Zymo Research Interview Questions
& Process

I only had the first interview, which involved an HR person and a senior scientist. They were nice and asked general behavioral questions while also going over my resume. Specifically, they inquired about the techniques I utilized for each project, such as Fluorescence staining, PCR, DNA, and RNA technologies.

The interviewer was really condescending, rude, and seemed totally unprepared. He had this smug look on his face whenever I had to pause and think, and just gave off a super arrogant vibe. He kept cutting me off while I was trying to answer. A lot of the questions he asked weren't even relevant to the job description, and I'm not even sure he knew what role I was applying for. Oh, and you really need to know your bioinformatics stuff for this. The only good thing was that the interviewer was punctual.

Scheduling this interview was a hassle and felt like they weren't considering my time. I'd reply to their emails with my availability within hours, offering multiple slots, but they'd take five days to get back to me, often suggesting times I wasn't free. After I sent more options, they'd respond the next day asking for a time that very afternoon, which I agreed to. I didn't hear anything about whether I got the job or not for four weeks after the interview.

Do not try this company if you have any alternative choice. I am very honest and serious to draw this conclusion. Please allow me to offer you a few hints on how stupid or perhaps ridiculous on my interview in the following. First, chaotic interview management. In the beginning, HR contacted me for a phone interview. I believe as a person with normal cognition, we should consider this interview is from HR side because this is an email from HR side. However, however, however, the real interview became an 1 hour technical interview... This is impolite and rude absolutely. Second, bizarre technical questions and ignorant self-conceit. Here, I am going to list one as an example. This question itself is a big question. They have big difference, the former one is a dimensionality reduction method, while the latter one is a clustering method. I am very curious how and why this technical interviewer was hired.... OK, I said that I could answer this question, since I did not know where to start. He smirked, smirked smirked. Did he believe he could get more say after defeating a pre-school kid in math or biology? He was too haughty to be a "so-called" scientist. Third, their question order is stupid. After 1 hr tech interview, HR asked me how much do I need, I said 80K, then she responded they could only provide 65K..........Please , Please , Please ask me this question in the first round and do not waste me time !!!