I applied online and the overall process took about one month from submission to receiving a decision. The interview steps included:
*Initial recruiter phone screen
*30-min virtual meeting with the team lead
*1-hour simulation presentation (about 10 hours of prep work)
*30-min "meet the team" with two CSM peers
*15-min virtual interview with the VP of Customer Success
*Final 15-min phone call with the company's President
Overall, I really enjoyed every conversation I had with the Customer Success team. Each person, from the team lead to my CSM peers and the VP of CS, was warm, thoughtful, and provided meaningful insight into the culture and the strategic direction of the organization. Those discussions left me genuinely excited about the possibility of joining Aidoc.
My final conversation with the President, however, felt quite different. He called me five minutes late (we only had 15 minutes scheduled to begin with) and mentioned he was at the airport and between interviews, which made the discussion feel rushed and one-sided. The conversation centered mostly on his monologue of the importance of the CSM role, something I had already covered in depth throughout the process, and he asked only one fairly generic question about the "crowing jewel" in my career thus far. The whole interaction lacked the openness that had made every other previous conversation so engaging and inspiring.
It also felt unusual to have a C-suite executive inserted into the interview process for a non-leadership, individual contributor position. In my decade of experience in the CS field, I’ve never encountered this at any other company unless it was an extremely small startup, and in this case, it seemed unnecessary and made me wonder if he tends to micro-manage his VPs and department directors. Based on the feedback I received from the other interviewers and recruiter prior to this call, all of which was extremely positive, I have a strong sense that this one interaction with the President was the determining factor in not receiving an offer.
While I understand the value of leadership involvement, the final step felt misaligned with the otherwise thoughtful and collaborative tone of the earlier interviews. It’s a shame, because the process up to that point reflected a company with an exceptional CS culture, one that risks losing out on some great talent due to an unnecessarily rigid final step. A longer, more conversational final discussion with the VP of Customer Success likely would have provided a more meaningful close to an otherwise well-structured and positive process, given her deep knowledge of the team and what success looks like in the role I would have been performing.
Lastly, after such a thorough and time-intensive process, I was surprised to receive a rejection by email without so much as a brief follow-up call. I realize recruiters manage many candidates, but after a month-long process and 10+ hours of preparation for the presentation portion, a short conversation with some feedback would have gone a long way in providing closure and maintaining a positive candidate experience.,
