Selling Zillow to Candidates

I spend most of my time at Zillow recruiting and retaining great people. I feel strongly that this is the best use of my time because we will be very successful if I can just recruit extraordinary people, help set their strategic direction, and then stay out their way. I do several “sell calls” each week and even more in-person sell calls. I am typically involved in every “sell” for a software developer regardless of the office where the candidate is being recruited, and I also sell every senior hire (Directors and VPs). What do I tell them to try to convince them to join Zillow?

• Zillow is in high-growth mode. Growth is fun. When you're growing, people are optimistic, and there is ample opportunity for career growth. Great people achieve great things and have extraordinary careers when they join companies in hyper-growth mode. It’s much harder to carve out an interesting and successful career – regardless of your personal attributes – if your company is in slow-growth mode or worse still, if it is shrinking.

• We are just getting started. The mobile explosion has been a phenomenal catalyst for our business and is driving huge usage and market share gains for Zillow. And although our revenue is growing quickly, we are still in the very early stages of capturing our “fair share” of ad budgets in our four marketplaces (real estate, mortgages, rentals and home improvement). Advertisers follow audience. We have the audience, and advertisers are flocking.

• Don’t be a cog in the wheel! Zillow is still small enough where an individual can make a significant difference. This is a particularly effective line of reasoning for software developers choosing between Zillow and Amazon/Microsoft (with whom we often compete for developers in Seattle). Zillow is the right balance: We're big enough that you A) don’t have to worry about job security (as compared to a smaller startup), B) can have a big impact because we run very lean product development teams, and C) can have your software enjoyed by tens of millions of people because of our huge audience.

• Zillow is winning. Winning is fun.

There are lots of other great reasons to work at Zillow – competitive pay, good benefits, extraordinary colleagues and much more. My success rate on these “sells” is very high. And it’s not because I’m a particularly persuasive salesperson. It’s because Zillow is really a great place to work.