Total lack of internal alignment and contradictory evaluation
Pros:
The initial screening with the first recruiter was positive, transparent, and professional.
Cons:
The interview process revealed a massive and frustrating lack of internal alignment between the HR team, the job description, and the hiring managers.
After advancing through the rounds, the final rejection was based on the claim that my answers focused too much on "onboarding and relationship-building" rather than "sales execution and driving account profitability." However, the company's own job description explicitly stated that commercial growth and sales execution were handled by Account Executives and Key Account Managers, while leading complex onboardings was listed as a core CSM responsibility.
I explicitly tailored my examples to the vacancy and to the instructions given by the recruiter in the first stage. It became clear that the hiring loop evaluated candidates against a Sales/AE framework rather than the actual Customer Success profile they advertised. Moving candidates through multiple stages only to judge them on criteria that contradict their own job requirements is a waste of everyone's time and shows poor internal communication.