I applied for a position with Revana and received a call 2-3 days later. During the phone call, the woman informed me that I met all the qualifications. She scheduled me for an interview with a recruiter the next day. I was told to bring a copy of my resume, and two forms of ID. I showed up about 15 minutes in advance. The recruiter who did my interview was about 10 minutes late. He set me up in a small and private interviewing area. I was given a sheet to fill out that confirmed my availability. He left the room and came back about 15 minutes later to begin the interview. My total wait time ended up being close to a half hour. My first impression of the recruiter was somewhat frigid - no smile, seemed unimpressed, a bit intimidating. Definitely not a relaxed interview. This caused me to feel anxiety and probably become a bit flat. What can I say? Nice guy, but I don't think we jived. The interview questions were your basic spread: Personality and experience questions, and scenarios. Easy stuff. He spent the last half of the interview telling me why I wasn't qualified for the position, which is funny because I clearly recall the woman over the phone saying that I had "all the qualifications." The job listing read: "1+ years of customer service experience required. Retail is acceptable." Great, right? Well, not so much. It turns out that you must have call center sales experience. There was no mention of that in the ad. I totally understand that, but it would be nice if you would make that clear in the job listing. I feel that this would prevent wasting the time of not only the interviewee, but the interviewer as well. At the end of the interview, he told me that he would check with the supervisor of the Customer Service Department to see if there were any open positions, and that it would be a better fit for me, and a good way to get my foot in the door. He said that she was out passing out flyers, and that he would have her give me a call later that day or the next day. I thanked him, and that was that. I never received a call back from the CS department.
I don't want to say that this was a negative experience. I was just not a great fit for the position. It would have been nice if they would have clarified in the job listing that call center experience is a must, but I suppose that's a given, right? So, just know when you go in to interview, that call center experience is a definite plus!! If you don't have that experience, make sure to really think about how you can relate any sales or customer service experience to a position in inbound sales.
Oh! And one more thing. Revana contracts with many different companies. The recruiter explained the daily duties of one such company. He basically said that there are people who have ended their contract early, and they are being charged for it. These people are calling in under the impression that they are contacting the billing department, and these people are pissed. Your duty is to get them to pay their debt and reconnect their service. You will get verbally abused daily. Now, if you're a person who can thrive in that environment, then I commend you! Personally, and if I'm being quite honest, I would wither like a thirsty little flower. I am actually thankful that things worked out this way!
All in all, I feel that I got good constructive criticism and also dodged a bullet.
