I was reached out to by recruitment without solicitation. I had never heard of Directive and have been a client on SAAS and tech for quite some time so was a bit surprised and excited by the reach out. The recruiter was nice over the phone and helpful and made sure I was aware of the process. This is where the positives end unfortunately. I had one interview with the person I would have been reporting to which felt like a good vibe. I then gave a final presentation interview which I understood would involve my potential manager and one other dotted line but ended up being the COO. Overall a seamless process and I know the exact reason I didn’t get an offer which was a mistake made on my end during the presentation. My frustration however is that I took time and effort to put into the process (again one I wasn’t necessarily looking for but then got excited about) only to have someone I wouldn’t have been reporting to rush me off the call and ask asinine questions vs seeing the bigger picture. In addition, we as candidates are also interviewing the companies and teams we may potentially work for. I kept asking WHAT…EXACTLY was the secret sauce that made this consultancy perform better than the larger guys at driving sales vs more marketing specific metrics and the response was always “the people” or “our approach” which is really just ad jargon. I was hoping to hear there was a proprietary data stack I’d get to work with or learn some new ideas/ways of working. But it really sounded “samesies” to every other agency when you drilled down beyond the glitter of the website. Finally I got the feel of “work hard, work harder” and that Type A men run the show here. All the interviewers were in dress clothes and very matter of fact. Really didn’t ask about me my life or what I like to do outside work. And I believe it’s because there is likely no “outside of work” happening here. To reiterate other comments here, take heed. I feel like I dodged a big bullet.