The entire interview process consisted of 1 phone interview and 2 in person interviews on different days. The phone interview was with one of the two HR reps. She asked me several generic questions about my background, explained the basics of the job role and asked if it was something I could see myself doing. The phone interview took about 5 minutes tops.
The next interview was in person, with the same HR rep. I met her at the office and the interview was about 30 minutes, very simple and easy with very few questions. She asked me what my hobbies were and what I liked to do for fun. There was no real discussion of my previous experience nor the job role itself really- instead she mainly talked about all the perks, to get me excited (and it worked at the time). She said that most people in the role make at least 100k their first year then asked me if that was a salary I was comfortable with (obviously... ), then she went on to talk about the travel opportunities and prizes for hitting goals. That was about it.
Then a few days later she followed up with me to invite me back for a third interview, this time with the other HR rep. I was skeptical at this point considering the last interview was eerily easy and not complex at all. However, I went in for the second in person interview and met with the other HR rep. He asked me more in depth questions to my relief, asked me to describe how I would handle certain difficult situations over the phone, how my previous roles and experiences would translate to helping me in this position, etc. Overall he asked very good, in depth questions that made me feel like they were really taking these interviews seriously in trying to find the best people for the role.
A few days later I was called back and offered a position. I accepted at that point. I was told the first week would be a training week. One of the HR reps emailed me with the employment letter, but said that for the first week I'd only get a $250 stipend, and the actual salary wouldn't start until the next week. I was concerned about this and asked her, asking if that meant that I wouldn't necessarily be officially hired until successful completion of the training week. She quickly assured me this was not the case, that I was already officially hired. She didn't really explain though why they only paid $250 for the first week. I later found out.
I started the training week, with an idea of what the position would be like in my head based on what the two HR reps had described it as. I was in a training group with 7 other individuals. 4 women, 4 men- all between the ages of 23-late 30s. Everyone was really nice. Both HR reps were also training us for the week. I found out later that the two of them were initially sales executives and then became heads of HR not long after. That doesn't really compute for me.
\ We had to practice reading through a ridiculously wordy sales pitch. Rather than how we articulated ourselves or how we spun the words, they were more concerned with (literally) how loud we spoke when we read the script. We had to all walk around the sales floor and basically yell the sales pitch over and over. We were told we were "constantly being watched" by managers and execs, who were mostly focused on how loud we were being, and that's what they judged our skills and qualifications on.
We were able to speak with other sales execs on the floor to get feedback about the job from them, which proved very helpful. They were honest with us. They said that the training week was actually a week to weed people out- that "not everyone makes it" through the training week, and that we're constantly being watched and 'scored' all week. They said there was a very high turnover rate. We were told that the industry we would be working in/the teams we would be placed on all depended on which managers wanted which employees on their teams, if our "personalities matched".
Ultimately I made a decision at the end of the training week to not continue on. I was already unnecessarily stressed out and this was only a training week, not the actual job. They were very secretive as well. The HR rep even wrote on a piece of paper something to not tell us/talk about and handed it to one of the managers when they were meeting with us.
The managers for the most part were VERY unprofessional as well- most of them had condescending "holier than thou" attitudes and swore A LOT. I don't get offended easily and my last role was in a casual work environment where everyone got along and was friendly/young- but no one spoke that way.
It was a waste of time. Still got my $250 though, thanks.
