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Ask HN: Jerked Around or Par for the course?

2 points by noahc ↗ HN
I've been looking for bit of a career change. The ideal case would be doing something with consultative sales that leverages my strong IT background. I've had success selling when I was freelancing and if I could get them on the phone, in person, or on Skype I had almost 100% success rate.

I went in for an interview, he said he'd put together an offer that afternoon. I've never had a job title with 'sales' in it, so during the interview we talked about compensation being a balance, and I said I'm willing to accept a lower base pay and more commission to take some of the risk out of the equation for him.

I followed up a couple times and nothing came of it. I moved on and then I get an e-mail that basically said, "I was just waiting to see how much do you push to get this done, sorry" I really liked the guy and I feel like we'd get along.

Then he suggests I set up a time to see the offer he put together. I suggested thursday afternoon or friday afternoon. I'm pretty sure it won't happen today. I also feel like this might also be a test.

Is this par for the course in sales? I'm not sure I even want this job, if I feel like he's the type of guy that sets up 'tests' all the time. Two tests before I'm even hired?

Is my spider sense trying to tell me something?

4 comments

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retroafroman
That sounds to me like he failed at something (putting the offer together, getting your hire approved, getting back to you, etc) but wanted the shift the blame over to your side. I've never seen (good) salespeople to sell themselves into a job-they have people competing for them. I think you're being jerked around.
noahc
I'm not sure this is the case as he is the owner. He has a business partner but I think talking with him was as much about having time to digest the interview as seeking permission.

In any case, I think I'm going to decline even seeing the offer.

brk
Everything in interviews is "par for the course". You're dealing with other humans and their own odd expectations of what is "normal".

Getting interviewed for a sales position adds another layer of absurdities because some people expect sales interviewees to over-sell themselves and be overly diligent in followup, negotiating salaries, etc. I personally don't subscribe to that line of thinking, but know many people who do.

In ANY case, if they made a commitment to you and missed the agreed-upon deadline, you should give them a small grace period (maybe 24 hours) and then followup. This would be true even if you were interviewing to be the backup-tape swapper guy.

noahc
I left the interview and he said, "I'll have an offer for you by this afternoon" and then he said, "We'd like to hire you on the first (of december).

So he clearly missed both of those.