Interviewed for an AE role in the Chicago office.
I had a phoner with a recruiter, a Zoom with what I assumed was the hiring manager and key decision maker, and then I was brought in for an hour interview where I met with three people; which included the director of sales, a sales manager, and then the hiring manager I spoke with in the second round.
Here’s what happened during that in-person that I interpreted all as positive signs(spoiler alert, I got denied without any meaningful insight as to why):
When I asked the sales director at the end of our session if there was any hesitations or concerns he had about me being successful in this role; he said he didn’t, and thought I would be a good fit.
The original hiring manager mid-way through our session, when she realized I was more senior than many of the other sales reps, asked if I would be interested in being considered for a managerial role; presumably overseeing the people in the sales role I was currently interviewing for. I’m confused as to how I can qualify to be a manager for a role that I guess I’m not qualified for?
Towards the end of the same session with the hiring manager, without prompting she started to prep me for the next step being a quick 10 minute discussion with the CRO to talk about my sales history from a numbers perspective and then a quick personality test before an offer would be made.
After we exhausted position-specific talk, and the interview for all intents and purposes was over, and she could’ve sent me on my way, she kept me around to engage in small talk about the conference she was in town for and the specific events and destinations for upcoming company functions, as well as her husband’s shady gambling habits. I didn’t realize hiring managers have these types of casual conversations with candidates that they don’t intend to bring onboard.
I was told as I was walking out by the hiring manager, that they like to move quickly and I’ll be hearing from the recruiter soon.
Once the in-person was over and I left with these positive vibes, which I think most would consider, good ‘buying signals,’ I sent the perfunctory follow up thank you email and asked about next steps. This was Thursday morning.
After two failed reach outs to the recruiter for any kind of update, I got a boilerplate email stating they were going in a different direction on Wednesday of the next week, with no further explanation.
When I asked for more specific feedback to better understand why I was being passed over I got crickets.
I then reached out to the three that interviewed me via LinkedIn messenger because they didn’t provide their emails throughout the interview process, and the hiring manager I had spoken to throughout was the only one that got back to me with the very trite, ‘it was a group decision, but we went in a different direction.’
Interviewing for a job, and leaving it feeling like productive conversations were had, does not, and should not mean you deserve the job, but it should warrant being treated with enough respect and empathy to at least receive honest feedback as to why you’re no longer in the running. Did you choose another candidate? Was my interviewing skills not up to snuff? Did hiring budgets decrease? Was this a real job in the first place?
Would a TransPerfect sales person/team that lost an RFP bid to a competitor and then asked for feedback as to why, and the client said, ‘we just went in a different direction,’ feel like they received the level of respect they deserved after putting in a lot of time and effort to put forth their best offer?’ How would they know how to improve for the next bid?
Why should candidates not receive the same kind of treatment when they get passed up on a job that they spent a lot of time and energy preparing for?
All this to say, the interview process was extremely misleading and an overall negative experience.
Cue the hollow boilerplate response of somebody from HR thanking me for the feedback, and the company’s commitment to engaging in equitable and transparent hiring practices, and the encouragement for me to continue to look at new opportunities at the company as they become available.
