Zomato Interview Experience

Finally, I had my interview at Zomato. So interestingly after asking this question myself, I am the first one to answer it! Before sharing my experience, I would like to say that I had obsessed myself so much with Zomato during all these days, that it placed a pressure bomb inside my head.

Hyper focusing on how good it could be to land a job at Zomato, I had already pulled off an all-nighter to just email that ’perfect and honest’ job application. And it paid off, I got invited for the interview. So back to the D-day! I reached their office. No words can describe the environment they have created for themselves. Hats off Zomato! The vibes coming out were positive, fun-filled, and attractive to a soon-going to be a graduate-counterculture-aspirant!

I was asked to wait in the waiting room with other job aspirants. And that’s when the time bomb started ticking inside my head! All aspirants were well-dressed, one of them was also wearing a full-fledged formal attire as if he is here to impress some big blue-collar(rare to find at Zomato). Citing Zomato’s image and environment, I was hoping for a bare-footed hipster(hippies are rare these days!) among the aspirants but sadly I found none!

ROUND 1: So, as I was, reading excerpts of ’autobiography of a yogi’ to calm my anxious mind, we were called upstairs for the group discussion round. That’s when I got to know the position that they were offering- sales manager. I had asked them to be a part of their marketing team in my job application email, hereby ’marketing’ I meant ’brand management’, silly me!

So I honestly went to one of ’them’ and tried to clear my confusion and subsequently I convinced myself that ’sales manager’ is the first stepping stone to become ’brand manager’. Back to the GD, there were 6 of us. We were asked to introduce ourselves and quote one embarrassing moment from our respective lives. The moderators were two young ladies. The introduction went quite smoothly.

Few of us were quoting their childhood moments which for me I guess depicts that you have been a flop show lately on the fun side. So tip no. 1 – while hunting for a job @ Zomato, keep up with ur crazy side so u have enough embarrassing moments to brag about! The topic for GD was ’should kissing and obscene scenes are banned from films?’ We were given 30 seconds to prepare before we shoot off and as soon as they directed us to start, I started with my liberal view about artistic freedom And opposing the ban!

The discussion went on for 12-15 minutes. I held on to my view throughout the GD and was confident to be shortlisted. After asking our individual view in the end, both the Zomatians went outside for a couple of minutes and came out with the result. 3 of us were axed and the rest of us were shortlisted for the next round- personal interview!

Round 2: So here we were, 3 of us congratulating and befriending each other while taking a sigh of relief to get through that round. Zomato likes to keep you on your toes. They didn’t waste even a moment and took one us for the interview round while handing out Sudoku sheets to the rest of us.

Maybe giving out a trailer of ’life@zomato’- fast and furious’! So as the first warrior came out and the next one went in, I couldn’t stop myself from asking how it all went. He told me that it’s all chilled out and the interviewer was checking his selling and convincing skills.

In the meantime, the second aspirant also came out and said the same thing. Now, I couldn’t wait anymore, the bomb was racing in my head. I just wanted to go in and kill it before it blasts off. My patience was on the test. While I didn’t have any rounds yet, the first guy had his second round which he told was much more brutal. At last, I was called! Tick tick tick… My body was shaking, my mouth had dried out and palms were sweating… The pressure bomb had gone off!

The interviewer was the same person who had invited me. I had also researched him thoroughly(apologies if he is reading!) He took me to a walk. He started by about asking the confusion that I had regarding the job. I cleared it. Then I started talking about my previous startup and how it worked. Performance Anxiety was all over me!

Then he gave me a situation that I was the sales guy from my startup, and he was a restaurant owner, how would I convince him to buy my service. I started with my sales pitch, he was deeply analytical, penetrating through the smallest details of my services, and I was trying to convince him by somewhat customising the service were asked and viable, negotiating the free demo duration of the service which he asked for. I admit that the only thing missing was the confidence which is unusual with me and therefore, I was somewhat fumbling.

Moving on, I started talking about some of my suggestions for Zomato and he was humbly responding to why they were not possible right now. Then, at last, he asked about my backup plans if not Zomato, I had none, so I kept on pushing how much I loved Zomato, even citing zomato’s Instagram campaign, yummy yatra and all. That’s how it ended.

Maybe I chickened out due to the pressure I had self-imposed on myself. It was just not me, it was the anxiety speaking. But not zomato’s fault, they gave me a fair chance and it was one of the best experiences I had, and I am still hopeful to get into the world of zomato!

Feedback from Them: The interviewer’s last words were ” it was nice meeting you and you know a lot about our product, we will get back to you on Monday or Tuesday for a further round of interviews if there are any” all three of us were told this same thing. Maybe that’s their way of saying goodbye or maybe not! Fingers crossed! And all the Zomato aspirants, be cool and calm! That’s the mantra I guess!