I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Houzz (Irvine, CA) in Jul 2019
Interview
The recruiters and talent acquisition managers are nice at Houzz but don't shoot straight until the final 5 minutes of interview.
Vaguely asking for metrics:
It would've been much more appreciated if they were straightforward with what they are looking for. "Tell me some of your metrics. How did you perform at your job relative to your peers?" would have been much more helpful than the current line of questioning. I thoroughly prepared examples the night before for each of the STAR questions the recruiter provided me and only one of those questions were asked.
Segmented sales force and application of previous work experience:
Their sales team is segmented between appointment setters and closers. In my previous sales positions, my role encompassed both of these roles as well as account management. When I answered how to get through a sales slump with "set up more appointments," they qualified me as more of an appointment setter as opposed to a closer since I focused on the top of the sales funnel instead of the bottom.
Final 5 minutes:
In the final five minutes, the talent acquisition manager went from purely positive energy to cutting through the facade claiming my experience was short of the account executive role and better suited for the appointment setting role.
Advice to interviewees:
- Present metrics to recruiters and talent acquisition managers at the very beginning. They want to see them if they don't explicitly say it.
- If you have a wider array of sales experience, focus on the portion of the sales funnel you'll be contributing to. This wasn't clear to me and it might not be for you. Clarify job responsibilities
- Cut through the facade first. You have a bunch of interviews. They have a bunch of candidates. It can be a pleasant process while still being direct.
Great company to work for. They have a stringent hiring process. You will have multiple interviews followed by a presentation at the end. All in all they want to see if you understand their platform and user mentality. Big props if you show your personality or if you have a positive attitude it will go a long way. It was definitely gruelling but totally fair as the job itself is quit full on.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Why Houzz? Why sales? You don't seem like a salesperson.. (I don't). Very blunt but direct.
Houzz places a large emphasis on role playing in the interview process, both for external and internal roles. It's daunting in the moment but is actually good practice and gives interviewers a good sense of how you think on your feet
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Are you comfortable making 100+ outbound phonecalls a day?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Houzz (Fresno, CA) in Dec 2021
Interview
It was very through and you really got a great idea of the position, it was multiple levels finishing up with a mock sales call to really get an idea of the process
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They asked me what qualities make me a great salesperson
Account Executive applicants have rated the interview process at Houzz with 2.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 38% positive. To compare, the company-average is 44.7% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Account Executive roles take an average of 14 days to get hired, when considering 62 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Houzz overall takes an average of 18 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Houzz as a Account Executive according to 62 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 31%
One on one interview: 23%
Group panel interview: 10%
Background check: 10%
Presentation: 10%
Drug test: 7%
Personality test: 3%
Skills test: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Other: 1%
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