Any shopzilla experiences?

Hi, does anyone have any feedback on working with shopzilla? I wrote
up my experience in interviewing with them 6 months back. The gist of
the long post below is: they said they would get back to me with an
offer quickly but instead took 6 full business days to ask me to come
in for a third set of interviews.

Entire detailed post of experience follows:

                      My recent experience with Shopzilla

   Terrence Brannon <[email protected]>

   Recently I decided to end my employment at Valueclick. I had primarily
   two good relations going. One with [1]Vendare Media and one with
   [2]Shopzilla. I interviewed at Shopzilla on the Aug 30 and Vendare on
   Aug 31.
     _________________________________________________________________

Shopzilla Interview

   My Shopzilla interview was enjoyable and I had a meeting of minds with
   the director of Web Engineering because he is a big fan of PeTaL. I
   personally like HTML::Seamstress (since I wrote it), but PeTaL is
   definitely in the same ballpark along with XML::LibXML and all 3 stand
   in direct opposition to the design goals of HTML::Mason, Template
   Toolkit and HTML::Template.
     _________________________________________________________________

Vendare Interview

   The Vendare interview went just as well. The technical lead is super
   smart and highly capable. One thing I didn't like was that they are a
   Mason shop. But Mason has its virtues. And there are some impressive
   apps written in it. I decided not the let that get in the way of
   working with a talented and successful group.

   I went away from both interviews ready to work for either company.
   Shopzilla then called back and asked that I come in for another
   interview on Thursday to meet with more people.
     _________________________________________________________________

Second Shopzilla Interview

   I had 4 more interviews this day. I was pleased to meet the head of
   Shopzilla internal search. He had been with the company 4 years and
   been in 5 different groups. That speaks a lot for a company when you
   can find new exciting opportunities in the same company. The one
   drawback to this meeting was that the HR lady at Shopzilla seemed to
   be trying to get me to want to work for Shopzilla based on company
   environment not high pay. She herself had left Sony Pictures after 9
   years to work at Shopzilla because she liked the environment there.
   But she did take a pay hit.

   I really liked the way that people talked at Shopzilla -
   object-oriented abstractions to all data sources. Layered application
   development. Use of Sybase, a high-quality commercial database, would
   look good on my resume unlike having more MySQL experience. And of
   course Petal, Petal, Petal! They dont' use it, but they are oriented
   towards that method of Web Engineering.

   So, on the 2nd of September, Shopzilla HR and the Technical Lead said:
   "we will be getting back to you quickly with an offer." So I hear
   nothing that Friday. Monday was labor day. Now when Tuesday hits,
   Vendare leaps into action. They are upfront about their interests and
   generous with the offer, both in terms of money and hardware. All this
   time, no word from Shopzilla.

   So, after getting through my reference check and HR red tape at
   Vendare, I sign off on my offer and put in my resignation notice at
   Valueclick on September 8. So guess what happens on September 13?
   Shopzilla calls and says "Can you come in for some more interviews?
   They are thinking about making a position for you, perhaps something
   to do with databases" This is 6 business days after my last interview
   at which time they said they would call soon with an offer. But now
   more interviews?

   I told her I had an offer. She said: "well, can we sway you?" My
   immediate response without thinking was: "no" I mean, after all, what
   do words mean from a bunch of people who don't get back as promised
   and then when they do get back it is not what they said they would get
   back with?
     _________________________________________________________________

Conclusion

   I'm sure it must be nice to work at Shopzilla. The atmosphere was nice
   there. And they have some very involved people in the Los Angeles Perl
   Mongers. They also have the best comparison shopping engine on the
   web. When they did not get back to me, I did not call and ask for a
   status update. In this business, the motto is: "don't call us, we will
   call you." I don't know why they took that long to get back to me. I
   don't know why the process with them took so long. I'm starting at
   Vendare with a healthy increase over my Valueclick salary and a
   clearly stated bonus program.

   I'm looking forward to the opportunity.
     _________________________________________________________________

   Last updated 15-Sep-2005 03:34:36 EDT

References

   1. http://www.vendaregroup.com/
   2. http://www.shopzilla.com/