A series of numerous phone and zoom interviews. All of which were very positive, and I was given the impression that I would be getting an offer after an in person visit. A day or two before I left for their Redwood City office I was sent a deck and told that I’d be pitching BetterWorks to an audience of 6-7 members of the sales/BizDev/CSM team. I was told that I’d be assessed on style and delivery, as well as how I asked questions. I have a background in cloud HCM application sales and was not really phased by this. I must say that its very difficult for a candidate’s delivery to be natural/confident with just a cursory knowledge of a product, company, and value proposition + a day to prep.
I presented a couple of times. I’ve had to do these before, and generally there’s a pretty thorough prep session with either a hiring mgr, a recruiter, or a current rep. There was no prep for this at all. When trying to prep, I was made to feel like a nuisance by the Hiring Authority... and I think ultimately the reason I didn’t get an offer was due to the fact that he and I just didn’t click, which is realty unfortunate, because I was a natural fit and I hit it off with everyone else I talked to from the CEO, to the VP of global sales (Hiring mgr’s direct report), to the various reps, sales engineers, and CSMs I had the chance to speak with.
I say it was due to my chemistry (or lack thereof) with the hiring manager, because I did a good job on my 2nd walkthrough of the pitch deck, (admittedly my first run could’ve been better), but on the 2nd Rep I demonstrated my knowledge of the HCM space, the challenges faced by those in Talent and CHRO roles, and connected it all together with the BW value prop and benefits of the BW solution. The whole process was kind of disjointed and progressed in a nonsensical fashion. I was told I’d get an offer by the CEO, only to be asked to jump on further phone interviews with current rep and SEs... and even if I’d gotten an offer, while I’d feel better about it, I wouldn’t be able to honestly call it a positive experience.
Also I have a few hundred dollars of travel expenses that have yet to be reimbursed nor has anyone given me instructions for how to file these expenses.
I wish these guys the best of luck, and genuinely like 9/10 people I was exposed to through the process, but the one guy who was aloof, smug, and off-putting happened to be the prospective manager for the role so it was doomed from the get go.