I was invited to a recruiting cocktail party by my awesome friend who works for Cisco Meraki. The cocktail party was a blast -but be warned! This party is the first round of your interview. They are testing for soft skills that are critical for sales success (i.e relationship-building, conversational abilities, establishing rapport etc.). After the cocktail party, I was immediately called in for an in-person interview. I had four consecutive one-on one interviews in one afternoon onsite - 2 with sales directors and 2 with sales team managers. Each interview asked questions pertaining to a distinct skill set (i.e, sales process questions, technical/product questions etc.). I "hard closed" at the end of each interview, so I was not surprised that I was reached out to by the recruiter two days later with an offer. It took me a longer time, however, to come on board because I was negotiating my base/OTE. I was already in a good situation and was not willing to take a pay cut. Negotiation took several months. After learning more about available overtime and the culture of quota over-achievement, I decided to come on board. Cisco Meraki has an amazing product, an amazing culture and an amazing office and I feel so excited to get started!