Great learning and colleagues, but some micromanagement issues - Software Engineer II ZoomInfo Employee Review

The company truly lives its core values: Be Relentless, Be Entrepreneurs, Be Experts, Be Innovators, and Be Team, which fosters a collaborative, ethical, and high-performing culture with very little office politics. Leadership is approachable, humble, and genuinely invested in its people, something I have rarely experienced in more than 20 years in the industry. The company invests in employee growth through learning opportunities, internal promotions, competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, modern offices, and a healthy work-life balance. It has a strong foundation to be recognized among the top companies to work for. The company is also an early adopter of AI and continues to deliver cutting-edge technology, giving employees opportunities to innovate and make a meaningful impact. Overall, it is a great place to build a career.

As with any fast-growing company, there are opportunities to continue evolving and maturing as the organization scales. Some startup-style processes and ways of working still exist, and there is an opportunity to further strengthen enterprise-level structure, processes, and accountability. The company has made significant progress since I joined, and continued focus on operational maturity, scalability, and consistency will help support the next phase of growth while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit and culture that make ZI unique.

The people. My peers in marketing are experienced, fun, and whip-smart. Colleagues, even those long gone, have continued to be supportive of one another in ways I've not seen at other companies. The networking is amazing. Although it may also be trauma bonding.

Marketing is always the scapegoat here and will always get hit hard when there are layoffs. In early summer 2025 they laid off nearly the entire product marketing team - from 26 people to 2- and "replaced" them with AI. Morale never recovered, the messaging has never been clearly communicated since then, and the worst part is CEO Henry Schuck went on a podcast to brag about it. Talk about out of touch. In the entire time I worked there, marketing leadership was sorely lacking. There has never been clear direction. This is still a problem with the new CMO, who is both heavily involved at a micro level and yet opaque about important things the whole department should know. And now the constant trimmings... Er, layoffs... no -- "exits" -- have gotten even more extreme. We're just wholesale replacing standard, strategic marketing positions and even teams with agencies. Which is quite a look for a billion dollar company. It might be worth it to work here for 6 months or a year if you can manage for the experience and connections, but the constant strategic switch-ups and looming inevitability of layoffs will wear you down. And soon you'll be looking for an escape route so you can say "you can't lay me off, I quit."