ZEISS Group Interview Questions
& Process

First, HR will look at your resume and cover letter to see if you have the right technical qualifications, certifications, and experience with maintenance or troubleshooting. Then, you'll have a call with HR or a recruiter to chat about your background, when you're free, if you're up for traveling, and how you communicate. Finally, an engineering manager or senior engineer will have a more detailed chat with you. You might get asked technical questions about electrical, mechanical, or software systems, and you might have to explain how you've fixed field issues before, or they might give you some problem-solving scenarios.

I was first contacted by a recruiter and went through the usual steps: an HR call, an interview with the hiring manager, and then a technical interview that also included checking for team fit. Zeiss made an offer at the low end of my salary expectations, and I was considering it. But before I accepted, I wanted to see if there was any wiggle room since my current company came back with a good counteroffer. When I talked to HR about it, the hiring manager called me personally. He didn't handle it like a normal discussion; it felt more like I was being lectured for not instantly accepting the offer. He even accused me of trying to 'blackmail' them for more money just by asking about salary flexibility. He said he'd handle things directly from then on, cutting HR out. In the end, I didn't take the offer, and then they pulled it back because they said I 'left a bad taste'. I honestly didn't expect a salary negotiation to turn into such a big deal.

I had an on-site interview at ZEISS but was really let down by how unprofessional the hiring process was. I put in a lot of time and effort to get ready and travel there. Afterward, I reached out to the HR person and the manager I spoke with multiple times via email and phone, but I never heard anything back about the results. It turns out the hiring process was already finished, which I found out through their system, and nobody even bothered to tell me. Up until now, I haven't gotten any official word or feedback. I know they probably picked other candidates, but not letting people know the outcome is just bad manners and shows no respect for people's time. It was a really disappointing experience, and it makes me wonder if ZEISS actually values the time and effort candidates put in. I expected more from a company with ZEISS's reputation, and I hope they get better at handling their recruitment.

The first interview was conducted digitally and included three people from the company. Two of the three interviewers kept their cameras off the whole time (one of them briefly turned it on for his 1-minute introduction), so I couldn't see them even though they participated in the conversation. Also, the entire conversation was in English, which was never mentioned beforehand, so preparing for it wasn't possible. Finally, at the end of the interview, I was told it was a fixed-term position for two years, which wasn't communicated in the job posting or anywhere else.