I applied online. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Solmentum (Sunnyvale, CA) in Sept 2011
Interview
This is just a response to an earlier post from a September 2011 interview. I was in the same interview with you, and I have plenty to explain. The hour long solar talk had questions probing to see your sales knowledge, understanding of the market, and presenting you a lot of info as to how they sell. I thought it was pretty intuitive.
The other four of you were asked one question, thanked for your time, and walked out. I was the last one and told bluntly that I was the only qualified person for the job. When the team came into the office at Noon, that was after a morning of in-territory cold calling. They go door to door and dress casually to not intimidate prospects.
I was offered to ride along with a sales rep to get a feel for the day-to-day, and encouraged to give their top performer a call to discuss working there. Sadly, I was offered a much better opportunity and took a different position.
So, the interview process probably seemed arduous and strange to someone who has never done sales. Do not discount this company based on the earlier post.
Jeremy and Michael impressed me quite a bit, and I'm glad they company is doing well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
how do you sell a product that has no marketing trigger?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 days. I interviewed at Solmentum (Santa Clara, CA) in Sept 2011
Interview
Ok, a few weeks ago, I got a call from an Unknown number, kind of strange for a recruiter to be calling from such.... he was polite and friendly and asked me a few standard interview questions and talked for about 10 minutes. He then invited me to a group interview the next day.
I did some research on the company and found on other websites that it was partially a pyramid scheme, and that it mass recruited with a high turnover rate. Those hired are sent out with virtually no training on door to door sales calls on their own dime, and any salary is withheld for at least a month. Thus, I was skeptical going into the group interview, and was already certain I wouldn't take the job, but I wanted to experience the interview first hand.
The group interview was very bizarre. Actually, it wasn't really an interview. There were 5 of us crammed in a small room while Michael Abramovic talked to us for an hour and a half about solar energy. Felt more like a class or seminar. Finally towards the end he asks us a few questions in which we have to wait for everyone to respond. The interview was tedious, boring, and kind of a joke. It lacked any real professionalism. After leaving the office, the employees were just arriving. They start work at 12 pm, and apparently the dress code consists of cargo shots, swim trunks, tank tops and sandals. That's when I knew this company was clearly not professional or serious.
I was emailed a one sentence email later in the day with no explanation indicating that I was not a good fit. I wasn't surprised because the group "interview" seemed arbitrary and idiotic. Even if I had been offered a second interview I would have declined.
Bottom line, go to the job interview if you actually want to listen about solar energy for an hour and a half, or want some sort of practice for group interviews, but don't waste your time. You don't have to take my word for it, do some more research online, and you will discover all sorts of interesting information about Solmentum.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Solmentum (Irvine, CA) in June 2011
Interview
You will be contacted within 2 days of applying for the sales position and given a brief interview on the spot. They will then say that they ask everyone to come in for a group interview where you will sit at a conference table with the other interviewees and one of the head sales people. They will then explain the benefits of solar and ask you what you know about it. We were also asked about our work history and how it would help with the sales process (door-to-door) and what in our life we were most proud of. After the interview is over, we were informed that we would receive an email later that day whether they wanted to extend an offer for the 2nd round interview with the VP of the company. If this was passed, you would then move on to the 3rd interview and a job offer with the company.