In this show we will discuss:

Preparing for an interview:

Screening call:

1. Know who you are talking to – Recruiter, a hiring manager. Get their name
   1. Check out their LinkedIn
2. Make sure the job description and your resume are available.
3. Have the salary range ready. 
4. Review the resume + prepare stories on how you’ve implemented them.
5. Prepare some stories on how what you’ve done in the past prepares you for what you are lacking. For example, the story I use when I interview for positions that I’m not familiar with the technology is how I had to learn 2 new technologies or protocols in 1 week to perform a demo within the first 2 months of being an SE. 
6. Prepare some common questions asked in the interview:
   1. Why are you leaving your job/why are you looking for a new job?
   2. Why are you looking at our company
   3. What salary range are you looking at? 
   4. Have you done this or that (based on the job description)
7. Prepare some common questions you’d like to ask. 
   1. Why are they looking to hire 
   2. When are they looking to hire
   3. Why did the last SE person move
   4. How many Account Managers would you be working with
   5. What’s the average sales cycle

If the screening call is with a recruiter working for the hiring company, not a third party recruiter, make sure that they like you. Turn the charisma on, have funny stories, be interested in what they have to say. Even if you don’t have all the technical requirements, if they like you, they would recommend you go through and have an opportunity to impress other people. 

Hiring Manager Call

1. Same as the screening call, just take it a step deeper.
2. Ask the recruiter what kinds of questions 
3. Do some research to find out the following:
   1. Who are their customers, and do you know any? I.E do they overlap with your current customers or even friends. The customers are always on the website if you know where to look. The main page, success stories. With a bit of browsing, they can be found. They are not hidden since the company wants to brag about them. 
   2. Download whitepapers. Most white papers are marketing papers that show the products in a good light, obviously, but they also talk about the problem that these products/solutions solve for the customer.
   3. Look at some press releases or google news about them to see if there is anything you can use. Did they acquire a new company,  did they hire a whole bunch of people. Are they laying off a bunch of people?
   4. Browse the website for information that might jump out on you.
4. Download a demo copy of the software that the company offers. Then play with it. Some companies offer labs and certifications. 
5. Anticipate some questions that the manager might ask
   1. They could be the same questions as what was asked from the recruiter plus
   2. The hiring manager is interested in knowing how well you work with others. The worst thing that an SE manager has to hire is the relationship between the AM and the SE. So prepare stories on how you dealt with difficult people in your company. 
   3. Prepare stories on working with customers. Internal or external. If you’ve never worked with external customers, 
   4. Prepare questions for the hiring manager:
      1. How often does your team hit their quota
      2. What does the quota look like, quarterly, semi-yearly, yearly?
      3. How does the team function? As a team?
      4. What would make the perfect SE?
      5. Repeat the questions that you asked the recruiter.
      6. How many people he is interviewing
      7. How many rounds of interviews is part of the interview process
      8. When can you expect a response or decision

Fellow SEs:

1. They are usually interviewing you because their boss asked them to. The focus there is usually more technical, so hone up on your technologies.
2. Questions to prepare:
   1. What is it like working for that company?
   2. How does the team work together?
   3. How do they like it? (they always say they love it, but you can usually get hints towards what they actually feel)
   4. How often do they hit their quote
   5. How the manager works

VP of Sales Engineering:

Have your resume available in front of you. Understand the role very well. I’ve only had one interview where I talked to the VP of sales engineering. He was just seeing if I’m a good fit with his team if I will be there for more than one year if I will be a headache for him or note. 

Salespeople, Director or VP of Sales: 

Not much to prepare here. Most of my conversations with salespeople, directors or VPs of sales were just to gauge my personality, my experience, and what I could do for them in terms of introducing them to people, helping them out with what they need, working on proposals and explaining the proposals to the salesperson who will be presenting.