Sticking with interviewing theme and with over 15 plus years of experience screening and interviewing sales candidates, I can boast a fairly robust resume of stories. You can too, if you’ve been a sales manager for some time. Sales folks can be a tough, and humorous, interview!!
Like there was the time when……
• (From an earlier post)…..I once interviewed a sales admin candidate who spent her career in the construction industry, an industry far from mine at the time. As I probed for the attributes she possessed, I asked, “Why have you spent an entire career in the construction industry?” She quickly and assertively replied, “Because I love men!” The interview ended quickly….
• The resume pronounced 5+ years of “PNL experience”. Where does one find “PNL experience” anyway??
• The candidate enthusiastically expressed that he wanted to get into “outdoor sales”. You mean “outside sales?” No “outdoor sales!” he exclaimed. I guess when you think about it, there is probably no difference…
• The candidate who kept me waiting for 15 minutes while he went to the vending machines to buy an ice cream sandwich and dutifully unwrapped it and slowly ate it during the interview….it was a short interview…..
• The resume listed three references, all of whom turned out to be relatives, posing as executives in local companies……
• The candidate who proudly described a certification earned in 1982, when the certification did not even exist until 1992…...maybe a “senior moment?”
• The candidate who woefully failed the interview and then sent a LinkedIn request to the interviewer as a “thank you”………
• The combative candidate with all sorts of ideas on how to run the business better, like “you really ought to build a better hiring profile to keep your attrition down….”
• And my favorite…..the interview starts with ”I know my resume looks scattered and ridiculous……..but……” We ended up hiring the candidate!
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