A recruiter reached out to me and scheduled an initial call. The call went well and was very straightforward. She mentioned that they wanted someone who could start by March, which was roughly a month away. We scheduled a call with the Hiring Manager during this conversation.
The call with the Hiring Manager also went well; he asked standard questions.
After my interview with the Hiring Manager, the recruiter sent me an email saying the Hiring Manager thought I was a 'super strong candidate' and they wanted to move me to the final interview ASAP. Then, they went cold. Two weeks later, I was told they were pausing hiring for this role for 3-4 months.
Two things were evident before I spoke with anyone: They wanted someone who could work as a full-cycle AE and AM, and the company had achieved moderate success with product-led growth. Like many companies, they needed to address churn and increase revenue, as recent earnings had stagnated. In this case, they should focus on outbound and hire at least two people on the AM side to concentrate on expansion, plus another CSM. Instead, they aim to hire someone capable of multiple roles.
I also doubt they had a hiring freeze. If it is, it demonstrates poor planning on their part. It's more likely that they found someone else and wanted to keep me on their radar (given that three months is the standard probationary period) in case it didn't work out with the person they decided to hire. In her email, the recruiter mentioned that she had feedback from the team. Feedback would only be used if they were moving forward with someone else. (I know recruiters and have hired people myself.) If they truly were pausing hiring, she would have simply stated that. Notably, the job posting is still up...
I would have appreciated more transparency, especially considering the depth of the research I conducted in preparation for the final interview. I was tempted to share my insights with them after receiving the news, but decided against it since I would essentially be exposing their shortcomings against competitors and instructing them on how to conduct outbound for the first time, a skill I excel in.
They are a startup in a saturated market with scant differentiation from major competitors and they are not known at all due to poor marketing. As I told the Hiring Manager, they're selling a product that requires complete buy-in or else their churn will continue to rise, or their customers will simply switch to a competitor with better features, greater establishment, and superior support (Unless you're an enterprise customer, you get slow support that's generally just basic snippets.)
This startup seems to be struggling to decide their next step and how they can generate revenue. They wasted my time and misled me instead of being straightforward, and that speaks volumes.
