Q&A With Zendesk Employees

They don’t. This is a huge hole. We need HR folks who aren’t HR issues themselves.

Don’t know since this was years ago.

I was asked about being let go from my previous job.

Met the recruiter and managers.

The process can take a while, but interviews themselves are fine.

Be yourself. Don’t lie.

Tons. Hopefully new opening in management soon...

We don’t have them. But terminations are handled with care for the terminated being at a premium for their privacy.

Tons of questions about my experiences in customer support.

Empathy, understanding and patience.

Perks are pretty good

varies from dept to dept

Still pretty innovative, but we don't turn as fast as we use to

When they are appropriate

At one time Zendesk had a great sales team. However do to bad leadership most of the highly skilled sales people have left or are actively looking to leave.

The sales leadership, particularly for the Americas, is very poor. The VP of sales does not have the experience to run the organization. Her experience is inside sales. As such she used inside sales methodologies to manage inside, outside and strategic sales. Outside and strategic sales are vastly different than inside sales. This difference will significantly increase as the company moves from selling to SMB to Enterprise. In addition, the VP of Sales in the Americas has very poor management and communication skills. She is often very rude and demeaning to her team. As a result of her leadership she has created a very toxic environment.

The vibe within the sales department, especially in the Americas, is horrible. At the beginning of the year the company brought in a new VP of Sales for Americas. She did not have the experience to run Zendesk's sales organization which includes inside, outside and strategic sales. Her only experience was inside sales. Given her experience she has tried to manage the entire sales organization using inside sales methodologies. Outside and strategic sales are completely different then inside sales, and these differences become greater as you focus on moving from SMB sales to Enterprise sales. In addition, the VP of Sales for America has very poor management and communications skills. She can be very rude and demeaning to her staff. She is very short tempered. As such, her actions, behavior, demeanor and the way she communicates has led to a very toxic environment. As a result most senior sales people have left or are actively looking for new jobs.

Very chill and laid back. People arrive at ~9 and work until 5, some stay until 6 and very few past that. Some people work from home on Friday.

There are a few cliques in the org. For instance, field is quite different and separate from digital. Almost no communication takes place between different teams. But people are usually friendly and happy to help. They are changing the structure of the org so perhaps it will be more of a "one team" mentality.

Marketing leadership at Zendesk has gone through several changes in the last couple of years. They have a new VP of Marketing who is smart and seems to know what he's doing. He's trying to make marketing more aligned with sales and more effective. However, changing the org is difficult.

Not really difficult

Stressed out and anxious

People who know how to manage up to leadership

Not much - mostly white males

That you have to watch your back