Recruiter interview was smooth, but the hiring manager interview went terrible. Not every applicant matches the job description to a T and my interviewer didn't take the time to consider potential.

I was a referral and started out with a phone interview with a corporate recruiter. She seemed nice and we discussed my experience in detail, so she knew I had no prior sales experience in this particular industry (payroll), but set me up for an in person interview with the VP of the Major Accounts. Drove over an hour just to have the VP take one look at my resume and tell me that for this position, they want someone with previous experience in the payroll industry. She was, however, kind enough to refer me to the division that handles smaller accounts and so the recruiter then set up an in person interview for me with the VP of that division. Drove again almost an hour to the other office this time and had a good interview with that VP. Next step was to set me up for interviews with two sales managers. The two sales managers could not be coordinated to meet me on the same day, so I had to drive out two more separate times to meet with each one. The interview with the first sales manager is what arose some alarms for me when she started out by trying to indirectly get out of me what my personal status was (single, married, etc) by asking me to start off by telling her about myself. I tried to keep it centered more around my career experiences, but then she interrupted me, a bit frustrated, and said she was looking more for something like this and proceeded to give me an "example" by saying she's married and met her husband in high school, enjoys paddle boarding, etc. I found this to be a bit odd and inappropriate especially being that she works for a company that also sells HR services so she should know better than to try to get a candidate to divulge what their marital status is. The second alarming thing to me was when she asked me to specifically tell her exactly who some of my business contacts were in the area and as I named off a few of them, she would write them down and say whether or not it was a business that ADP was hoping to be able to sell their products to. It basically gave me the impression that what they were looking for most in the person they hired for this position was someone who already had established business contacts and was willing to immediately try to sell ADP to them. After my interview with the second sales manager over a week passed by and I hadn't heard anything from the recruiter so I finally emailed her to follow up to which she responded with an email simply stating in one sentence that they had decided to go with another candidate. You would have thought that after a phone interview and driving out to their offices FOUR times for in-person interviews, that would have at least warranted a courtesy email or phone call from them to let me know that they decided not to move forward with me and that I shouldn't have had to be the one to contact them to ask what was going on. To me, it just confirmed that they aren't as professional of a company as they'd like to be perceived as.

Was referred by VP of Sales from child company that had previously worked in this department and he said that I was well suited for this position. This was a second attempt to apply. First time just got a denial just after submitting application. Another position opened up and tried again. Contacted recruiter from previous attempt and was given an online interview. This was kind of suspect because it was an interview I did at any given time, no interviewer. What was to give me a real chance and them a real feeling of my ability to interact (since this is the basis of the position)? I had my hesitations but did my best and thought that I did an exceptional job answering questions and presentation of what I bring to the table. I strongly felt that I would get another interview, if this was even viewed. Recorded it on Friday at 2:00 and by Monday at 1:30 I had received notice that they were going to consider different candidates with more qualifications that closely match. I feel like I wasn't ever seriously considered. Though my experience is well above the requirements, I was very disappointed with the overall handling of the application.