How Zoopla is Scaling Up and Expanding

There are generally fewer job vacancies around since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but some companies are growing and on the lookout for new staff. As we shine a light on employers with open jobs, we speak to Zoopla Head of Talent Acquisition, Sandy Lacey-Aberdein, to get the inside scoop on how to get a job at the company. How has your business had to adapt since the outbreak of COVID-19? Have you re-engineered any parts of your business? From a hiring perspective we have had to adapt our process to the virtual world we all now find ourselves in. We have kept the same process in place for our hiring and interviewing but are now using Google hangouts for our “face to face” interviews. In addition we have a video of our office in London which we share with candidates towards the end of the interview process so they can see where they will be working when we go back to the new “normal” - the video also helps to show more of our environment and the social culture of Zoopla which is hard to see when you are only meeting a small selection of people in the interview process. Related [Check out Zoopla office photos ] We also have a social event for new starters that we usually have in the office before they join to have a beer and pizza with a group of people from the department they will be working in - we are now also doing this remotely to ensure they still feel part of a broader team when they join. Our monthly inductions are now also held remotely where we have lots of interactions and presentations from everyone from the CED to the Exec members and other parts of the business - last month we had 22 people on their company induction - none of which had been to the office at all. From a business perspective we have adjusted our strategy streams to be effective in the current situation - it's well documented that we have offered an innovative solution for our Estate Agent partners by offering them a revised deal which gives them to up to nine months of Zoopla for free, helping them free up cash at a time when they need it most. We believe this is the best offer by any portal globally and the feedback we've had from agents suggest they really appreciate the significant investment we have made as we help them secure their long-term future. Are there signs of recovery in the property market? What is the outlook? There was no doubt COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on the housing market. Our Research & Insight team believe it held up 373,000 transactions worth an estimated £ 82 billion. This in turn meant £ 1 billion in commission that agents were expecting was at risk. The good news is that we are starting to see some green shoots. Our latest Cities Index shows that buyer demand in England spiked by 88% in the week after reopening, to above pre-lockdown levels. While there is still a great deal of uncertainty 60% of potential buyers we surveyed are undeterred by the pandemic and pressing ahead with their property plans. This is great news for the market and agents alike. What is the hiring situation right now at Zoopla? What roles are you looking to fill and where? At Zoopla we are offering people the once in a career opportunity to re-imagine an industry. Currently we are in the process of scaling up our Product & Tech teams as well as expanding our Data Solutions business - Hometrack. In addition we are building truly cross functional teams - with roles such as our Product Marketing Manager roles which will be focused on both developing our products and marketing those products to both our consumers and customers as opposed to the other wider marketing teams who promote Zoopla as a whole. These roles will be based 50% of the time in the Marketing team and 50% working with the Product teams - as a new function this gives talented Product Marketing professionals a truly exciting career opportunity and is just one of the ways that Zoopla are challenging the market with new and innovative products and services As a result we have prioritized these roles as critical hires and are operating a 100% direct hiring model.

• Example Marketing / Product roles: Senior product marketing manager; Product marketing manager
• Example Product & Tech live roles: Senior and mid software front end engineers; Senior and mid software back end engineers; Site reliability engineers; Agile delivery managers; Application security engineer
• Example Hometrack roles: Service manager; Partner manager; Sales operations manager; Senior solution architect; Senior product manager; Client analyst; Senior platform engineer

What do you look for in candidates and how can they stand out in this competitive jobs market? Show that you have researched the company and have a good understanding of the role you are applying for by adding notes about why the culture of the company appeals to you. At Zoopla we have a set of six Behaviors which we feel separate us from our competition - a cover letter referring to these and which ones resonate with an applicant will really stand out. Your CV and any cover letter should actively demonstrate the value you have added to your current and previous employers, rather than just describing your responsibilities and it should be specific to the role and business you are applying for - not generic. Rather than just saying 'I worked on x campaign or x project', provide details of how the campaign reached its target or how the project impacted the business in a positive way - what value did your actions and contributions add. What are some of the common mistakes that you see people make when they apply for a job?

1. They make their application too generic - it could be an application for any job and is not specific to the one they have applied to. We want to hire people who really want to work at Zoopla and having information that demonstrates they have researched the company and understand our behaviors really sets them apart from other applicants.
2. If you are having a telephone interview make sure you demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role and do not have a flat tone.
3. Not turning your video / camera on for a hang out or Zoom interview.
4. Not being able to explain their understanding of a role.
5. Not being able to describe what a business does - Zoopla are not a property company - we are a tech business.
6. If you have young children at home at the moment who may interrupt - this is fine we are all dealing with new ways of working - just let the panel know at the beginning of the call or hang out.
7. Not asking any questions when given the opportunity - we want to know you are curious to know more.
8. Given answers that do not demonstrate a skill - or evidence of your actions - it is very easy to say you are good at something but giving an example that demonstrates you can and have done it really brings it home.

How has your recruitment process had to change and how should candidates approach that? The most obvious change is the fact that we are interviewing and onboarding new starters remotely and have been since the 16th March. Our interview process comprises telephone interviews and Google Hangout interviews and some roles also have a task that is sent to the candidates. We fully appreciate that a telephone call or Hangout is not the same as a face to face interview in person but my advice to candidates is to treat it exactly the same way - we still need to see energy and enthusiasm for the role and like to get a sense of the candidate's personality and interests outside of work. If you are having a hangouts interview please have your camera on - otherwise it is very off putting for the person or panel interviewing and also does not show real commitment to the process. What are some common interview questions that candidates should expect to face? Are you a fan of tough interview questions or brainteasers? Depending on the role they are applying for at Zoopla we genuinely ask a set of technical questions, followed by mindset questions and then people questions. The candidate will spend time with three different stakeholder interview panels - of a maximum of three so they can get a real feel for the impact and breadth their role will have a the range of people they will interact with.  Some roles will require a task to be completed which can be online or in one of the interview sessions which they will talk through with us and have a Q&A. We like candidates to have empathy with customers whether that is B2B or B2C and we also like to see how self aware they are in relation to their strengths and areas of development. At Zoopla we have career frameworks in all our departments and we are passionate about offering development and self improvement at all levels - we want candidates to have a career with Zoopla not just their next job. Our interviews at Zoopla are conversational: they can contain challenging and thought provoking questions but the aim is always for candidates to feel they can be themselves and that way we get to find out much more than what they did in their last role. We get to know them as people and we can see their potential. What is your top piece of advice for anyone looking for a job right now? Remain selective and make sure you are applying for the role that really ignites passion and interest in you. Even though you are not meeting anyone face-to-face you need to treat a virtual or remote interview exactly the same ways as you would in person. Do your research, know about the company culture, behaviors and strategies / objectives so you can talk about why these interest you and relate to the role you are applying for. If you are interested in working for Zoopla, check out the company's open jobs.