I was poached by Datadog's talent acquisition team for a commercial AE spot they had open on the west coast team. At the time, I was an SDR looking to move into an AE position so I took the call to learn more. The recruiter was nice, asked me the basic questions first (what I like about sales, why I took the call, tell me a little about your current job responsibilities etc). The next phase was a phone interview with the sales manager for the team that had an opening. Was a basic call, asked me a lot of the same questions. We mostly chatted salesperson - salesperson before he said he enjoyed the chat and would like me to come in for a formal interview. I came in for the formal interview maybe a week later. I sat in a room for around 3-4 hours as different people rotated in/out to chat with me. First was the talent team again, then another commercial sales manager except on the east coast, then the director, and finally the west coast manager who I spoke with on the phone. I'd say this was your average AE interview, I had prepared a 30/60/90 day plan but only 1 person asked me about it. Most of the questions revolved around what I wanted out of the position, how I'd structure my day and outreach, and a general test of my business/sales acumen overall. The final step after the in person interview was a sales challenge. Basically, you take a mock discovery call and have to flush out as much of MEDDICC as you can, then get next steps. During my in person interview, both managers had said this is what they're looking for. I did the challenge, got next steps, pain, cost of inaction, ideal solution, timeline etc. What happened next should've opened my eyes, but at the time I was eager for an AE position so it didn't. Talent Acquisition gave me a call 4 days after the sales challenge saying they would like to extend an offer. The offer was for a commercial AE on the west coast team and was competitive in salary + commission. However, on this same call TA wanted me to sign before the end of the day. I received the call around 2:00-2:30pm and they wanted a signature in hand by 5:00pm that day. I said that was ridiculous as I need time to review the offer entirely, read the fine print and bring it to my mentors/close network for any questions. TA said the best they could do was give me an additional 24 hours and if I wasn't ready to sign by then that my (soon to be) manager might see that as a bad sign and renege the offer. I said this was absolutely ridiculous and that I needed until at least EOD Friday. They countered with noon Friday. I said sure. I received the offer via docusign shortly after. It was a standard AE offer and I signed it.