Granicus ought to be embarrassed with how they conducted my interview process. Completely unprofessional, and I question the power structure of subordinates vs. leaders.
As of fall 2022, I was informed that they were filling 3-10 positions on their sales teams (federal and sled).
Met with 3rd party recruiter, who was wonderful to deal with, had great first screening interview with him. 1st round interview with Granicus was with their HR/Recruiter, interview went well, generic interview questions.
Was told at the end of this interview that I must do an online assessment that measures your skillset/personality/etc. Annoying, but whatever...30 minute waste of my time doing math and word problems with an urgency that would never match what a real office job would ever encounter.
I need to make this clear upfront, they knew from the onset that I had NO direct federal sales experiance. I have sold into NGO and NPO's numerous times, so arm's length similarity? (The third party recruiter told me that they were totally cool with interviewing folks who had not sold into the federal space, in fact they had a challenge attracting others who were currently in that space)
Met with the direct report sales manager/hiring manager, he was cool and asked typical sales interview based questions, really nice guy. He reported back to the third party recruiter that he thought the interview went really well.
Had another interview with one of the head sales persons, interview went very well.
Final interview is where Granicus dropped the ball.
I was tasked with presenting in a final 15 minute persuasive sales based presentation. This was to be in front of three other sales people (including the salesperson I interviewed with previously), plus the hiring manager (on Zoom).
The interview was set for a Friday. Less than 10 minutes before the interview, HR sent me and email informing me that the hiring manager was unavailable, but I could still present to the team as the interview was going to be recorded. The hiring manager could view the interview later.
I did the interview/presentation and thought it went well...because you want to show that you can "roll with the punches/be a team player" right?!
Monday I hear back from the third party recruiter informing me that they will NOT be moving forward with making an offer. Wanna know why? Because I do not have federal sales experience. (facepalm emoji here) Now here is where the story gets frustrating...
...long story short, the hiring manager was unaware that my interview took place in the first place, he thought it was canceled and rebooked.
His team (subordinates) went above his head and told HR not to hire me BEFORE the hiring manager even knew that I was interviewed, let alone had the opportunity himself to even view my recorded interview.
According to the third party recruiter, I was the first of over 20 people that the team interviewed that made it to the very end, several people made it very far. What is interesting is that I was apparently NOT the only person that was told "thanks but no thanks" due to lack of federal sales experience that made it really far into the interview process.
Look, I accept that if the team did not think I had the chops for federal sales, than so be it, but the fact that they could override their superior without his knowledge is alarming to say the least. I now question if "being a team player and rolling with the punches" was a good idea...
Granicus needs to better streamline their hiring process and get a better understanding of THEIR requirements for future employees rather than waste dozens of people's time.
