Gartner Studios, Inc interview questions

Hope this doesn’t sound like sour grapes, but by the time I left the (only) in-person interview I had serious doubts about their culture and whether it was a good fit. They focused more on my US Government insights and overall appeal than they did my resume…which was fine by me. However, I specifically asked up-front: “Do you have a requisition for this role?” “Is the opening funded?” “Are you looking to fill it now?” I’ve learned that some companies constantly interview and sometimes have no intention of hiring. Ultimately, they did not make an offer, but their reasoning was they they weren’t sure there was enough addressable market to earn strong commissions, so they decided to wait before filling the role, so that was frustrating. They wouldn’t share the name Gartner almost until the end of the process, which made things more challenging for me, and I’m not sure why the secrecy was necessary. Finally, they asked me to come to NYC from for a mock interview panel. They were clear that it would be a stress test, indicating that my ability to address customer objection was more important than the content of the presentation itself. I am not claiming that I had an A+ performance, but I think I did a solid B+, with only a day to prepare. I’m a real-world sales meeting I would be more prepared. The thing that really bothered me though, is that I left my family to go to NYC. The Exec Assistant I was working with wasn’t around to greet me. I never got a short tour. They didn’t even offer a water. I’m not high maintenance, but I was looking forward to at least chatting with the hiring manager after the mock. Well, he didn’t find it important to even be there, so that didn’t happen. Literally they called me in, said “Begin.”, and then walked me out of the room. One gentleman came out for about 2 minutes to ask me follow ups and then sent me in my way. Honestly, if they had just said “This is unusual, but we are terribly busy today”. It felt as if the extreme negativity that they were “play-acting” in the mock carried over as some type of living theater after the mock panel. I’m sure they found an excellent candidate, but it was all strange and left me wondering…”Was that acting, or is that really how they treat each other on the daily?” Didn’t feel like a VP-level interview process to me.

Long process of 3 1.5h interviews proceeded by 45 minutes prepp time, it dragged on for over a month. I appreciate their support for each interview but the pressure on the panel interview at the last one doesn't compare at all to the previous ones and I wish the second interview at least would have been similar in pressure and scruitiny so I had an earlier idea that my sales experience was not enough rather than wastinng another 2 weeks time waiting and preparing for the last interview.