I first met with the recruiter at a nearby Holiday Inn. I was asked to talk about myself, and I was given ample time to discuss my limited experience in sales, as well as my goals for the future. He mostly listened, made notes on my resume, and smiled and nodded a lot. He seemed impressed with what I was saying. He told me a bit about the company, and described the position. I was contacted at the end of the week to schedule a second interview with the VP of sales. This interview did not go as well. I arrived at the meeting -the lobby of another hotel- 30 minutes early. I needed to use the washroom in the lobby, which only had one toilet which was clogged. After informing the woman at the front desk, I waited for about 15 minutes for the problem to be remedied. While waiting, I was approached by my interviewer, and therefore I had to begin my interview without going to the washroom. So much for being comfortable and professional. I handed him my resume and the interview consisted of him being seemingly unimpressed with everything I had to offer. He grilled me on my GPA (which was not strong and therefore not on my resume) "Around a 3.0? was it a 2.9 or a 2.8, a 2.7??" and then asked about my sales experience. He asked several questions about my pay scale at my last sales position, and then after computing my previous salary, asked me " Well if you were making XX a year, why didn't you just stay with them?" After explaining my position, and how I did not want a career in retail sales, and about how I wanted to make a difference in peoples lives through the work I did (more than just what they were wearing), he was immensely uninterested and unimpressed. I was then grilled on what I studied in the two biology classes I had taken freshman year. I was unprepared to discuss this, and by this time very nervous, so I failed to describe one of my classes at all, and rather than B.S. my way through it, I admitted that I could not describe the class. He made sure to let me know that he would be able to describe HIS biology classes from college if asked. I didn't ask. I was under the impression that this position was more about sales than about science. After being pounded into the ground and having most everything on my resume belittled and reduced to nothing, I was then asked how I would rate my sales skills form 1-10. I told him that I would say 8. "Really?? THAT high, huh?" he said. I told him "yes." confidently. He then gave me a smug look and said "Fine. Since you rated yourself so high, put together a presentation for that." and he dropped a wooden coffee stirrer on the table. I quickly scrambled to put together a presentation for the wooden stick, remembering the things I had learned about "needs analysis" and I put together something that i thought adequate. After about 4 minutes he asked me to pitch it. I went through the motions and asked him what he did for a living , and he said that he was the owner of the hotel. Great, I thought. I explained why he needed this product in his lobby barista in order to better serve his clients. He sat and stared, uninterested, and refused to play along with anything in the sale, mumbling his answers to my questions. After a while he said, ok thanks for your time, and tried to dismiss me from the sale. I countered and asked him why he wasn't interested in the sale, a known sales technique in order to identify reasons for reluctance, and he muttered something about how he wanted to use the little plastic stirrers instead. I gave him a physical demonstration of how my stirrers were much longer and therefore safer for stirring hot beverages, which he stared at dumbly. there was silence, and then I asked him, in a vain attempt to close, "how many boxes would you like to buy?" He mumbled, " eh, a couple." To which i replied that my fictional company usually signs clients on for a couple a week. "I just need a couple," he said. So much for role playing. The whole thing was just as nervous and uncomfortable as you could probably tell. After we stopped, he asked, "So you rate yourself an 8. How would you rate that sale? " I felt awful. "I dunno, that wasn't my best. Probably like a 5," I said.
He responded : "THAT high, huh?"
The whole beating took about 1 hr and 20 minutes. I left miserable, feeling about 2 inches tall, and still having to take a s*** for the past 2 hrs.
At least my suit was much nicer than his, my personality much more charming, and judging by his overall demeanor, life has been much better to me. Not to mention my stunning good looks.
