I remember I was in an interview a while back.
It was for a marketing position at an agency.
Here’s how the interview process went down.
I went through two rounds.
Round one:
I was on a video call with one of the hiring managers, except that there were 15 other candidates on call too.
He basically told us to fill out a questionnaire within an hour and a half, then ended the call.
It only lasted 10 minutes.
The questionnaire was asking why I’d be the perfect hire, what my goals are, etc.
I submitted it on the edge of the deadline, got a reply back and scheduled a one-on-one interview.
Round two:
The conversation started off with the standard, “Tell me about yourself” prompt.
Then the interviewer said, “OK, let me tell you about our company now,” and pulled up a powerpoint presentation.
The presentation went on for about an hour, and the more I listened, the more I wanted to hang up the call.
At this point, I suspected this was some type of multi-level marketing type business.
So, I decided to ask my interviewer a curveball question.
“Are the promotions within the company based on how many sales we make, or how many people we recruit?”
Not so surprisingly, she dodged the question.
After the call ended, I immediately sent an email letting them know that I’m dropping out of the interview process.
So the golden nugget lesson for today?
Always be on alert for red flags.
This especially applies if you want to have a business where you want to deal with the headache-causing customers or clients as least as possible.
Sometimes you can detect them before they do any business with you, and one way you can do that is by talking to them.
Either on the phone or by email, a lot of times they will give away red flags that’ll set off your internal alarms.
Talk to them often, preferably through email, so you can weed them out early on. No one wants to be bothered by getting calls everyday. At least, that’s just me.
But to learn more about writing emails, check the link below for the sample chapters of my email copywriting book, How to Become an Email Titan.