Hope this doesn’t sound like sour grapes, but by the time I left the (only) in-person interview I had serious doubts about their culture and whether it was a good fit. They focused more on my US Government insights and overall appeal than they did my resume…which was fine by me. However, I specifically asked up-front: “Do you have a requisition for this role?” “Is the opening funded?” “Are you looking to fill it now?” I’ve learned that some companies constantly interview and sometimes have no intention of hiring. Ultimately, they did not make an offer, but their reasoning was they they weren’t sure there was enough addressable market to earn strong commissions, so they decided to wait before filling the role, so that was frustrating. They wouldn’t share the name Gartner almost until the end of the process, which made things more challenging for me, and I’m not sure why the secrecy was necessary. Finally, they asked me to come to NYC from for a mock interview panel. They were clear that it would be a stress test, indicating that my ability to address customer objection was more important than the content of the presentation itself. I am not claiming that I had an A+ performance, but I think I did a solid B+, with only a day to prepare. I’m a real-world sales meeting I would be more prepared. The thing that really bothered me though, is that I left my family to go to NYC. The Exec Assistant I was working with wasn’t around to greet me. I never got a short tour. They didn’t even offer a water. I’m not high maintenance, but I was looking forward to at least chatting with the hiring manager after the mock. Well, he didn’t find it important to even be there, so that didn’t happen. Literally they called me in, said “Begin.”, and then walked me out of the room. One gentleman came out for about 2 minutes to ask me follow ups and then sent me in my way. Honestly, if they had just said “This is unusual, but we are terribly busy today”. It felt as if the extreme negativity that they were “play-acting” in the mock carried over as some type of living theater after the mock panel. I’m sure they found an excellent candidate, but it was all strange and left me wondering…”Was that acting, or is that really how they treat each other on the daily?” Turns out I dodged a major bullet...when I was able to speak with 4 former employees they each, individually, spoke about how miserable it is to work at the company.

First three were with the person I would report to and two peers. The second expanded into others I would interact with. The third was an 'experiential' where the interview team played the client and I was the service delivery person.