The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Achievers in Nov 2009
Interview
Company tries hard to pitch their work environment as different, casual and fun, but is just a facade for what really lies beneath; an exclusive club for pretentious people. Instead of contacting candidates for interviews one-on-one, they hold an open house to weed out potential interviewees. Interview process consists of the following: group interview, case study/skills interview, top-grading (a fancy word for behaviors and traits) interview. They pride themselves in their selective criteria for judging candidates, but their experimental methods will turn off a lot of good people. For example, one of their questions during the group interview is - "Pretend that we have now hired you. Who would you hire next in this room and why" - The CEO himself admits this to being his favorite interview question and his mantra for it being that it "reinforces who the strong players are in the room and if you get it, you will notice them too". In other words, we are going to shepherd you into cliques right away, and if you are lucky enough, you will be rewarded with an invitation to join ours.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Achievers (San Francisco, CA) in July 2013
Interview
through process... lot's of steps, but it's because they only let through the best and a true no jerk policy (really, they enforce it, unlike other companies with the policy)
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about your accomplishments from high school onward.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Achievers (Toronto, ON) in Oct 2011
Interview
I found them to be very unprofessional. The HR Representative (@ Achievers) arranged a time to talk with me on the phone (2 days before) in which I prepared and waited for 30 minutes and no phone call. I finally called the HR Representative at Achievers (30 minutes after our scheduled interview time) and left a VM saying that my telephone interview was suppose to be at that certain time and I did not receive a phone call at the specified time they set-up. The receptionist sounded 'arrogant' and told me , "uhh. This is Acheivers.. who do you want to talk to?" . The next day I received an e-mail apologizing that the HR Representative was in a meeting that lasted till 6;30pm and asked to re-schedule. We re-scheduled a time for the next day in which the HR Representative was 20 minutes late in calling me for the interview. A very brief (and insincere apology) once again saying that she was tied up in meetings.
We finally talked for approximately 15 minutes for a sales position with them. Since I run my own company and I am responsible for full P&L and total sales (which the HR Representative) didn't seem knowledgeable to assess and understand my depth of experience. She asked me 'What was my sales quota'.. Well, when your self employed and running your own P&L statements at your company, you don't have a sales quota but you can report Gross & Net Revenue as you report directly to your customers (not to a sales manager who defines a sales quota to you).....
She didn't seem to understand my experience (as a self-employed entrepreneur) at all and later dismissed me saying that 'We are looking for SaaS Technology sales people as we think that they would be the best fit".... Ended the conversation with 'We will get back to you next week' which I highly doubt based on the lack of experience the HR Representative have in assessing a High level , Self Employed Candidate......
Not very impressed by the interview process at all and I rather work somewhere else if this was a reflection of lack of inexperience managers within the company.
Improvement: They need more wealth of experience and people with a wide variety of experience (Corporate, Self Employed, Entrepreneurial) to assess candidate's background especially when they are interviewing somebody with a VP or GM level for a senior Account Executive or Business Development role....