1. Brief Screening Interview
> This took forever. First a recruiter contacted me after I submitted an online application through my university job board. I scheduled a quick phone interview with her but she cancelled 5 minutes before and I never heard back from her after reaching out to her several times. I heard from another recruiter a month later that she's not with the company anymore- It was very annoying but another recruiter, who was not aware of this contacted me again a few weeks later and I scheduled the interview with her. Prior to the interview you need to submit your transcripts and during the interview you need to explain why you have low grades in certain classes.
2. Phone Behavioral/ Case Interview
> After the initial screen, the recruiter reached out to me in about a week to schedule the phone interview with two separate people to do both Behavioral and Case (30mins each). My case interview was rescheduled so I had to do the case and behavioral on a separate day but I think most people do it back-to-back on one day. For the case interview, as many people mentioned, you use a screen sharing program to answer some questions. It was basic math - mostly and it's a phone interview so you can use the calculator if you need to. I thought I didn't do as well because I did mess up a little on calculations and I got lost a few times but the interviewer was nice and was really helpful throughout. Behavioral was also very basic questions. 30 minutes is not that long- In fact, I think my interviewer ended in 20 minutes and asked me if I had any questions. It was very casual and the interviewer was really nice.
3. Onsite Interview
> I was contacted 2 weeks later that I am moving onto the next step. I thought I did very poorly on my phone interviews and it took so long for them to contact me so I never expected an onsite interview. I was invited to the nearest office and the interview consisted of 5 interviewers and a lunch break (?). In my case, two of the interviews were case- one was a written case where you are given 45 minutes to answer some questions and a consultant comes in and ask how I approached the problem and kind of tweaks the questions. I thought it was fun - the interviewer was really nice. I misinterpreted a question so my numbers were all wrong but I guess it doesn't really matter as long as you can explain and fix the problem quickly. Behavioral was answering rounds of questions that show how I would act in certain situations. One of the question was "Have you ever solved a problem in a unique way?" Lunch was fun. The Business Analyst who took me to lunch was very funny and nice. We had very interesting and casual talk during lunch and even though it was probably another interview that tested how I'd fit in with the culture, it was a nice, relaxing break for me. Then, there is a demo interview, where the interviewer presents an actual project that ZS has done in the past. I was taking mad notes on it because I thought I'd be tested on it at the end but the interviewer told me to relax and just listen. LOL I still paid attention and the interviewer asked me some questions like how would you go about this problem if you were working on this project? but nothing difficult. I really enjoyed the presentation and I asked tons of questions.
Overall, the interviews were not that difficult as long as you prepared. The case interview is different from the other management consulting case interviews though. But as long as you prepare them, you will be fine because I think it's easier and more analytical than strategic.
I heard back the next day that the feedback was positive. But, I had to wait about 2 weeks until they gave me an offer after the reference check, which really stressed me out... This is the reason why I wanted to write this review. I was searching everything - I read every single review on glassdoor to find out how long reference checks take and if anyone has ever gotten rejected even after passing the final round. After a very stressful... and long long wait, I finally got a call! :)
