“"I really can't express how amazing Instacart has been for my whole family. A friend introduced me to the company a couple years ago when they first started and since then I've gotten my whole family to use it and I've seen them constantly add new items on an almost weekly basis.
I have a weekly cart that I've saved for my family that has all the essentials that we constantly go through, peanut butter, bread, eggs, milk, chicken, etc. Every Sunday we get the order to come at 2:00 pm almost exactly, and I never have to worry that I won't be there when the order comes because they're almost always on time.
Recently my husband has started using Instacart to get groceries delivered to his parents. They're too old to drive to the store, walk around the long aisles, and get all their groceries themselves. Instacart gives them the ability to have healthy and fresh food delivered whenever they need it.
We've had some problems with items being different than what we've ordered in the past, but I can totally understand that in the rush it can be difficult to find some things. If you stick to the staples you'll always get what you order, and it's pretty rare that you'll get wrong orders."”
“To become a shopper for Instacart all you have to do is apply online through the Instacart website. From there you'll be asked to do an order for a customer, where the app will ask you some easy questions (like the difference between vegan and vegetarian, etc.), and it'll time how quickly you were able to complete the order. If you pass the first order you'll be an official Instacart shopper.”
“I really like that I can just work alone and don't really have to deal with anyone else. I put my headphones in, take the orders, move quickly, and get to keep seeing new parts of the city. No more boss or manager breathing down my neck, I just get to work how I like to work.”
“Honestly it can really depend day by day. On average I've found that I make about $12 an hour, but some days you'll be making $25, and others as low as $1. What it depends on is tips and how easy the orders are. Sometimes you have to lug 80 lbs of water around the city for 40 cents which, as you can imagine, really sucks.”
“"There are a lot of cool projects and complex problems that we have to work on on a daily basis here, and so our techstack really reflects our need for strong analytics and a diverse range of languages.
We use:
- Ruby on Rails - React - Redux - Backbone.js - CoffeeScript - SCSS - Redis - Memcache - PostgreSQL - EC2
- Objective-C - Android Java - Python - R - AWS - S3 - Redshift - EMR - Spark - Snowflake
We're definitely a technology driven team so we recognize the need to constantly make sure we're using languages that reflect how we want to work. We try not to spread ourselves too thin, while also walking along the line of implementing things in whatever works best for the problem."”
Usually takes around 3-4 weeks. Involves an initial phone screening, then some in person interviews with the hiring manager and a couple other people that you might be working with. They'll also ask you to complete a coding challenge that involves some sql among other technologies (although this depends on the role you apply for).
Instacart is growing very quickly and there's a lot of work that needs to be done on a daily basis. If you're able to show your dedication to the overall vision of the company, and put in the time to tackle the harder problems that we're facing, you'll definitely be recognized for your drive and given many opportunities to grow.
Instacart really wants us to feel comfortable and at ease working here. They give us unlimited vacation and sick days, free lunches and dinners daily, an iced coffee keg, laptops and other tech that can be brought home, unlimited snacks, and free instacart express. We also get a package for medical, dental, & vision insurance, and have recently introduced a 401k plan.
“"Working at Instacart you can definitely feel a strong sense of comaderie and driven passion towards the company goal. Because of this underlying want to work on real problems that have real consequences, the overall environment is very productive and positive.
The people are what really make it a great place to work. The team has done a great job at hiring competent people that you can rely on when they commit to different projects. Everyone knows that the stakes are high, we're facing off against Amazon, so we have to move fast and constantly perform at our best, and this team does it.
I really cannot say enough about how amazing the people I work with are. The majority of my friends outside the office are actually people who work at Instacart aswell. Noone has an attitude and everyone is generally very humble.
We've matured a lot in the last year which is great to see at a company. We were previously not really that focussed on long term goals and you could feel it through the company morale. In the last couple quarters though we've started focussing on long term strategy and you can definitely feel the focus as people just generally seem more alligned and aware of where we're going."”
Instacart is a same-day grocery firm offering delivery in as little as one hour. The Company is focused on groceries and home essentials. Instacart facilitates users to connect with personal shoppers in their area who pick up and deliver groceries from local stores.
Founded in 2012 by founders Apoorva Mehta, Brandon Leonardo, and Max Mullen, Instacart is based in San Francisco California. With over 500,000 items in their catalogue for purchase, Instacart has grown quickly since its inception in 2012, gaining over $1 billion in investment from venture funds such as Andreesen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Y Combinator.
Instacart is a rapidly growing company across the world, backed by top investment firms, they're constantly expanding into new regions. Although there are many opportunities to join the internal team of Instacart for business development, software engineering, and marketing, the majority of positions are for joining their shopper team. This article will focus on both Instacart's shopper perspective and the internal team.
Positive reviews from shoppers report enjoying the flexible hours, the quick response from internal staff, the high frequency of getting paid, and the opportunity to work alone. Negative reviews from employees report being frustrated with the intensity and speed you have to work at, the low pay, the long trips, and the lack of correlation between difficulty in transporting some items versus the pay you get for them.
Positive reviews from the internal team report enjoying the opportunity to change the grocery industry, the interesting and difficult unique data problems that have to be solved, the supportive, transparent, and humble team, and the high growth of the company. Negative reviews from the internal team report being frustrated with the lack of a long term plan, the lack of work/life balance, the high turnover, the fact there are too many first time directors, and that the pay is below market value.
Instacart has 5 core values that drive how the company interacts with their internal employees and how they focus on their future. These 5 core values are:
- Solve for the Customers. Instacart knows that the number one way they can provide value is by providing value to the customers. Without customers, there would be no instacart.
- This is your Baby. Instacart builds a system where people have complete autonomy and responsibility for their projects. They hold eachother accountable for results and ask "would you put your name on this" for everything.
- Every Minute Counts. Instacart knows that they are in a battle for marketshare against the giant Amazon. Instacart works fast and efficiently to gain an advantage over the competition.
- Of Course but Maybe. Instacart knows that to differentiate from the rest they need to dream big. Constantly challenging eachother to ask what the future of the company can be, Instacart wants to dominate the grocery delivery market and beyond.
- Go Far, Together. Recognizing that a company can only grow if it leverages all the people that are working there, Instacart follows the saying "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".
*Joining the shopper team is through a simple online application - follow through the instacart website - meet in store for a shopping speed test*
*Joining the internal team is a full scale interview process*
Why are you interested in joining Instacart?
How do you feel about change?
Why are you leaving your current company?
Application test.
Instacart was started by APoorva Mehta, a former Amazon employee, and was initially launched in San Francisco California. Instacart was one of the original companies to go through the Y Combinator accelerator, and gained a lot of initial traction after the first few years.
By 2015 Instacart already had about $275 million in funding and an evaluation of $2 billion. Forbes named Instacart 'the most promising company in America'. From 2014 to 2016 the company expandded to over 1,200 cities in 25 states, and by 2017 had raised another $400 million in venture money, making them evaluated at about $3.4 billion.
Instacart has received a lot of criticism for their treatment of their shopping workers, agreeing to pay a $4.6 million class action settlement for misclassification of the shopper employees as contractors. Many Instacart workers participated in a strike in November 2017, alleging wages of $1 an hour.
The company continues to grow year over year and is looking to dominate the shopping industry, competing directly with Amazon.