I applied for the position and 5 days later received an email to schedule a phone screening. The recruiter called me about 8 minutes later than the scheduled time. The phone interview lasted about 20 minutes where I was asked the typical phone screen questions. My experience aligned with how several others described. The questions seemed scripted, it almost felt like I was talking to a robot, and it was not at all conversational. Once she was done asking me her questions, she was done talking to me. At that point I felt she was in a rush to read her script about the position and get off the phone. I interviewed on a Wednesday and she said they would let me know either way if I was moving on by that Friday. It is just short of 2 months later and I still have heard nothing, which I can assume means I am not moving on to the next round. Unfortunately, I did not interview as well as I had hoped (It’s been a while since I’ve interviewed and I think my nerves got to me), and expected that I would not move forward. I still feel Zillow is a great company which is reflected in the company reviews, and will continue to pursue a position with you. With your responsiveness to reviews, I hope you use the information in your interview reviews to improve your process. Interviews (especially phone screens) are just as much about the candidate feeling good about the company/position as they are about the company feeling good about the candidate. In addition, in every job I have ever had, my level of follow up has been an element of my performance regardless of how easy or difficult the message/task. I don’t feel this expectation should be different whether internal, external, or employee candidate.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you tell me about a time where you experienced shifting focus and or priority and how did you handle it?
Scheduling the initial call was really easy to do. The conversation with the recruiter went well and they were very informative about the position overall. The only problem was I never heard an update, even after following up a week later.
The recruiter was wonderful. Very communicative and helpful. The hiring manager however, stopped me mid interview and said she was ready to move me onto the next steps. Then she waited two weeks and decided she had other candidates who were a better fit. Felt extremely disingenuous and unprofessional of the hiring manager to cut off the interview because she was that confident in moving me forward, only to not follow through. I know she’s a new manager and that’s evident by her actions. I’d say I dodged a bullet and I’m grateful to not join that team.
I applied online. The process took 5 weeks. I interviewed at Zillow (Seattle, WA) in Jun 2021
Interview
Phone screen, hiring mgr call, interview (loop) + presentation. Took about 5-6 weeks total from the 1st call to hearing back. Recruiter and hiring manager were professional, easy to connect with as people.
The interviewers were a mixed bag. I didn't appreciate the negative tone of 1 of the interviewers who wanted other examples than the ones I was using. e.g. "do you other examples that do NOT have xyz??" I've never had an interview with someone where I got a vibe that he/she sounded slightly annoyed.
As for the presentation, usually at other companies, they will focus on the strategy, story, business impact. But many of these questions seemed executional. e.g. "what were the other answer choices for that question"? Instead of uplevelling the questions like "I'm curious about those other answer choices because I wanted to know if you thought those were viable as business opportunities, as well?"
And never have I fielded so many questions left and right in a presentation, as if they were looking to poke holes, see how I handle pressure. Again, not a big deal if there weren't so many executional questions.
To be honest, after the experience, I wasn't sure I wanted to work with that team (as a whole). The role and company do sound like a great opportunity, otherwise.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Behavioral, but also a lot of questions pertaining to the presentation.