[mikester]

Well; a sorely needed update I suppose.

I don't think I got it and in the 36 hours since the final interview I haven't heard anything so I'm second guessing the heck out of it at this point.

The final interviews between the 4 candidates were on Monday late afternoon into the evening.

They do a round-robin style deal where one candidate moves from person to person until everyone's been interviewed by everyone else.

There were 7 folks there to interview us and it lasted from 3pm to 9pm.

I feel that I did fantastic with the 3 engineers and the 2 sales managers (local and regional guy). The two hiring managers ganged up on me though and that made me a little nervous (which it doesn't normally so I don't know why it did this time other than the fact that absolutely wanted the job). It's not like me to be nervous in situations like this so I was a bit caught off guard by the feeling I suppose. When I was in with the hiring managers for the hour they had me I did my 15 minute presentation, the whole situation is a little rushed so I was also a little rushed. The constructive criticism given after my presentation while I was talking about something else quite excitedly was that I should have had that same enthusiasm during my presentation.

It was then that the gravity of the position started to be impressed upon me. They told me how important it was to them for next year's goals.

In my next interview with another engineer it was again stressed to me.

So in the next interview, with the regional sales manager he too impressed upon me the importance. So, being the frank and honest guy I am I asked him a killer question. Maybe not even killer in a good way...

"Why are you going to trust such and imperative and important account to a newbie?"

The regional manager, who this almost matters the most to was quite certainly stunned by the question. He even said, "Well, that's a hard question to be sure." In fact, he didn't have an answer except to say that a newbie might be hungrier to do well than someone already established.

Back to the Hiring manager's interview; I lost track of some key points and I can't fault anyone but myself for that. I just don't think I stressed well enough why they should choose me over one of the other guys. But in that I think I only missed one point - it was a good point but it wasn't specifically the only point and I feel like the other items I stressed were valid and stand well together.

So; the Technical interviews (3 of them) went quite well and being that I'm technical as well I was easily able to get into them and make personal connections as well as professional. Almost all of them gave me their cards so that I could contact them outside of this process. The Sales managers as well I feel went very well and the regional manager gave me his information to contact him afterwards as well. I plan on contacting all of them to get their feedback but I am going to wait a week just for good measure.

The plan was that they would have a decision by Tuesday to make an offer to someone. I left a morning and an afternoon message with the hiring manager as well as sent an email. I probably should try to call again but at this point I am pretty discouraged. I had been up against one of the other candidates before so we spoke again and since we had exchanged contact info before we talked yesterday. He had not heard anything either.

I really think I did well all in all; I know I did better than I've done before. I'm a little down but I know I gave it an extremely good shot if not my best shot. I'll likely try to get in again as I'm sure there will be other opportunities. It was end of year for them this week so they were trying to slip this position in under the wire; maybe that in and of itself cause some issue with it.