Zendesk Program Manager Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involved multiple rounds focusing on cultural fit. However, the culture seemed unhealthy, promoting blame and incompetence. They appeared out of touch, unprofessional, and a waste of time, with no clear understanding of program management, instead making biased judgments. Management seemed unaware of the toxic environment. Interestingly, they mentioned hiring psychology graduates for IT roles.

My interview process with Zendesk was extremely lengthy, disappointing and emotionally exhausting. This is a super long post, but this was my experience... I applied for a Program Manager position. After the recruiter screen, I was moved on to meet with the Director (hiring manager). The call went well and the Director moved me on to interviews with two additional directors and an SVP. I also had another interview with the hiring manager where I had to present a project I've worked on. The recruiter told me that if they liked me and planned to make an offer, they would pass me to a C-level executive for one last discussion. Well....I made it to the C-level interview! In my mind, based on the impression I was given, this meant there was a pretty good chance I was getting the job. Following the C level discussion, I was told the exec really like me and told them to "find a spot" for me. Shortly after, I was contacted by the recruiter and told that the hiring director had two open positions and one of the positions was for a Sr. Manager. Apparently, she had two candidates she really liked for the Program Manager position (I was one of them), but she also had this Sr. Mgr role and thought I'd be a great fit. I met with the hiring mgr again to discuss and from there, she had me meet with three more people on the team. I was given great feedback from the discussions, but then two weeks later I receive an email from the recruiter indicating that the hiring manager chose someone else for the position. Both positions, that is. The original role I was interviewing for AND the Sr. Manager position that was brought up to me during this process. I was completely deflated. The recruiter was a great communicator and prepared me for each interview. In fact, everyone I interviewed with was fantastic. I just felt absolutely gutted and quite honestly, confused. Fast forward to a few weeks later and one of the directors I had interviewed with for the initial role emailed me. She had a position on her team and wanted to know if I would be interested. Another opportunity! I was very excited. Her and I spoke and she gave me an overview of the role. She said that since I had already interviewed with so many people, she didn't want to put me through too much more. She had me speak to 3 people. All conversations went really well, but then I found out a few weeks later they decided to go with someone else. Again, very confused.

The interview process was great. It started with an HR screening call, then a 30-minute chat with the hiring manager, followed by three more 30-minute conversations with other team members. It felt pretty casual, more like a discussion about my background and the position. I think fitting in with the company culture was a big deal.