I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Salesforce (San Francisco, CA) in Aug 2010
Interview
I initially applied for the Account Executive role, and reached out to a recruiter via Linked In InMail. That worked well at quickly getting a call scheduled with the recruiter, who then told me I didn't have the appropriate experience for the role. He passed me along to another recruiter for a different role, but didn't tell me what it was. I did have to follow up with the initial recruiter by email because I never heard at first. Once I made contact via email, I scheduled a phone interview. The 2nd phone interview was very vague, no tough questions. She asked me to pitch my company and told me more about the role. She then invited me in for a live interview, 4 30 min sessions with 4 different people 1:1, 2 being in the role currently and 2 being managers. The first 2 rounds were easy, just getting to know me and telling me more about the role. The 2nd two did inquire more about personal achievements and the ability to hit goals, and how I would react if I was coming in at the bottom. Once the interviews were over, I heard 4 days later that I was given a verbal offer.
After reading some reviews on this site, I was extremely prepared with knowledge of the product and ready for tougher questions. I think knowing what was going on with the company and how the tools worked helped.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
What would you do if you were at the bottom of the pack?
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Salesforce (San Francisco, CA) in Sep 2007
Interview
The recruiter called me and we had a brief conversation. She asked me about my previous work experience and my knowledge of the company. She asked me why i wanted to join salesforce and future goals. She scheduled a meeting with 4 other people, including the Vice President for salesforce latin america. She recommended that i did more research on the company, and sign up for a free trial. I spent an entire day looking at the website, getting started on the free trial, and watching demos. I also googled the company to learn more about the company, CEO, and work culture. Once i arrived at the salesforce office, i realized that its a young, energetic, and fun company. The people are stylish, competitive, and driven. Most of the salesforce employees live in the Marina district in San Francisco. The office is painted in bright colors and the kitchen has big colorful bowls filled with all sorts of snacks. The interview went smoothly. The Vice President asked me about my knowledge of CRM and how I would sell it to the latin american market. They asked me about any challenges i had enountered in the past and how did I manage to overcome those challenges, very typical interview questions. I asked "why would you not hire me"? they said because of the lack of technology knowledge. Because it was a sales rep role, they were ok with my lack of tech experience. As soon as the interview was over, the recruiter called me back and told me that I had done well and followed up with me within a couple of days. She emailed me a job offer and I took the job.