Guide to Working at Wayfair

Published on January 8, 2023

Guide to Working at Wayfair was originally published on Forage.

Working at Wayfair

Wayfair is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, selling furniture and home goods online to millions of satisfied customers. Interested in exploring Wayfair careers? Learn about working at Wayfair, including opportunities for students and new grads and how to prepare for an interview.

What Is Wayfair?

Wayfair’s roots date back to 2002 when Niraj Shah and Steve Conine launched racksandstands.com, the first of many niche sites. Wayfair officially formed with the consolidation of 250 sites in 2011 and is now one of the largest home retailers in the world. Other brands in the Wayfair family include AllModern, Birch Lane, Joss & Main, and Perigold.

Setting out with a mission “to help everyone, anywhere create their feeling of home,” Wayfair is achieving its goal with 22.6 million active customers and 33 million products from more than 23,000 suppliers. From September 2021 to September 2022, the company earned $12.4 billion in net revenue. 

Still founder-led today, Wayfair employs over 17,000 employees with operations in North America and Europe. Locations include 18 fulfillment and 38 delivery centers, a network of customer service centers and logistics hubs, and two corporate headquarters in Boston and Berlin.

Wayfair Careers and Salaries

Careers at Wayfair center around building the future of e-commerce, and the company is committed to hiring great people with great ideas and great ambition. Wayfair offers hundreds of opportunities on four broad teams:

  • Engineering & Technology
  • Fulfillment & Home Delivery
  • Business & Operations
  • Customer Service & Sales

Wayfair Marketing Jobs 

The marketing team, which falls under business and operations, works to optimize the website and other channels to attract customers and keep them coming back. Using analytics and quantitative data, the team crafts strategies to increase its customer base. 

According to Glassdoor, these are the average salaries for marketing positions at Wayfair: 

  • Product marketing manager: $164,300
  • Product marketing associate: $76,700
  • Digital marketing manager: $118,100
  • Project manager: $106,200 
  • Marketing manager: $111,800

>>MORE: Wayfair Marketing Analysis Virtual Experience Program

Wayfair Engineering Jobs

Wayfair’s engineering and technology team works to upkeep, expand, and innovate the company’s website. As a large e-commerce company, Wayfair requires a large engineering staff to maintain and build product and navigational pages. 

Below are the reported average salaries of different positions on Wayfair’s engineering and tech team:

>>MORE: Entry-Level Software Engineer Interview Questions (With Examples)

Student and New Graduate Opportunities at Wayfair 

Wayfair gives students the ability to take their learning experiences outside the classroom, working on projects that provide development opportunities, autonomy, and mentorship. 

Three paths are available for current and recent students interested in working at Wayfair.

Internships

Rising college juniors, seniors, and graduate students can apply for a paid, 10-week summer internship at Wayfair’s Boston campus. Students work on real projects and learn what it’s like to be a full-time employee at Wayfair. Internships are available in cybersecurity, commercial strategy, business analysis, data science, and more. Interns have access to the following:

  • Skills-based training
  • Volunteer opportunities
  • Social events
  • Alumni networking
  • Dialogs with senior leaders

Co-Ops

This full-time, paid opportunity is available to undergraduate and master’s students (MBA students aren’t eligible). Also based at Wayfair’s Boston headquarters, co-ops last six months (January to June and July to December) and give students real work experience on strategic projects. Co-op opportunities include cybersecurity, product design, digital marketing, and software engineering placements.

In a company video on Wayfair’s student careers site, Megan Williams, campus recruiter and co-op program lead, says, “The co-op program is so unique because you’re able to apply your classroom knowledge to the professional workspace and you are able to learn hard and soft skills on the job every single day that might be a little harder to learn in a classroom setting.”

Full-Time

Wayfair offers entry-level associate and analyst positions for recent graduates who are just starting their careers and are passionate about e-commerce and technology. With rolling start dates, new grads can begin their jobs no matter what time of year they graduate — although most roles start in the summer.

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Wayfair Benefits and Perks

Wayfair offers traditional benefits, including paid time off, a 401(k) with company matching, health and life insurance, flexible spending accounts, and competitive pay.

Regarding how its benefits rank overall, past and current employees rate the company’s benefits 3.9 out of 5 stars on Glassdoor. The highest praised benefits include the employee discount, maternity and paternity leave, and paid time off. On Comparably, employees rate benefits and perks 76 out of 100, which is a B+ and puts Wayfair in the top 20% of similarly-sized companies for its benefits offerings.

The company also offers more unique benefits like commuter and gym discounts to encourage easy transport and a healthy lifestyle, along with employee raffles for tickets to sporting or entertainment events. 

Wayfair Culture

Wayfair’s company culture is anchored in its nine People Principles:

  1. Relentless customer focus
  2. Deliver results with agility
  3. Use good judgment
  4. Build the best team
  5. Collaborate effectively
  6. Respect others
  7. Be an owner
  8. Innovate and improve
  9. Adapt and grow

Priding itself on building an inclusive community and diverse workforce, Wayfair appears on many “best of” lists, including one of the World’s Best Employers by Forbes and a Top Place to Work by The Boston Globe.

On Comparably, current and previous employees rate the company culture 4.1 out of 5 stars, and 81% of employees call the work environment at Wayfair positive. In addition, 82% of Wayfair employees are happy with their work-life balance, and 83% look forward to interacting with their team daily. 

In terms of specific company values, MIT collected and evaluated employee reviews to discover which cultural values employees mention the most. The Culture500 research found: 

  • Collaboration is the most frequently positively discussed value, reflecting how well Wayfair teams work together. 
  • Agility is the most frequently negatively discussed value, which reflects how quickly and effectively employees can respond to marketplace changes.

Wayfair Values and Initiatives 

These are some of Wayfair’s most significant initiatives:

  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Wayfair is committed to fostering a diverse and equal community and focuses on this through its leadership, awareness and education, affinity and employee resource groups, and infrastructure.
  • Corporate Responsibility: In line with its mission of making a home feel like a home, Wayfair partners with organizations like Community Solutions, Homes for Our Troops, and Habitat for Humanity to help build better homes. It achieves this through employee volunteering, contributions, financial support, and customer engagement. Wayfair has donated more than $30 million to nonprofits through in-kind gifts.
  • Sustainability: Dedicated to protecting the environment, the company prioritizes responsible sourcing, packaging, and operations. Wayfair has committed to reducing its scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 63% by 2035.

Wayfair vs. Amazon

Amazon, the largest e-commerce company in the world, is one of Wayfair’s biggest competitors. Here’s how the two companies compare based on employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor and Comparably: 

  • Amazon’s overall rating (3.8 out of 5) is higher than Wayfair’s (3.3 out of 5). 
  • Amazon’s culture rating (74 out of 100) is just one point higher than Wayfair’s (73 out of 100).
  • 74% of Amazon’s employees would recommend working at the company to a friend, compared to 52% of Wayfair’s employees. 
  • Amazon employees rate the positive business outlook for the company 27% higher than Wayfair employees. 
  • Employees rate Wayfair higher than Amazon on professional development, leadership culture, team culture, and environment culture.

How Does the Wayfair Interview Process Work?

All interviews at Wayfair include both behavioral and scenario-based questions. Certain positions also require a case study interview and/or technical interview. Fortunately, Wayfair offers detailed interview tips for its campus and early career interviewees to help them prepare based on the type of interview.

Behavioral Interviews

The behavioral interview questions assess several core competencies: team building and culture, innovation and results, critical thinking, and communication and persuasion. Candidates should research the company, prepare questions to ask, and be ready to provide examples of how they’ve demonstrated these core competencies using the STAR method.

The company is looking for applicants with:

Case Study Interviews

In case study interviews, Wayfair presents a business scenario for interviewees to work on. They must analyze the business category performance, discuss factors impacting the business, and recommend implementations.

To prepare, candidates should:

  • Watch the case study prep video.
  • Review e-commerce metrics.
  • Respond with answer-first communication.

Technical Interviews

Technical interviews begin with a timed coding assessment through Codility to evaluate candidates’ coding skills.

Then, interviewees must work through a typical problem the technical team may face. Candidates should identify coding languages and technical skills in the job description, read the Wayfair tech blog, and prepare questions.

According to Glassdoor, 58% of Wayfair interviewees applied online, 14% went through campus recruiting, 13% applied through a recruiter, and 11% were employee referrals. 

Although interview experiences vary depending on the team and position you’re interviewing for, reviews on Glassdoor and Indeed indicate the following:

  • On average, interviewees rated interview difficulty 2.8 out of 5 stars, or average difficulty. 
  • 50% of interviewees reported a positive interview experience, 30% had negative experiences, and 20% were neutral. 
  • 34% of interviewees said the interview process took a day or two, 28% lasted about a week, 19% lasted about two weeks, and 12% lasted about a month. 

>>MORE: Girls Who Code Technical Interview Prep Virtual Experience Program

Takeaways

  • Wayfair is one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world, selling home goods and furniture with the mission “to help everyone, anywhere create their feeling of home.”
  • Wayfair offers paid internships, co-ops, and entry-level positions for students and new grads to gain experience.
  • Collaboration is the most commonly positively discussed company value at Wayfair, while integrity is the most commonly negatively discussed company value. 
  • Initiatives at Wayfair include DEI, sustainability, and helping communities in need.
  • Wayfair’s interviews include behavioral and scenario-based questions, and a case study and coding assessment for technical positions.

Learn what it’s like to work at a variety of top companies with Forage’s company guides.

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