The next step in the process was to talk with one of the hiring managers over the phone. I ended up with three on the phone which I thought was great. To most sales oriented folks that won't matter but it may intimidate some; so I'm noting it. 30 minutes exactly 1. What does your current employer do - not to sure I understand? (They didn't do any research). 2. How has your experience been with your current employer? (They didn't talk to the recruiter I spent 50 minutes on the phone with, i.e., experience, successes, reason for looking for a new opportunity, etc.) 3. What did you do to prepare for your interview today? What do you know about NetApp? How did you find out about the position - why do you want to work here? 4. Do you want to close deals? Do you want to be involved from "cradle to grave"? I was applying for and had been screened for a quota carrying sales position. It was very weird to be asked that. They mentioned that there would be some role playing at the end of the call, which I was delighted to hear. That never happened. Most difficult questions I asked them: 1. How do you evaluate and manage the person in the position? I got two responses. One right away based on how information is documented in their CRM and how they run reports to look at that. I asked the same question another way and got the answer I needed to decide if I'd enjoy working under/with them. 2. I see one of your competitors put out an article last week which highlights a negative aspect to your business model, and the statistic of the market share (your share) they are capturing and why. They are growing expediently. How does it resonate with you and where your technology is headed to compete? How are you prepping your sales force? They didn't answer the questions. That says a lot. They didn't familiarize themselves with my professional background prior to the call. They didn't ask a single question about my current area of expertise (target market). The business sectors they were hiring for have been my focus the last three years; working directly with the CIO's at those leading organizations. I contacted the recruiter the same day and politely declined to go further in the interview process. While they seemed nice enough (the three managers), I am a fairly good judge of character and I look for more than nice. I could not see where they'd offer me anything more than what I get today. They didn't bother to differentiate themselves or NetApp to me. I was very shocked. The interview goes both ways just like business, and from what I experienced one thing comes to mind, "like marketing, interviewing is not one size fits all". One last note that might be of interest. They hire in RTP for time zones. If you want a standard schedule of 8am - 5pm, you'll have to ask for an east coast territory; otherwise your options (besides 8-5) from what I understood are are 9-6 and 10-7 (of course if they are still hiring ISR's for each time zone).

Why you?