#176 Get A Glimpse Into the Mind of the Interviewers

Notes:

Almost every sales engineer has their fair share of stories to tell about how they got the job they’re working at, and one of those stories is about the interview process. You probably went through a series of interviews at one company and were grilled with all kinds of questions – from your sales knowledge to your technical skills and ability to be coached and trained. It was only towards the end of the interview that you were asked if you had any questions for the person interviewing you. If you are interviewing for an SE job, don’t be shy to interview your interviewer. In this week’s episode, we chat with Akshat Srivastava and delve into the questions you should be asking your interviewer. They range from what to ask your hiring manager, your sales team, product and enablement, and future sales engineering leader.

Akshat Srivastava is a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) working for the enterprise pre-sales team based in New York City. Before AWS, Akshat has worked as a sales engineer and solutions engineer at AppDynamics, Cisco, and mParticle. Akshat started his career as a Java developer at Vision Service Plan and worked as a senior developer at IBM. He is also the founder of Sales Engineers of New York (SENY) which is a great organization bringing Sales Engineers together.

Key Takeaways:

What sparked this topic of conversation and why Akshat decided to write about it
Is going into an interview with a notebook in hand and taking notes a good or bad thing?
When you go into an interview, they’re not just looking to see if you’re the right fit. You too must make sure the employer will be a good fit for you
Do some people lie or exaggerate their qualifications on their resumes?
What to ask sales folks during an interview – this could be the account reps or their bosses or someone responsible for revenue
Questions you would ask the sales engineer manager early on in the sale in the interview cycle
How does the number of SE’s an SE manager is handling affect your decision?
Why going in with empathy is always a great way to leave a mark on your hiring manager
Akshat’s experience working directly with product and enablement folks and questions to ask them if they are interviewing you
What about interviewing a customer about the company you’re applying to?
A helpful trick you could do on Linkedin that will help you understand your future colleagues or SE manager better
Akshat’s final advice for anyone going through an interview process and about asking questions
How will you differentiate yourself and become the top SE during the interview cycle?

Quotes:

“When you are interviewing at companies that are not publicly traded, that are startups, you tend to be more inquisitive in your questions, because every person who’s joining a startup wants to join a startup, because of the equity component of that company. You’re buying into a vision there, you’re kind of buying into a hopeful exit plan. And when you’re interviewing for those kinds of startups, whether it’s a 100-person startup or a 500-person startup, that’s when those questions that I wrote become more interesting.” – Akshat Srivastava

“You have to take notes. You’re having a conversation at the start, that will come to fruition. You’re gonna have to remember the things that happened in between.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“We are still a very niche industry with more demand than supply, there’s more demand for SE jobs than there are SEs that are experienced.” – Akshat Srivastava

As we SEs grow in our careers, we become more selective as to the opportunities that we want, we tend to ask more questions, because of what we have seen, and we have been through situations that we don’t want to be repeated.” – Akshat Srivastava

“We are the product of our experiences.” – Akshat Srivastava

The more experienced you are, and the more selective you are, the more questions you can ask. And the more you were wanted, like now that you have more power in your hands.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“By the time somebody is looking at your resume, your resume doesn’t matter that much anyway. It’s your personality and the way you conduct yourself. You’re being evaluated, it’s about how you’re coming across, answering those questions.” – Akshat Srivastava

“But the more you talk to people and be genuinely curious, the easier the questions will come.” – Ramzi Marjaba

“If you can’t convince me that this is a robust product, which kinda solves a challenge and a problem, how am I gonna convince others and meet my quota?” – Akshat Srivastava