Been getting a lot of mixed signals about Wayfair eng culture. How about on the Data Science side? Looking for advice from the folks currently there #wayfair #datascience
Was on ds a while ago. Not the best place to be at tbh. Left WF for a FANG.
I think it's great. Will you get a chance to talk to your manager? We're in the midst of switching to GCP so you won't even be saddled with learning on-prem languages.
That’s great. I got pretty good vibes from my interviewers (DS managers). I became more worried after looking at the negative comments bt seems like it is very dependent on team/manager
Good to hear! I am not sure if the software engineering people have less satisfaction than DS but at least everyone in my DS team seems to love their job.
Engineering culture is still terrible due to the mindset of not allowing you actual access to the cloud provider tools directly but insisting some crappy platform teams build some tools instead of buying a good offering, and they’re very slow in delivering and enabling platforms. Run away!
The DS org has some really smart and intelligent folks working on interesting problems. The problem is with the management, internal politics, stack ranking performance culture. Additionally, it depends on the team you are working on Merch (a lot of politics out here ), Marketing is good (not sure how it will change with leadership leaving here) and then there is B2B and recs. If you have a good project you are likely to succeed else it is pretty much an “up and out” (exact term used by leadership a few months ago) culture for lower levels. With regards to pay it is way below the industry standards although they do think they are competitive (joke !). It is a bit like Amazon except with lesser stress and way less pay.
Thank you. To your point about having good project and being similar to Amazon 😅, how tolerant are they with new hires struggling for the first few months to find the right fit? Do they allow switching team/project early in?
It really depends on the relationship you build with your manager. Some might be technical and some non technical. If you are joining between L1 and L2 risk of being kicked out is higher. That being said there are a few people kicked out at the higher levels too. Most managers here have 1-2 years of DS experience and then made to manage people, resulting in them adhering to the curve culture , no past management experience . During calibration they have to follow the stack ranking system and you may land up on the other side of the curve. They might even tell you it’s nothing to worry if you get a 4 but they can always turn their back on you. Just like the layoffs
Hey can I dm you for referral?
DS is a joke at wf
Just look at how many L5s and L6s in the DS org who are non-technical, non-PhD types but are masters in playing politics.
From an outsider’s perspective, most of them seem to have PhDs. As a life lesson, it’s difficult to move up without playing politics to some degree.
Can I be the head of cardiology at a hospital without an MD but I’m really, really good at public speaking and a great politician?
I think W is a solid tier 2 DS company. If you can get into FANNG, then you'll learn more there. But otherwise W is fine. We coddle our data scientists and give them lots of freedoms (depends on specific manager ofc) and overall i think it's a good place to start a career in DS
DS is a joke here. They always work on endless projects without access to real infrastructure. Never seen real impact from any of them. Not close to using any new stuff whatsoever. I am 200% sure they are staying for the sweet money
...