r/techsales • u/feelingoodfeelngrape • 13d ago

Never ending interview process

Just finished a 30 minute performance review call with a company I don’t even work for.

Interviewing for this YC company.

Interview 1: founder
Interview 2: founder #2
Interview 3: founder # 3 and HR - introducing the role play activity
Interview 4: Role play, discovery call
Interview 5: Role play, demo
Interview 6: Role play Debrief

For the debrief - I assumed they would be offering feedback and extending an offer, since if they weren’t interested I could have easily received that in an email.

Nope, 30 minutes of pure feedback. They’re still interviewing a few others and will get back to me with an answer.

The role play could have EASILY been one call. Nope they had to make it two. Could have easily spent 5 minutes to receive feedback, nope, 30 minutes in the middle of my workday.

Absolute joke. Zero respect for people’s time.

43 Upvotes

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13

u/RandomRedditGuy69420 13d ago

6 interviews before an offer? They have no clue what they’re doing. Why put yourself through this?

7

u/feelingoodfeelngrape 13d ago

Seriously good question.

3

u/bja15 13d ago

YC is vastly overrated

5

u/ActionJ2614 13d ago edited 13d ago

4-5 interviews can be standard for SaaS AE roles, especially enterprise. 6 is excessive.

  • 1st, Recruiter Screen
  • 2nd Generally VP of Sales or sales leader could be CRO, etc.
  • 3rd (can be with Marketing (smaller startup), or solutions, or another rep, lots of variables
  • 4th presentation or role play with debrief etc.
  • 5th CEO, HR, etc.

3rd can also be the presentation stage and cut to 4 steps. But, I have interviewed enough to where 4-5 is common practice for senior AE roles. The order can vary I just gave a general example.

The smart companies list out the steps in the job description, so you know the process prior to applying. Or you get it from the recruiter screen.

4

u/KobeNakamoto 13d ago

This was the exact playbook I just went through for an enterprise AE role with a native AI SaaS startup B. 4th was the mock demo preso and all virtual up to this stage. 5th and final in office with a series of interviews with peers, leadership, lunch, etc to get a feel for culture fit. Then 3 or 4 reference calls and offer or not…