Zep Interview Questions
& Process

I applied online and then got a call the very next day. The plan was to interview with the HR person and the Production Manager, but the Production Manager didn't end up showing up. So we had to reschedule so I could actually meet with the Production Manager. I took off work early for this, which meant I sacrificed pay, and then headed to the interview. When I got there, the waiting area didn't have a receptionist, so you have to call a number for your party and they let you in. I called the HR person's numbers multiple times, but nobody answered. I waited around for an hour and 15 minutes before I absolutely had to leave. I sent the HR person a nice email explaining that I had to go, and after that, I never heard anything back from them. Honestly, they could have just told me if they didn't want to hire me, you know?

I talked to a recruiter first, and then the Regional Manager. The recruiter interview was fine, but they didn't seem to know much about the company. The chat with the Regional Manager was rough. He was really self-centered and clearly not a good manager. It felt like the company was disorganized, asking me to decide on the spot what product category I was interested in, even though the job posting was specific. I was really let down by the manager's lack of professionalism and how he couldn't answer what seemed like simple questions. For instance, I asked the recruiter about a specific benefit, and they didn't know. Then I asked the manager the same thing, and he also had no clue, just giving me a vague response. The recruiter call was about 20 minutes and scheduled, but the manager just called out of the blue expecting me to be free for an hour.

I got introduced to the company via a friend that knew I was looking for a lab position. He introduced me to an employee that passed my resume to the hiring manager, who called me a few days later to set up an interview. It was 1 on 1 and fairly standard. Some of the interview was technical, but most was behavioral and included hypothetical questions to see how well I could be a team player while still being able to work as an individual. The manager gave me a tour of the facility and introduced me to some colleagues, some of whom were management and others that were not. Zep is a good company from what I saw that had high standards of quality and needed its employees to be part of a team at times and work individually at other times. Please note that you are being judged at all times. Be nice to everyone you meet, from receptionists to hourly floor workers, to upper management.

The process felt unfriendly and judgemental. I had an initial interview with the founder for a software role. Before the call, I researched the LLM acronym on ChatGPT and Google, but couldn't find a clear answer. I also checked their website and demo video to understand their product, but was still unclear about LLM apps due to my lack of a data science/ML background. The application also asked about LLM app experience, to which I responded 'no, but would love to learn.' After a company intro, I asked the founder to explain the LLM acronym, mentioning I'd seen the demo but was still unsure. He gave a brief explanation, let me discuss my experience, and then stated I wouldn't proceed, implying I was unprepared and unprofessional for not knowing about LLM apps. I usually research thoroughly and companies are usually happy to answer questions. I was surprised by the quick judgment. I've built infrastructure for ML models before, and as an engineer, I wasn't expected to know model details. I wouldn't want to work for someone who penalizes you for seeking high-level understanding on an initial call.