As members of Zillow Group, we like to celebrate the contributions and unique perspectives of the members of our teams. “Engineer Highlight” is a new series of articles and interviews highlighting people, their projects, and their experiences.

Michael, how long have you worked at Zillow? Who are you in the office, who are you outside the office?

I’ve been working at Zillow for just over a year (just had my zAnniversary on August 10th!) and my, oh my, it’s been fun. At work, I’m a software development engineer on the Android team who likes to crack jokes and play ping pong and video games with my team. You’ll sometimes find me with earbuds in coding hard, sometimes you’ll find me “debating” with a designer, and sometimes you’ll find me in the game room beating people in Super Smash Bros. I think the only difference with me outside of work is I spend less time around the computer and more time exploring the great outdoors in Seattle! That’s the awesome part of the Zillow culture, I feel like I don’t have to change myself to fit in or enjoy myself here.

What’s an example of a project or problem you’ve worked on?

I’ve fixed a ton of bugs on the main Android Real Estate App (and on the Android Zillow Mortgage Calculator app) and implemented tons of features too. One of my first projects coming into Zillow was the Mortgage Get Pre-Approved feature, which helps people find lenders for mortgages! Since then, I’ve expanded to re-designing the Login flow, implementing Smart Lock for Android (which I’ve written a blog post for too! /implementing-smart-lock-passwords-zillow-android-app/), and most recently Geofencing on mobile devices for homes!

How would you describe Zillow culture, people, environment, and life balance?

Personally, I think Zillow has a great culture of letting everyone have a voice and influence. One of the coolest things I think we do at Zillow is hackweek (we now have three every year) which is basically a whole week dedicated to you being able to work on anything you want. For all my hackweeks, I choose to not work on Android, which exposes me to new ideas, new teams, and more importantly new people. Which brings me to my next point: the people here are friggin’ smart! Whenever you come up with a solution or idea, people here are supportive but they also poke holes and ask the right kind of questions that make you iterate and mold your solution to perfection. 

I hear Zillow has some of the best work-life balance of any company. You could listen to me praise the culture or you could take a look at our Glassdoor rating, which is voted one of the top places to work for in 2016! Sometimes, it’s hard to stay at work, especially with all the natural beauty and national parks surrounding Seattle. Our company even pays for you do runs and activities, like Tough Mudder!

What makes Zillow different from other places you’ve worked?

Zillow is actually the first company I’ve worked full time for, as I joined Zillow right out of college (Go Fighting Illini!). However, I have had internships at many places and Zillow definitely has 1) great views of Elliot Bay, Olympic National Park, and downtown Seattle 2) free snacks and drinks 3) great benefits. Overall, I would say Zillow is definitely a fun place where you can have a huge impact on the work you do and the added cherry on top are all the perks. 

One cool thing about Zillow is you naturally learn a lot about real estate. As a new college graduate, real estate was definitely not in my mind at all but I’ve slowly started picking up important life skills, like learning about mortgages and the process of shopping for a home.

In this industry, engineers are in high demand. What advice would you give for someone who is looking?

I would say when you’re looking at companies, since engineers are in high demand, you have choices. You should pick a company that has a mission or product you believe in or can get motivated by. Not all employees in all industries have this luxury and personally, I think it’s awesome when I work on a product or feature that I show to my friends and be like “I made this!”.

It’s a good feeling when you come into work not just because you’re monetarily invested but also emotionally invested. As of right now, it’s definitely a seller’s market for software engineers and you should choose a place where you’ll succeed and be happy!

Another thing I’d say is to try your hand at everything! Don’t pigeonhole yourself into one technology or one part of the company as it’s exciting to see other parts of the company and other technologies. I think our hackweek is a great time to do that, as you can easily find an exciting product to work on that’s not related to your normal work. You’ll quickly find what you dislike and what you like, which will not only give you experience in multiple areas but can you help you choose the correct career path to go down!

Photo credit: Justin Farris