“Bizarre” is the best word to describe my interview process. The recruiter and I had a 30 minute phone interview. She really liked my professional sales background and experience. We also had a great conversation. I enjoyed learning more about her, the Account Executive role and Calendly. She presented me to the hiring manager, then as requested, I scheduled a 30 minute Zoom video interview for him and me using his Calendly meeting link.
The hiring manager joined the Zoom meeting and before any words were exchanged, he looked like he didn’t want to be there. At first, I believed he was tired because it was late in the day or he was trying to adjust his camera. In my mind, I maintained a sense of humor. However, as the time went on, he was looking all over room, leaning back in his chair and kept his responses very brief. He seemed annoyed. Not sure if he was listening to me. The cold greeting was confusing because I have a stellar professional background in mid-market and enterprise software/SaaS sales in new and existing business. I was dressed professionally and well groomed, so that was not a problem.... and never is. Without him asking, I provided examples of my significant sales, the sales process and end results. I also shared what I researched on the company.
A couple of days after the interview, the recruiter sent me an email confirming that I was not being moved to the next step in the process. They decided to move forward with candidates “closer to their needs”. That was the best decision for me. The atmosphere in my second interview was dry and the salary/OTE pay range was below market for an experienced Account Executive in software sales. Nonetheless, I felt since Calendly is a start up tech company with growth potential that offers valuable solutions and is making a splash in the market, this could have been an exciting career opportunity. I also like the CEO/Founder’s vision for Calendly and how he’s building the company. These attributes grabbed my interest.
With my years of experience in tech and digital sales, leadership and entrepreneurship, I felt my skills could have been useful there. It’s also important for me to work in a healthy work environment and respectable company culture. Calendly could have these offers, but it was difficult to pick up from the dismissive responses I received during my final interview. A couple of employee reviews on Glassdoor from females about the unprofessional behavior were disappointing to read. The reviews about unqualified leaders were questionable too. No company is perfect, but hopefully these complaints have been addressed and resolved. Leaving my job from an established tech company for Calendly, under this sales leadership, would have probably been a mistake.
My sincere advice to the Sales Hiring Team: Keep in mind that candidates are giving you their time. Your time and their time is valuable. If you’re asking to meet with them, then the assumption is you’ve reviewed their resume, LinkedIn profile and have a genuine interest in discovering if there is a potential fit. Showing up to an interview acting like you’re less than impressed or burned out is disrespectful and unprofessional. Do your due diligence upfront, determine who you want to interview, then make good use of the time given. You are representing the Calendly brand and should make a good impression. Make candidates leave the interview thinking “Wow - I had a great experience with Calendly”, not “Wow - my experience with Calendly was bizarre.”
Wishing Calendly much success! :-)
