The process took about a month. The HR Director reached out to me via email a few days after submitting an online application. He said that he would like to schedule a phone call to discuss the opportunity, but first he had two questions for me. 1) “In your own words, what is your understanding of this role”? 2) “If hired, why do you think you would be successful”? I replied with my honest responses to these two questions. The next day we scheduled a phone call for the following week. The call lasted 30 minutes. We spent about 20 minutes discussing my background, and the rest of the time discussing the company and industry. He passed me on to the next round which was an in person panel interview at their office in Kingwood. When I arrived at the office, I could not help but notice how poor the lighting was inside, which was a little disappointing. I had been told up front that their office had no dress code, most people I saw were wearing t shirts and sandals, and this made the atmosphere a little more relaxed as an interviewee. There were 4 people in the room for the interview that were all of the local divisional mangers. They asked me the typical interview questions. I spent most of the interview trying to convince them that although I’ve mostly worked in outside sales, I could be just as strong on the telephone as an inside sales rep. They told me that the job was no walk in the park, and even that they have high turnover and “burnout” rates with their sales reps, which did not scare me at all. I had prepared 4 open probing questions similar to what I had asked the recruiter in the phone interview, to lead into me closing the sale of myself in this job At the end I was asked to take part in a role playing sales call. They gave me a scenario, and I called the group of managers who had moved to another conference room on speaker phone. My call lasted about 3 minutes, and I achieved the objective of the exercise by closing the sale. The following week I was contacted by the VP to come in for a face to face interview. This was actual a 1 on 1 interview with the VP in his office, who was very friendly gentleman. We spent the first 45 minutes discussing the industry, their competitors, and how difficult the job can be. I expressed my interest in the job to the VP, and we spent the final 15 minutes talking about football. A week later I received an email letting me know that I did not get the job. I believe that they were really looking for someone with more inside sales experience, such as a telemarketer, or a car salesman. But, in the end it was not a bad experience, and I learned a great deal about the industry.
