I applied through college or university. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Zillow (Boston, MA) in Jan 2016
Interview
I actually applied for Zillow's PM role, but got diverted internally to the strategy role. The interview process was conducted via telephone and comprised of two interviews (I am not sure if I'd have a third one in case I had continued in the process). The first one was a 20 min screening / background check interview with a recruiter. Very straightforward, why Zillow, why the position and a few background questions about my resume. The second interview was a 1h interview with the VP of strategy. Even though the recruiter told me it would be a behavioral / situation interview, it ended up been a strategic discussion about Zillow, the fundamentals of business model, the competition and opportunities for the company. I had very different expectations and ended-up very unprepared for the questions and the depth level the VP was looking for. She also sounded very serious on the phone without much of an engaging behavior. The quality of the call also made things marginally worse.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
If you're interviewing for strategy, have a deep understanding about Zillow's business model, the competitive landscape and ideas on challenges and opportunities for the company. Questions were: what are our key competitors? Why are we differentiated? What are the fundamentals in our business? What are the opportunities given these fundamentals? What are key challenges? How would go about building a Zillow operation in Canada? In addition, there was one behavioral question about "tell me an achievement you're proud of in your life" which was also very tricky. The interviewer was looking for more tangible responses rather than a lifeline of events concatenated.
Thank you for your feedback. It is disappointing the expectation you were given for the interview did not match the actual format. These are standard questions for strategy roles; however, you should have been better prepped. I am reminding my team to better align with their hiring teams so it is a better experience for all parties. Best regards, Annie Rihn – VP of Recruiting