which equals 3-4 mgr meetings a day plus all the normal manager 1 on 1s, team meetings and company meetings. That's why you're in 4-6 hours of meetings a day leaving 2-4 hours for design.
