My first contact was from a recruiter 2 weeks after submission with an interview time already set. In my company typically we would send an intro to assess interest and request scheduling a time. But I have not been on this side for a long time so I decided not to judge and take the interview.
The recruiter was nice, told me I had a great resume she was able to fill out most of the questions on her form from my resume. She didnt ask me much of anything. Then told me that I would be great for the position that she would like to fast track me and send me to San Francisco the following Wednesday for an interview and was I interested? I asked about the position compensation the territory etc before I could say I was interested. She couldnt tell me much, it was a base of $40K with mileage paid, and commissions. I told her I need to earn a minimum of $80k, She stated she didnt know but commissions were not capped.
I decided to continue more out of curiosity, a company would not go through the expense of travel for a $40K position would they?
Next step was a mock pitch to her over the phone. I really knew nothing of the product the first interview question in fact was, was I am member and did I take advantage of the any deals? I am a sales person a mock pitch on the fly is no big deal for me. 2 hours later I did my pitch and closed it. She told me I would need to get rid of all the research and statistics and focus on the living social and cut the pitch to 10 minutes max as my interview in SF would be very fast paced.
The interview process was to be 1:1 interview followed by a mock pitch and that they would really hammer objections so be prepared. But keep it 10 minutes or less?
I received a link for a travel portal, was instructed to make my reservation to arrive by 8am and depart after 5pm I came in the night before. I made my reservation on Fri for a Wed departure, I received an email that the credit card on file was declined and I needed to use another form of payment. I was not going to use my own, They did take care of on Monday.
When I arrived at the hotel I assumed there would be a packet of information or at least a meal voucher or a meet a greet time something, but there was nothing.
My interview time was 8:40am luckily I came down early, they had no signs for their location. It was a large corporate hotel with many functions happening at the same time on the same floor they stated. They had the name Super Session on the door, they said to keep it anonymous, but even the front desk had no idea where or who they were.
I arrived 2 young girls greeted me. One took my picture to put with my resume. I was then asked to wait in a board room. There were 13 other people in the room, only 6 chairs and 5 glasses with a water pitcher but those glasses had already been used. I assumed they would have coffee or something . I have never been asked to travel for a company ever where meals were not included in some fashion.
My first interview with a young man max 19 years old took place out in the hall. He asked me nothing about my experience and the only thing he asked about my resume is what does B2B mean? He stated he kept seeing that and didnt know what it meant. I thought he was kidding, he wasn’t. I asked about the territory, the sale, the compensation, the existing reps, he stated that was all proprietary information if hired it would be covered in training. I asked his role, he was hired as an intern out of high school to answer face book questions about a year ago. When the alarm on his watch went off my 20 minutes was over.
The mock pitch was with 2 more young guys. I completed the pitch answered their one objection of they needed more time to think and had them sign a mock contract. 10 minutes to spare, The awkward silence was only broken when they laughed and said did I want to do it again? One was a researcher and one was an intern in legal
After my pitch I was told I was done. It was 9:30am, my flight was 845pm I called the travel agent number to change my flight I was told I would have to cover any expense for the change in travel. I called my recruiter and told her to remove my application for this position and she asked why which I told her and she was shocked. She said this is how it done, I disagreed but wished her and the company the best of luck.
For many of the young girls who I met, it was a “dream job” to “get paid to be able to stay home with their kids”. For the true sales professionals we wouldn't get out of bed for $40K. The quotas they have assessed of 20 deals per month before earning commissions, just filling spaces with staff from wherever to conduct the interviews is beyond me. They will never succeed at that rate. I would have thought that with VC money there would management requirements. The burn rate will be obscene, it will destroy the market to have unprofessional unseasoned reps introduce this product.