WheelofCheese

Sales Executive

Opinionated

Praised Answer

Contributor

Asked to complete a case study before 1st interview.

Hello Savages!

I recently submitted my resume for a Director of Sales position at a health tech startup company.

Today, I received an auto generated email asking me to complete a case study before an interview is granted.

The case study guidelines are below.

THOUGHTS?!!! 😂

🏙 Corporate Experiences

41 comment

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Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

My first thought is to plug those prompts onto ChatGPT and see what it comes up with.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Would be interesting to see the results!

RVP Enterprise Sales

I applied for a leadership role at this very same organization. And I did this exactly. I then prompted a number of additional times to create more "content" and pieced it together cohesively.

FWIW, they declined to continue the process stating... "

the role we have right now and the place where our company is right now may not be the best place to set you up to succeed."

LOL

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

I believe I received the same type of generic response. Seems a little sketchy.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

I just had flashbacks to Jimmy having 5 apples... I don't like word problems anymore.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

😂😂😂

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

Would be the first place I look.
bahhhh

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

😂😂😂

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Wouldn’t recommend working for free, especially if this was automated they are inundated by them…

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Seems like a tall ask —especially before a first interview.. AND there’s no guarantee you’ll even get an interview. 🧐

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Fuck ‘em

SerialBiller

Executive

Account Executive

Just do your absolute best and pay zero attention to anyone who complains, it’s your job not theirs. If you want it, go and get it.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Brutal

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Is this wild to anyone else that this would be required before an interview is even granted?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

🦡🧿

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

hahahaha

Account Executive

Unless that first interview is with the person who also has the authority to hire you, I normally avoid those companies altogether.

Lets be real, the first interview is normally what I call the shitbag interview. Someone in HR, normally a recruiter or talent manager shoots the breeze with you for a few minutes to make sure you weren’t lying in your resume and that you are not a horrible human being…aka shitbag.

I have I my done case studies or full prep situations when it comes down to the interview with the director or VP as the HR people are told what to look for, but if they have never sold then they really don’t know what to look for in most the info you send them.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Makes sense!!

palmtrees

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Oh hell no 🥴

kneehigh

Politicker

Senior Enterprise AE

Seems like a copy/paste from some consulting case study interview

FoodForSales

Politicker

Before ***1st*** interview??!?!!! That's not realistic.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

if they do this before the first interview, time to use chatgpt

Ted10

VP Strategic Partnerships

This is Clipboard Healthcare.

I noped out of this process quickly.

Red flags include, but are not limited to:
- they have SDR’s doing blind HR recruitment (mine came through YCombinator
- Nobody from the company replied to my follow up inquiries
- If I can’t get a conversation with a human before I have to invest time into solving business problems, I’m not doing that
- just read the Glassdoor reviews for this role and the company itself

There are two different case studies required during the process and it appears most get a one line decline after going through building two case studies.

Unpaid consultancy is not the road to a good role.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Yep! You guessed the right company. After receiving my case study, they responded with a lengthy email on it not being a good fit (no further explanation as to why). Thought it was worth a shot, but to your point, this exercise proved to be a complete waste of my time.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

I was on my way to google it for you or advise CHATGPT, but seriously if it's one of the limited opportunities that perhaps you might not find that easily again being a Sales Director , do you really have a good response for that case study?!😇😅

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Hmmm...

Not sure if I respect it or hate it. Assuming company wants to see how you approach putting together frameworks and surely this helps filter out a lot of unqualified people.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Kind of where my head is as well. For the record, I did go ahead and submit my case study. The good news is I'm pretty good at this stuff so it didn't take me days to complete. They actually asked for a 2-3 day turnaround and I complied. I will say this is the first time I've ever been asked to complete an exercise before a first interview, so it was a bit of a surprise for me! In a way, I get it. This role would be in charge of all of the sales managers so it's an important role to fill. We'll see if I passed their test ;)

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I think I know this company.

Let me guess, quick phone 'screen' to discuss opportunity but not an interview, then this?

Ted10

VP Strategic Partnerships

It’s Clipboard Healthcare.

They reached out to me for this same role.

There’s no conversation at all, and my outreach to the person that this role reports to went unanswered.

I walked away.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Yup, that’s exactly who I figured it must be. Same thing happened to me. What a joke of a process

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

You too?! Sheesh. Not impressed with how they run their business.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Absolutely brutal. Seems like really transactional sales as well.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

I’m still a little bit shocked a company would request this much work before they even bother to talk to you. I guess shame on me for agreeing to this over the top request before the first interview. You live and learn I guess! Hopefully others will take note!

Ted10

VP Strategic Partnerships

Another thing to consider is that it's the same case study provided, whether it's a Director of Sales or Director of Product role.

As I mentioned elsewhere, why have an SDR who can't respond to role-specific questions in your HR recruitment?

This "cast a wide net"/"Catch-all" approach devalues the importance of the role, and the lack of human interaction tells you all you need to know about how you'll be treated IF you can get the role...and more importantly if there's actually a role available.

To me, this just reeked of using an applicant pool for unpaid consultancy to solve Clipboard's internal pain-points without ever having to invest in bringing talent on board.

The more people that respond to their case-study requests, the less inclined this organization will be ever to become a good one.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

Terrible. If there’s any good news (to your point) it’s that I likely dodged a bullet. Seems like a terrible culture from the little I know about them. Word will get around how they conduct business I’m sure.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

You/we all definitely dodged a bullet. I had the same thought myself.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

No. I sent in my resume and a cover letter. They responded back with an email stating that I’m on their short list of candidates and asked that I complete this case study exercise for further consideration. Assuming they like my case study response, they will then request to have an interview with me.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Even worse.

That's a lot to ask without them putting any skin in the game

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

💯

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I at least had a 15 minute conversation, and only sent them a resume.

WheelofCheese

Opinionated

Sales Executive

I was already a little uneasy with the fact that they are a startup. I’ve never worked for one and it sounds like startups in general are struggling these days. I’m going to look at the lack of further engagement as a blessing.

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WheelofCheese

Asked to complete a case study before 1st interview.

41 comment

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