The interview process began with correspondence between myself and the hiring manager. I reached out the them via a lead about the role. We confirmed a date and time for an interview, and scheduled it. The manager gave incorrect information about the location within the building, but luckily, I was able to correct it and find the correct location on my own.
They decided to have 2 sales leaders attend the interview. Both were late (one 15+ minutes late and they re-asked questions already covered by the other sales leader.)
The interview was very standard and seemed like seeing my resume in the session was the very first time they'd even looked at it.
All questions were about personal experience and they discussed the challenge with the role. Both items were items I was able to describe my success at previous places where I have excelled in the past.
Be prepared to have customer, partners, and peer references available. (Though I would consider delaying sharing this information until further in the interview process.) Focus on describing how you were successful and how you developed business instead.
During the end of the interview, I closed for next steps, confirmed that they had zero concerns that would keep me from moving further in the interview process. Both agreed they had zero concerns.
My follow up included a thank you, and then a reconnect attempt based on the timeline they provided. Both went initially unanswered and then they decided to pass on my candidacy.
My experience was unfortunate, but I'm sure it will be a huge blessing in disguise to have been passed over by this company. I had hesitated based on unfortunate experiences (which my previous mutual customers had verified about the organization that ePlus acquired (IDS)), and my own personal poor experience interviewing with IDS 5 years ago.
I hoped that ePlus would have made my recent experience better, but it wasn't, and at least this time I didn't invest too much time with them.
ePlus / IDS seem to have a very tough time keeping sales professionals employed in my market for more than 12 months at a time. They're looking for someone willing to commit a minimum of 5 years in the role.
Be smart, do your research on LinkedIn, look at how long employees stayed in their roles in your market, and reach out to previous employees of both firms (IDS/ePlus) to get an insider perspective before committing too much time here.