There were for me, FIVE rounds to the interview process.
1. A preliminary phone interview, with a HR person from Singapore. This was asking me general questions about why I wanted to work in sales, and some of my experience. Took about 15 minutes.
2. A second, longer phone interview with the Business Development Manager in Singapore who asked me behavioural questions. This interview lasted half an hour.
3. There was then a 30-minute role-play interview over a software video service called Zoom, again with the same person I'd spoken to in the previous interview. In this I was given a client in advance and told to research them. During the roleplay I was expected to try and "uncover their pain points". After one go-through of the roleplay I was asked to give myself feedback and then my interviewer gave me feedback too, and I was expected to then use that feedback in my second run-through of the same roleplay.
4. This was a 2+ hour interview in the Sydney Hubspot office, with four of their sales managers. Each interviewed me separately for around half an hour. Their questions differed. One asked me a lot about my past experience in sales and how I'd learned to do well in my current job. She also asked me to "teach her something". Another asked me about general life experiences which taught me lessons for things like discipline, particularly probing me for what my overall drives are in life and what motivates me to work hard. After our interview he gave me some great sales resources to increase my knowledge. Another interviewer asked me questions to do with lust for learning, asking me about "something I taught myself recently". We talked about books. I also was asked about other passions in life. This was a really fun discussion with great rapport, I felt. The final interviewer was my third time talking with the Business Development manager from Singapore, who repeated some questions he'd asked me before, and elaborated on others, wanting to know how I would learn on the job, and what types of incentives would motivate me most. He also (and I was thrown a bit by this) asked which other companies I was applying to.
I was told this was the final round of interviews, and would receive feedback by the end of the week. However this was not the case.
5. I was asked to do a second role-play, this time with the sales manager I had interviewed with in person at the Sydney office. It was the same case study I'd done before. I tried to apply what I'd learned from the first one. Afterwards I critiqued myself, and the sales manager also gave me a LOT of very constructive criticism. She said I had improved since the previous roleplay, but I guess it wasn't enough to land the job.
My feelings about the interview process are mixed. It's by far the longest process I've ever gone through. Especially with an unexpected fifth interview. It took almost a month to do the whole thing. It is very disappointing to have gone so far and to fall at the final hurdle. I was told I would receive feedback as to why I didn't get the job, but so far I have not received it.
I have to commend however everyone involved in the interview process for how much effort they put in to asking interesting and detailed questions. They really want to understand who you are as a person, and they want to make it worth your time as well.
Another thing I want to express appreciation for is the amount of constructive feedback I received during my roleplays. It really seemed like both times my interviewers were trying to teach me to become a better salesperson, regardless of whether I got to the next round or not. As a result I feel like I learned from them, and the roleplays were useful experiences for me even though I didn't end up getting the job.
The interviewer who sent me sales resources as well, that was really appreciated as well. I think he went above and beyond.
My only negative in the process aside from the length and the fact I didn't get the job, was that after the in-person interview and before I had my second roleplay, I was told by one of the HR people in Singapore that I would be given feedback on my in-person interview and told some tips for my second roleplay before the roleplay occurred. I waited for this call but it never arrived. I still have not received that feedback, and perhaps receiving it in a timely fashion could have helped me land the job. Nevertheless I'm sure I'll get the feedback at some point.
All in all, the interview process is very long and challenging and in-depth, the recruiters care, as do the sales managers, that they hire not only someone with talent but someone who would be a good fit for their role and culture.
