The application starts with a set of 7 or so online questions asking you to describe your previous experience in the field. They were very specific and relevant to the area ("toughest bug found?", "biggest contribution?", "code examples"), and I thought it was a cool idea as I was able to elaborate on a lot of topics I wanted to discuss further. It probably took me about 2 hours to write up everything (I tend to be wordy), and I was quite pleased with the results. Submit.

I went on to read a lot more about the company and how they work, and that got me very excited! They market themselves as an open, transparent, and remote-friendly company. I read a lot about how they operate and their mindset, and ended the day feeling like this is exactly the place I wanted to work.

Later in the week, I was contacted by a recruiter to schedule an online interview. I was asked to pick a time on their calendar, and when I saw the slot was for only 30 minutes, it became clear that we were not going to go in depth into any of my answers. "Sure, maybe in the next stage," I thought.

The interview started with the recruiter 5 minutes late (on a 30-minute interview, that's a lot) and without any introduction or apology, I was asked why I was interested in the role and a bunch of overly generic questions.

• "Why do you want to work for Zapier?"
• "Tell me about your previous experience."

I wasn't particularly pleased with the questions, as a lot of them had already been answered on the form I had to fill, but I answered anyway, as I know initial interviews can be high level. The recruiter seemed both uninterested and wanting to rush through the interview. Rude, but okay. None of the questions were pointing to any specific stack or tool; they were all very superficial, and no mention was made of the initial application questions, as I anticipated (though it bummed me anyway).

The interview ended, and the recruiter said I'd hear from them in 7 days but that there might be a delay due to the holiday season, which is super fair. Two weeks later, I got a generic decline email:

"Thanks for chatting with me for the Test Automation Engineer role at Zapier. We know you put a lot of effort into the application as well as our call, and we're really thankful for that. I'm afraid I come bearing bad news; we aren't moving forward with your application. These emails are the hardest part of the job. We receive tons of interest, and narrowing the field means saying no to many great applicants. Please note that while we are unable to offer feedback on your application, we're always happy to reconsider applicants for different roles or in 6-12 months for similar positions."

My reaction was just "What?" I didn't even know you could be rejected on that interview. Anyway, I replied thanking the recruiter and asked for some additional feedback so I can look to improve.

The recruiter said they don't give feedback, and that was the end of it.

Overall, it was a really weird (in a bad way) process, as none of what I experienced matched what I would have expected from reading their site and blog.

Why do you want to work for Zapier?