Pros
Wayfair has grown exponentially in the last few years, and the work the engineers are doing are reflective of that. The problems are ever-changing and interesting - not only are we impacting millions of customers, but we also have to ensure that both the old and new processes and features are scalable as our customer base continues to grow. As technology moves forward, and the general public interacts with online shopping, their mobile devices and their environments in different ways, Wayfair, too, must try to be one step ahead of the curve and innovate for the future. Ensuring we build features and processes that people want and enjoy, but also scale, is a fascinating problem and not easy to solve.
Because it is a growing company, there are a lot of opportunities to grow in the organization. While some of this will come from an engineer's manager, some of it must also be self-driven. Wayfair is a merit-based company, and demonstrable, meaningful contributions will go a long way in career growth.
In the midst of Wayfair's growth, the company has been able to maintain a good sense of culture. What was a true "start up" culture previously has held on, and teams are tight-knit and fun. We hold regular team lunches and outings, and the company encourages transparency and working together. There are no engineers here who are able to go in a corner and work by themselves on a project for a long time; all of our projects are cross-functional, and the company's hiring is reflective of that. Teams are collaborative and friendly, and everyone is always willing to lend a hand.
Despite being such a visible company, I have been able to maintain a high degree of work/life balance. I very rarely work outside of regular working hours, and even for senior engineers who need to be "on call" (typical of e-commerce companies), the frequency of off-hours calls are minimal. Engineers have fairly flexible hours, but most come in by 9.30-10.30am. Work from home is not extremely flexible, but is very reasonable for a company that relies so much on face-to-face interactions for our cross-functional teams. Beyond that, our benefits are good, with the standard healthcare and 401k (etc.), as well as some extras like gym memberships (to a few gyms!) and discounted insurance policies.
Cons
Growth certainly has its downsides. Wayfair has experienced periods of too much hiring and in subsequent months, not enough onboarding to help all those new employees. Luckily, this has been a lesson learned and since rectified.
Growing pains at any company can be painful. As a small company, it was easier to work cross-functionally because there were less people on the whole, but as the company continues to grow, more people tend to need to be involved, and some bureaucracy can crop up.
