Just got off the phone about an hour ago from one of the weirdest conversations ever during a hiring process. First off, I had already received one phone screening from one sort of nervous, unsure recruiter which went fine but he seemed to have very little insight into the wider company. Then I'm told, okay let's keep going and schedule another one with another recruiter, and that this would be the "next steps" or "interview" call, and to bring some good questions.
So today, right at the our scheduled interview time, this new voicemail pops up on my phone, but no missed call. So it's like this recruiter was just doing voicemail drops and acting like you missed their call, no idea why, maybe to keep their prospects on the back foot? So then I call him back, we get into it and one of the first questions was about "what research have you done on us". So I'm like, okay, I'm familiar with what you guys do, you've kind of gone viral over the last few, I like the product, I understand the product. But he seemed to be put-off by that, like I hadn't done enough background on them, which in my mind is like "I just spoke with the first recruiter 2 days ago, and I'm taking interviews with 10 other companies this week. What are you expecting here?" So that was sort of frustrating. So then he goes "Well did you read the job description? It's 100 percent research." Which was unbelievable patronizing, just a flat out silly, off-putting question and I could not have tried harder to just handle this guy's very terse, very arrogant attitude with a sense of levity and grace and take it in stride. But meanwhile in the back of my mind I'm like "This is about devoting my time to doing a full work-up of your company before I have any investment from you guys? I thought this was about sales, you give me a product, I'll sell it. But meanwhile I'm taking 10 other interviews. You want devotion or effectiveness?" Another thing he did was make massive assumptions about my previous sales role, to which I had to set him straight, which was very frustrating. You know what they say happens when you assume.
So then he proceeds to say that they only have 2 hires so far, but they're very happy with the amount of applicants they're getting, which completely contradicted what the first recruiter said when I asked about that. The first one said, "No, we're actually having some trouble finding the right people. A lot of people with a few years experience seem to want an Account Executive role, (ie. They want to be closers) and we have to talk them out of it like 'No, no, listen, think of the money you guys can make, think of the future!'" Which in my mind was a massive red flag, both in terms of experienced people just not wanting the position because they're worth more, the fact that Airtable isn't stepping up to meet the high- demand, and instead trying to "whine" and guilt them into it, and then for the second recruiter to just completely contradict that. Get on the same page at least!
So I ask about compensation, and he says "Oh we don't discuss compensation on this phone screening." Wait, why are there 2 phone screenings, what's even the point of the first? Different from every other startup, but okay fine, it's not time for that.
So I go, okay here's a softball question. How long have you been there? "Since May". Same with the first guy, who said "3 months". So at this point it all starts to click. How can you say you love the people and you love the company when you've been there for so short a time? The contradiction of these guys being so unprofessional and meanwhile expecting fighter pilots on the strength company name alone was ridiculous. If these guys had been at some no-name company and acted the way they did, I'd have probably hung up the phone.
So I'm going, okay, these guys aren't serious, this is a total joke. This second recruiter's tone was very much of a guy who's so certain his mindset is on point that you almost fall for it too, but then given the amount of assumptions he was making, how he was perhaps the least personable recruiter I've ever dealt with (he said "like" more than any valley girl I've ever met), how he seemed like he couldn't wait to get off the phone and go back to Facebook, and how I know it wasn't just me because 30 mins earlier I just had an awesome conversation with a very experienced sales recruiter, 3 years in the same game, at this point I'm thinking, "Oh... you know what, I'll pass." Not in person, I just saved face and hung up, but that's where I'm leaving it. I don't know if they'll offer next steps, or an employment offer, frankly I do not care.
The people they have trying to set up the Austin based sales office though are imo pretty lousy. Without them ever knowing it, the process told a story that these people do not know what they're doing,
