Zume Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process with Zume was great, I would highly recommend applying to anyone interested in the company. The recruiting team was perhaps the best I've ever worked with - very efficient, friendly, and sincere in their interest in my well-being. The onsite interview experience was also one of the better ones I've participated in. It was shorter than most (~4 hours) and had a well-balanced range of questions and topics. I was impressed with each employee that interviewed me. Lunch was provided, but unfortunately, it was a catered meal and not made by Zume's robots.

This was a pretty shoddy interview process. It started with a phone screen, and then I was called onsite. No one was at the door for 20 minutes, and I had to email some people before the recruiter showed up. The campus was super noisy because of pizza vans running generators, making it hard to hear. I interviewed with one person offsite and the rest onsite. They asked the usual behavioral questions, nothing special. The HR team was terrible at communicating; they didn't tell me the results and I had to keep pinging them. They should at least be professional and communicate, respecting candidates' time if they don't respect their own. It also seemed like the organization has a lot of culture issues and politics.

I applied online and then the hiring manager emailed me to set up a call. I talked to the hiring manager on the phone. He told me he'd keep it brief because most people don't like long phone calls, but it ended up being 40 minutes long. I barely got to speak three times because he mostly talked about his own career aspirations and past candidates. He offered a salary way lower than market rate for a senior role. When I expressed concern, he asked if I'd still come to California for an onsite interview, even though the job is in Seattle, to see if they could convince me about the company. I said the offered range was still too low, and he said he'd check with leadership. I eventually got a rejection email.

I had an onsite interview at their Mountain View office. It was pretty standard, with typical interview rounds focused on data structures and algorithms. They did provide pizza after the interview, but it was cold and hard. Usually, other companies have a proper lunch session if they offer food. The Mountain View office itself seemed very new, with a lot of empty desks, small rooms, and ongoing renovations. There were some pizza trucks outside, but they didn't seem to be used much, maybe because the office is so new. While the pizza wasn't great, I guess that's the problem they're trying to solve.