I interviewed on the phone with a recruiter then on a video call with the Co-Founder/COO.
The call with the recruiter was straightforward. He was well organized and transparent about the process. For the initial interview he would ask a specific line of questions that were relevant for the position and outlined the experience that the company was looking for. He would then summarize each answer to pass along to the hiring manager.
I aced this part, and he felt I was a great fit. This was confirmed when he contacted me for the second interview within 24 hours. We immediately scheduled the second interview for couple of days later.
The second interview was with the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (Allison Paz). She seemed nice and also had a specific set of questions to ask. The only issue here was that her questions were very general. They were less detailed than the recruiter's and more like conversation starters. While I don't mind this, the problem with that, is that she initially expressed that we only had about 25 minutes for the interview. So, it would have been best to really dig into my technical capabilities, past wins, and/or what I can bring to the table.
Instead, she asked broad questions like, what do I think of automation in the buyer journey and AI. These are talking points that are so broad I couldn't get my bearing on how to tie that to something that is relevant for company.
It seemed like she was looking for culture fit more than skill fit for the job.
Her line of questions made me feel that she wanted me to say something that resonated her way of thinking of marketing without knowing much more than what the company does and its main business goal.
Shortly after our interview ended, I received an email from the recruiter that I wasn't selected for the role - which I expected.
So, overall, I would say the recruiter was excellent, but the hiring manager(s) at Nicklpass need to take time to refine their questions to find the candidate with the skills and vision to meet their goals. General questions about marketing and AI won't cut it for more than small talk.
I believe that, as a marketing professional with extensive success in driving sales, marketing leaders should be in a space where they can execute their strategies. Basically, anyone who doesn't do marketing and are struggling with scaling the business should step back and let them do their thing and sink or swim - not solely decid esomeone is the right fit just because they think the same way. If thinking the same way was all it took, then hiring someone for this role wouldn't be needed!
PS: The line of questioning made me look deeper into how big the sales team was. And low and behold, they only had 15 employees and what seemed to be 1 person dedicated to sales. This made some of the COOs questions make more sense and explains why some of my answers didn't.
If the COO had simply came out and told me "we have a very small team and only one dedicated sales person," then I would have framed my answers around that.
Nevertheless, this detail helped me realize that this company was much smaller than I initially thought it was, and not what I was looking for at this later stage in my career. So, I dodged a bullet.