Several phone interviews with direct manager and additional phone interviews with regional manager and regional technical support person. Nothing out of the ordinary, the manager knew me as a competitor (20+ yrs as the #1 rep in the region) and was most concerned about my salary requirements and ability to take coaching from a manager. These to me were logical areas I would want addressed if I were the hiring manager. Regional manager asked more pointed questions, why I want to get back in this industry, why I left,success stories at specific accounts, again, questions I would ask if the roles were reversed. Tech guy was really not at all good at asking questions or leading a conversation/interview, I ended up having to ask him questions to keep it moving. Overall it was pretty much a superficial pool of questions being asked. As a former competitor to this company with a VERY long track record of success I felt that this position was a perfect fit for me, and for the company.Plug and play reliability, hire me today and I could be in the field doing the job tomorrow with zero training. Perhaps I was a bit overconfident during the process, I'm not quite sure where the line is when you KNOW you are the best candidate and either show it or down play it. I think confidence, being cordial and having the reputation to back it up should trump everything else. All of the major players in this market have been hiring young (inexpensive) candidates from outside the field, rarely do any of them succeed and survive more than a couple of years. Success is not based on closing a sale (something a sales person things is the end of the cycle when in fact it is just the beginning) or even getting the professor to require students to use your product. There are many other subtleties that someone with industry experience knows intuitively, but will take years to teach to someone outside the industry. The feedback I received from the direct manager was that I didn't answer questions with "specifics". I actually called him out on this because only one such question was asked that would lend itself to a "tell me about a situation where.." question. I felt it must be something else that they are not telling me. A friend who is also a customer of Cengage recently spoke with the manager and he said that I might not have listened enough and talked too much. This they felt would not bode well when working in the field. I had to laugh at this, really. I am in an interview being asked questions, and I'm not supposed to talk but listen? Now if I were the interviewer (which IS what I do in the field) I would ask the questions and wait for the prospect to tell me what I want to know. I would control how the interview goes by asking the RIGHT questions. My friend also said that my confidence may have intimidated them. So weird that someone with more experience in this industry than all 3 of them combined might know how to do this job? I was disappointed and surprised to not move forward, but I now know why all new reps have almost zero chance of succeeding, you're hiring the wrong type of rep. It was always enjoyable for me to meet the new reps in the field, the professors and I would joke and make bets on the over/under as to how long the new person would last, 2 years is about the max. Sorry but you guys could have had a Ferrari for the price of a Honda because I wanted to come on board with you. Hopefully something else will come up and I'll get another shot.