Behind the Interview: How we assess Leadership & Values at Zip

Interviews can often feel daunting, especially when you’re not quite sure what to expect. At Zip, we believe the best interviews are fair, transparent and give you a genuine opportunity to show up as your best self.

One of the key and final stages in our recruitment process is our Leadership & Values interview. This stage is designed to understand how you think, how you work, and how you create impact, beyond your skills and technical experiences.

We recently refreshed the 16 behavioural standards that underpin our four values - Customer First, Own It, Stronger Together, and Change the Game - and built them directly into this stage of the assessment process.

That means the questions you’re asked are relevant, consistent and grounded in real work scenarios at Zip.

Our Leadership and Values stage is a form of competency-based interviewing. Read on to understand how we approach this at Zip, and how you can prepare to shine if you reach this stage of the process with Zip, or in other scenarios.

What is a competency-based interview?

Competency-based interviews focus on real examples from your past experience. Rather than hypothetical questions, we’ll ask you to talk about moments where you’ve navigated challenges, made decisions, worked with others or driven change.

You might hear questions like:

• “Tell me about a time you had to balance speed with risk.”
• “Can you share an example of when you challenged the norm to get a better outcome?”
• “Describe a situation where collaboration made a real difference.”

Each question maps back to one or more of our specific Values and Standards relevant to the role in question, helping us understand how those behaviours show up in practice, and most importantly giving you a clear opportunity to demonstrate what really matters to you at work.

How to prepare: 4 practical tips

1. Choose real examples - progress beats perfection

You don’t need a flawless success story. In fact, we often learn more from examples where things didn’t go exactly to plan. Think about moments where you:

• Took ownership of an outcome
• Made a call with imperfect information
• Learned from a mistake and adapted quickly

What matters most is how you approached the situation, the thinking behind it, and how you’ve applied any learnings going forward.

2. Anchor your stories to customer impact

We’re passionate about creating exceptional experiences for our customers, so we love hearing how your work made a meaningful difference to different stakeholders, either internal or external.

When preparing your examples, ask yourself:

• Who benefited from this decision, and any trade offs that were considered?
• What changed as a result of your actions?
• How did this improve an experience, for a customer, partner or colleague?

Showing how you prioritise impact, empathy and value creation will help bring your story to life.

3. Show how you work with others, not just what you achieved

Great outcomes rarely happen alone. We’re keen to understand how you collaborate, communicate and lift others around you. Strong examples often include:

• Seeking out diverse perspectives
• Giving or receiving constructive feedback
• Sharing knowledge or enabling others to succeed
• Influencing without authority

Leadership isn’t just about results, it’s about how you bring people on the journey with you.

4. Be curious, reflective and open to change

Some of the strongest answers come from candidates who have shown they can lead and embrace change, and adapt - it’s an area our top-performing Zipsters demonstrate consistently.

Consider examples where you:

• Challenged “the way it’s always been done”
• Experimented or took a calculated risk
• Adapted or needed to make a decision when priorities or conditions shifted, or with limited data at your disposal

Curiosity, adaptability and a willingness to level up yourself and those around you are qualities we value deeply.

What your interviewer is really listening for

Your interviewers - most likely a pair of leaders in the team you’d be working with - aren’t trying to catch you out, or tick boxes. They’re listening for signals or understanding patterns of behaviour around:

• How you think through decisions
• How you balance pace, impact and risk
• How you take responsibility and learn
• How your values show up in action and align with our own behavioural Standards

Our structured interview approach ensures every candidate is assessed fairly and consistently, so you can focus on sharing your experiences with confidence.

Final tip: prepare, but don’t over-script

Come ready with real examples, reflect on what you learned, and be yourself. We’re not looking for “perfect” answers or Zipster clones. We’re looking for candidates who bring their own perspective, energy and ideas, and who want to write the next chapter of their career, together.

Another way you can prepare is to think about the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) model - clear, structured responses to these types of questions can really help an interviewer understand your thinking, and help you tell your story more effectively.

Good luck! We’re looking forward to meeting you...

P.S. Wondering how we expect candidates to use AI in the recruitment process? If you’re based in Australia or New Zealand, check-out this blog. Check back to the blog shortly for guidance from our US Talent Acquisition team.

You can also search our latest vacancies here.